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First of all and the most important announcement is - it’s not an end it’s just a beginning. We have already release a brand new, refurbished version of Excel Connector -https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1222961/excel-365-connector-for-jira?tab=overview&hosting=cloud
We were trying to tackle technical limitations of technology stack used by old Excel Connector but once we realised we have came up against a brick wall - and delivering value to our Customers using old Excel Connector became extremely hard - we’ve decided to investigate alternative approaches. Turning point was Microsoft announcing its JavaScript API - enabling developers to create more robust, stable and scalable Apps (broadening target platform support).
In various aspects Excel 365 Connector is superior to its predecessor - we have developed it using completely new technology stack, enabling better performance, wider platform support (including Excel online and macOS clients) and more.
Further comparisons can be found here - https://psc-software.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ECSD/pages/1592295425/Excel+365+Connector+for+Jira#Benefits-of-moving-to-Excel-365-Connector
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