Chapter 27
Using Excel Add-Ins for Extra Capabilities
The thing is, continuity of strategic direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact, they’re mutually reinforcing.
—Michael Porter
Harvard Business School professor
Microsoft Excel is easily the world’s most-used numeric analysis tool. Its analytical and charting capabilities lend power to business analysis, but there are niche areas where it could use additional capability. This chapter describes tools that work with Excel to give it even more analytical power and usability. There are too many good add-ins for Excel to describe in this chapter. For links to the add-ins described here, as well as reviews of more add-ins, see the lists at http://www.criticaltosuccess.com.
ASAP Utilities
ASAP Utilities is arguably one of the most popular Excel add-ins. It has been downloaded by more than 200,000 users and is used by 7,200 customers. That’s a pretty authoritative record!
ASAP Utilities fills the gaps in Excel’s feature set with features you wish were built in. It offers more than 300 new commands and functions. Even with all those features, ASAP Utilities is pretty easy to use, with its feature finder, documentation, and online video.
This add-in has been available since 1999 and works with all versions of Excel, except Excel 2010 (64-bit), from Excel 2000 upward. ASAP Utilities is available in English, Dutch, German, Spanish, and French.
A free version is offered for ...
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