The text discusses the enduring popularity of Microsoft Excel among CFOs for financial planning and analysis (FP&A) due to its customization capabilities, despite the emergence of more modern, user-friendly apps. It highlights the need for FP&A applications to offer customization, robust integrations, and intuitive dashboards to effectively replace Excel in financial departments. The discussion emphasizes the importance of integrating various software platforms, such as ERP, accounting, and CRM systems, to provide real-time data and enhance decision-making capabilities. Merge's Unified API is presented as a solution that simplifies integration processes by providing standardized data across platforms, thus enabling FP&A software to offer comprehensive and customizable financial reports.