When I asked RSA Archer VP David Walter who was their competition, he told me earnestly it was the simple spreadsheet. I believe him, especially after what I have seen what people do with spreadsheets over the years that I have been a tech reporter.

Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented the electronic spreadsheet with VisiCalc for the Apple II in 1979. It wasn’t long after that when I began using it on an HP 85 running CPM to build mathematical models working at various jobs in DC. That was a sweet machine, with its three-inch monochrome monitor and all 8K of RAM. Then Lotus 1-2-3 and the IBM PC came along making spreadsheets the go-to general business tool.

It has surprising staying power, given the software has essentially had the same user interface for more than 30 years. In this post for the RSA blog, I talk about the drawbacks of spreadsheets and give four reasons why you want something better for integrated risk management