Google’s BigQuery has just received a major new update with not one, but two new features that add more functionality to the popular data set analysis tool.

The updates include a new batch-processing feature that allows users to schedule queries that are less time-sensitive, while the tool can now be integrated with Microsoft Excel.

BigQuery has proved to be a massive hit among businesses since its launch in May. The cloud-based service offers an efficient platform for running SQL queries against massive data sets, delivering the answers you need within seconds. However, one of the few frustrations users expressed about the software was that all queries had to be performed manually.

Ju-Kay Kwek, BigQuery’s Product Manager, wrote in a blog post:

“We understand that there are important, non-interactive queries, such as nightly reports, that businesses also need to run. Now, you can designate a query as a batch query and it will complete within a few hours.”

As well as being more convenient in some instances, the slowed down queries are also cheaper – available for the price of just 2 cents a gigabyte, rather than the standard 3.5 cents for real-time queries.

Google has also responded to users by making integration with Excel possible. The company noted that Microsoft’s spreadsheet program is still the most popular tool for those working with data, and perhaps also realized that those products that acknowledge this tend to be much more popular than those that force people to use tools they’re unfamiliar with.

These updates are yet more evidence that Google is determined to advance its suite of enterprise tools and embrace the big data opportunity.