I need Excel 2003 or later in order to import the data into SQL databases.
Untruthiness, from the lips (er, fingers) of a DBA and developer.
You do need "something" to import data into SQL, but Excel is a gawd-awful tool for importing to SQL.
If using SQL 2000, get Enterprise Manager installed on your computer and learn how Data Transformation Services works. Easy-peasy and ninja-smooth. If on SQL 2005, DTS was sunsetted in favor of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) which sucks... but some legacy DTS-like elements are still available for data import purposes using the SQL Management Studio product.
I'd rather write a whole VB application than use SSIS, I hate it so much. I've yet to play with SQL 2008 and see how data imports work in that new product, but I'm not exactly up-beat about what they probably did to deliberately obfuscate data import even further.