Sorry about late reply been rather busy. As to your question yes you can export to xls, once you have run the query there is a save option from the system drop down menu, one of the file types is xls. HTML will export with column headers, can't remember if xls does.
I have a good knowledge of the product but definately no expert, I'd be surprised if anyone would dare call themselves an expert in NICE, some areas no one seems to have answers for.