Copying this over from a LinkedIn thread: Rachael Dempsey on LinkedIn: #buildingeffectivedatascienceteams | 17 comments
Helpful perspective from Javier Orraca (@Javi), Data Science & Strategic Forecasting at Health Net:
"If there is reliance on Excel (as there always will be in business), what has really helped us demonstrate the value of R + RStudio Connect has been automating ETL and reporting processes (I'm preaching to the choir here, but instead of an analytics team spending the first week of each month collecting and manipulating data and distributing Excel reports via mass emails, we've fully automated several ultra time-consuming processes and developed Shiny apps as the replacement). Using {openxlsx} to develop super professionally styled Excel downloads from a Shiny app, you can help bridge the gap for those individuals that require (or simply prefer) Excel. Looking at opportunity cost of employee time alone, Connect more than pays for itself.
This was a roundabout way of getting to your Q of "Excel for data capture" (and maybe data entry that pushes back to servers), but we've really been leveraging the {DT} package and various modeling packages to take reporting tools to the next level by deploying reporting + forecasting + scenario testing web apps (with actionable insights). To quote an actuarial Director that I often collab with, these Shiny apps have his team and Finance counterparts "foaming at the mouth" with excitement.
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