On a related note, my partner has managed (as the customer) migrating an examination platform recently, to a "more secure" one with lots of yummy microservices. Or was - the contract has now been cancelled and she's looking for a new job, and possibly therapy, after a torrent of personal abuse caused by bugs she simply cannot fix.
What's sad is that I wish I could say this was unusual. But it's anywhere and everywhere I've worked.
Quite seriously, what are we doing? Why do other apps exist when I will, every single time, be justified in replicating the entire workflow in emails + Excel? I'm at least partially supposed to advise on security, and the only people who won't recite this very rant at me as a reason to ignore all security advice, are the people who can't be bothered to.
The one ray of light is that at least it's easy enough to attach links to access-controlled spreadsheets now, rather the spreadsheets themselves, possibly protected with a password (usually, in that same email).
I thank you for listening to this /rant.
Most of the time, I see _more_ issues when teams over rely on Excel files. Data inconsistencies abound, audit trails are nearly impossible, and security access is difficult to manage. The end goal for most processes is to limit the amount of human touch-points... not increase it.
The solution: build or befriend a relational database developer that will create a bespoke solution of your dreams. The more difficult part is getting c-level buy in and wading through whatever crap middle management believes to be the flavor of the month.