I did sound a bit peeved. Let me clarify: Organizations use data in two ways-- either to make decisions or to have system do some automation and integration.

For automation and integration, as long as the source system (such as yours ) can automatically publish a usable XML schema and make a secure webservice available, we (development )are satisfied.

For decision making , the data source is used by MBAs who are well versed in Excel and Access but get stumble easily when confronted with something that they have to learn. I am not including Mathematica/R guys in this group --- they can generally take care of stuff by themselves. The folks in marketing/HR/Strategy etc. etc. -- they need to make important decisions but they cant if the data platform is not "smoothly" connectable by Excel and Access.

Hope this helps !