Spreadsheets
Basically suck. Sure your information is there, but WHERE, and you have to open a separate one for each and every instance if you have multiple tasks you need to do, and then have to import data from another spreadsheet for a related task. Plus it's SO easy for a user to screw the whole thing up if they don't know what they're doing. With an application written with a relational database, front ends can be used that even the least trained worker can make sense of, and you can call data from just about anything you need into each application. If well written and managed, each one is specifically for the task at hand, and YET can call data as needed from just about anywhere. Let's say you need to relate the current date, the current address and former address of a client into a spreadsheet. NIGHTMARE. In the properly written program with a relational database, it's just a few clicks away, without even wading through data!
You use what you want, and I'll use what I want, though. Just don't send me your spreadsheet, I'll never bother to open it.
