I think there’s a bright future for tools like Domo, Quantrix, and Tableau. There are probably other tools that fall into that category.

I once had a customer show me some of his data in Tableau, and in about two minutes I gained insights into what he was good and bad at that would have taken hours to glean from Excel. I was impressed because it’s rare to learn anything about this particular type of data in two minutes, but I knew enough that I was able to ask intelligent questions right away.

Being able to visualize larger datasets than Excel can handle will be the new Powerpoint. Ross Perot wowed people with his color charts in the early 90s and that was a big part of his success both in business and politics. I expect big data visualization will have that kind of impact, and that’s what I’m trying to learn how to bring into my day job.

Use Quantrix (ex. Lotus Improv) instead!

They practically invent pivot tables, or to be more precise, you do not need pivot tables in Quantrix since it works in more “natural” way then Excel so Pivot tables are natural to it.