Excel 12 to Get Server

Excel Services, a new spreadsheet server component, is planned for release with the next version of Excel (code-named Excel 12) in the fourth quarter of 2006. Excel Services could help organizations centralize distribution and updating of spreadsheets, which in turn could simplify administration of systems that use Excel spreadsheets for reporting and charting functions.

Excel Services to Centralize Spreadsheets

Excel Services is a server component that stores spreadsheets and performs calculations on a Web server, delivering results to users through a browser and to other applications through a Web services API. (See the illustration “Analyzing Corporate Data with Excel 12“.) Excel Services is intended for distributing spreadsheets for analysis, reporting, and charting to multiple users on an ongoing basis. For example, an investment firm might use Excel Services to distribute a workbook with its proprietary analysis method to analysts. A personal investment planner might use Excel Services to offer clients a retirement planning spreadsheet on his Web site.