I'm not familiar with MapInfo so this is an ArcGIS/QGIS answer (same theory applies). I don't think you can dynamically link an excel sheet to popup an QGIS instance with the correct polygon selected. What is the use case for this, exactly? Here is a thorough overview of using Excel with ArcGIS.
It would make more sense (imo) to add the excel sheet as a table or dbf and then either join or relate it to the polygon. You could examine the table in QGIS and then "Zoom to Location" once a polygon is selected.
If you want to connect your existing Access database to QGIS here are the instructions Connecting to a Microsoft Access Database in QGIS, then you can alter your tables in access and link them up in the GIS but I still don't think it would do what you're looking for.
If you're familiar with programming and VBA there might be a way to create a custom script that could potentially do this for you, this forum has some code for opening a pdf from a clicked cell in excel.. Aside from building your own solution with VBA, I don't think there's an out of the box way to do what you're asking.