Completely non-folk, but anyway...

In my current job, I'm getting pretty good at extracting stuff out of various databases, and manipulating the results in various ways.

I'm up for a secondment where I'll have to do much the same thing. The difference is that I'll have to (if pushed) use Business Objects rather than MS Query and Excel. I really don't know much about Business Objects, and am having difficulty grasping why it might be better than the MS Query/Excel approach.

Any thoughts?