Spreadsheets spread out as database front ends.

Many spreadsheet vendors are suffering from an embarrassment of riches: an installed base of users reluctant to leave their favorite row-and-column interfaces for other more specialized applications.

But by using spreadsheets as front ends for other applications, particularly databases, spreadsheet vendors are helping expand the corporate software repertoire without users balking at the enforced use of new applications, say analysts and ISVs.

"Users want to stay in their spreadsheets no matter what they're focusing on, and vendors are understanding this," says Chris Le Tocq of SoftTracks Inc., a market analysis firm based in Los Gatos, Calif.

According to a …