This month we made the decision to make QVExcel freely available. This wasn't an easy decision but reflects our commitment to our flagship product QVSource and our desire to ensure that we provide the best service possible to users of this tool.

You can read the official statement on the website and it is also reproduced below. As noted we are open to conversations with other companies about developing QVExcel further and also discussions regarding providing bespoke support and development to enterprise customers.

It's also possible that we will secure the resources ourselves in the future to re-release a commercially supported version on general release - however for the time being we felt this was the best choice and rather than removing the product altogether, should allow many users to make use of the tool.

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QVExcel is now completely free to download and use!

We made this decision in July 2012 after many years of developing and promoting the product. The primary reason for this is that we would now like to focus our attention on our flagship product QVSource. As a small company dividing our attention across both products means we cannot sustain our hard earned reputation for superior products and support to our customers.

We still strongly believe in the potential of QVExcel and feel that the current version should meet the needs of 90% of the intended user base. Please note that we will continue to support any current customers who have paid for support or alternatively offer a refund.

If you represent an enterprise who would like to use QVExcel but would not do so under a free arrangement please contact us - we would be happy to discuss the possibility of a paid bespoke support agreement tailored to your needs.

We are also open to talking to other companies with QlikView and software development expertise who would like to collaborate on taking the product forward.

Thanks,

Industrial CodeBox.

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The article Eleven BI trends for 2011 caught my eye this week. The author does state that the 11 points are in no particular order but the first in the list is this:

Excel hell still predominates. IT might hate Microsoft Excel, but it really is the choice of tool for most businesspeople. They love the freedom and individual choice it confers on them – even though it can create multiple versions of the truth. Best advice: accept the fact that users want Excel, introduce best practices, and ensure that all instances of Excel run against a single version of the truth. Spreadmarts aren't management's or non-Microsoft vendors' flavour of the day, but users can't be fought forever.

(emphasis is my own)

It's interesting to see this recognised as a point for the coming year as it's exactly what QVExcel, a product we released at the end of 2010, aims to help support.

We appreciate that as far as is possible it can be preferable for QlikView to be used in place of Excel but, as the piece suggests, 'users can't be faught forever' - or more in line with our experience, there can still be scenarios where the layout and formatting requirements for a report can't quite match the flexibility and 'pixel-perfect' opportunities offered by Excel.

We've just produced the following short 6 minute video which walks through the main features of QVExcel and finishes up showing some typical financial reports which can quickly be built using the Add-in (QVExcel is a simple Add-in to Excel). There is of course more information, screenshots and a free trial available over at the website.