Lowest risk
Excel
Summary
Spreadsheet featuring calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language

Parent organisation: Microsoft
Type of organisation: Publicly-listed company (or group)
Market share: Market dominance

Pricing: $5/user/month-$20/user/month
Factors driving pricing: Additional features, More users (publishing-side)
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Releases new features regularly
Shares product roadmap
Transparent pricing model
Clear data policies
Allows data export
Allows data deletion
Has accessibility statement
Shares diversity data
Cons
Monopoly platform - does not aid a diverse media ecosystem

Full Product Data Collection

Data collected January-February 2020

Product nameExcel
Product URLhttps://products.office.com/en-us/excel
Parent organisationMicrosoft
Workflow categoryCollaboration & editing
Date product founded1987
Product descriptionSpreadsheet featuring calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language
What type of company or organisation is the product owned by?Publicly-listed company (or group)
Is the company profit-making?Yes, profitable
How is this product funded?Subscriptions
What market share does the tool have?Market dominance
Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space?Yes. LibreOffice Calc, OpenOffice Calc, Gnumeric, EtherCalc, SocialCalc
When did the company last release new features?Dec-2019
Have they shared details of the product roadmap?Yes, Dynamic Arrays – using one formula to return multiple values.
Is there talk of the product raising further investment?No
Is there talk of the product being acquired?No
Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months?No
Is there a pricing model listed on the website?Yes
How clear & transparent is this pricing model?Very: full pricing listed
What is the range of prices offered?Business – $5/user/month
Business Standard – $12.50/user/month
Business Premium – $20/user/month
What factors drive higher pricing?Additional features, More users (publishing-side)
What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable?Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day?Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs?Has proprietary file formats but offers open options
Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function?No
Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years?No
How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)?Technical, legalistic TOS
Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)?Yes, comprehensive.
Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”?GDPR unclear on these details
Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it?N/A not an audience-facing tool
IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms?N/A not an audience-facing tool
Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service?Yes: Audience can data export
Does the public product website mention how to delete your data?Yes: for publisher data only
Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years?No
Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website?Yes
Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce?Yes