If you Google “Excel 2016 preview”, you will find many previews and comments for Excel 2016 on the Internet.

I have not tried Excel 2016. Indeed, I have not yet tried Excel 2013 either, although I keep an eye on what cool and awesome features have been added to newer versions of Excel.

As a matter of fact, the speed of software update in workplace (especially in small and medium enterprises) is much slower than the speed of software development in the market. A friend of mine is working in a well-known international bank where he is using Excel 2007. I worked in a multi-national brand, where Excel 2003 is still being used in both back office and front line. @_@

Many companies just do not invest in basic softwares like MS Office although they are willing to spend $$$ on systems like SAP, ERP, SaleForces, etc.. To these companies, maybe the only difference between Excel 2000 and Excel 2016 is a big grid of cells and a bigger grid of cells.

Another obstacle (probably the core reason behind) would be “Backward Compatibility”, which was quite obvious when Excel 2007 was launched.  I think this is the main concern when a company considers to update the Excel they are using.  Just to cite a few examples:

• Imagine you have created a wonderful dashboard with Slicers (in Excel 2010 or later), however your business partner (the report reader) is reading the report with Excel 2007 (that does not support Slicer).
• A new chart feature in Excel 2013 allows you to name your Data Label by reference; however the Data Label done in this way would not be displayed properly in Excel 2010.
• It’s cool to generate a WaterFall chart in Excel 2016, but we have to think about if we want it to be a “Read-only” object to be viewed in Excel 2010?  (I’m not sure about this.)

There are actually many more situations to be considered regarding backward compatibility.  I guess Microsoft is aware of it.  Maybe that’s the reason Microsoft has launched the Office 365 plan so that everyone is on the same pace.

So I am wondering, which version of Excel is being used in your workplace?

And do you think your company will update to Excel 2016 when it is on the market?