Avoiding Spreadsheet Hell!

A recent survey showed that close to half of company leaders felt their company’s information was trapped in spreadsheet “Hell”.

Say it isn’t so! Could our ubiquitous number-crunching friend truly be destined for eternal damnation?

For years, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, financial professionals, and soccer moms have all relied on the trusty spreadsheet for tasks as complex as financial projections and full-scale business plans, to those as mundane as storing the families’ Christmas card list. As a self-avowed spreadsheet junkie, I cherish the time spent with Microsoft’s Excel, making plans to attack entire markets with a single keystroke or to save millions with a simple formula change.

Whatever could these frustrated leaders mean by such terse accusations?

If I may be so bold, I believe that leaders are not so much down on spreadsheets and what they do, as they are up (to their ears) in data and lack of credible access to it. To better understand this, take a brief look at the spreadsheet’s original purpose and compare that to the functions in which they have been forced to evolve.

Dictionary.com defines the spreadsheet as “an accounting or bookkeeping program that displays data in rows and columns on a screen”. Webster’s adds that it’s a “ledger layout modeled by such a program”. While these are fairly basic definitions, in a nutshell spreadsheets are great at:

• Ad hoc analysis (i.e. “what-ifing” or “noodling”)
• Business planning
• Financial or sales projections
• Decision-making
• Presenting and charting data

Unfortunately, many spreadsheets that started life as an expedient place to park projections and formulas, have evolved into uses that may include:

• Customer follow-up tickler
• Service / installation scheduling system
• Order tracking system
• Customer fulfillment system
• Temporary data repository
• Information “touch-up” pad
• Report writer
• Company operations software

With the spreadsheet serving these more critical business needs, its little wonder that leaders perceive that their data is dwelling in hades, especially when spreadsheets by their very nature, are ill-equipped to maintain the integrity of information that is based on real-time business events. Consider the limitations and risks imposed by spreadsheets that have outgrown their original purpose:

1. Spreadsheets are single-user files that can only be updated by one individual at a time and are woefully inadequate for multi-person groups (think of sharing a single copy on a network or emailing unwieldy versions).
2. Multiple spreadsheets (or multiple versions of the same spreadsheet) multiply the chances that data will not be in “synch” and thus opens up the possibility error that can lead to poor or even disastrous business outcomes.
3. Spreadsheets are not databases that can easily maintain the integrity and relationships of information consistently and accurately.
4. Spreadsheets provide no historical auditing functionality to track changes (including deleted data) on an ongoing basis (consider potential compliance or risks to reputation).
5. Spreadsheets are not interactive systems that can accept data from multiple individuals and locals, and then provide only the necessary data back in various formats and based on specific business rules.

In other words, spreadsheets, or a groups of spreadsheets are great for planning, playing and presenting, but severely deficient as information systems that are capable of running a business (or even a department).

Information Redemption

How then do we avoid spreadsheet hell within our business? First, remember that spreadsheets are not all bad. When used for their intended purposes of planning, projection, analysis and presenting facts, spreadsheets are valuable tools within the business person’s arsenal. If however, the spreadsheet has evolved into a defacto business operations system, the time could be right to consider a more modern-day alternative.

Web Collaboration, Dashboards, and all their Glory

Short of an exhaustive and lengthy search for off-the-shelf, industry-focused software or expensive custom-built systems, one of the newest and most comprehensive evolutional paths for the spreadsheet-encumbered business is the arena of web-based collaborative and productivity services. This new genre of information management software offers simple web-based access, a centrally managed and updated database, role-based security and graphical dashboards highlighting critical business activities all in real time.

One great example of such as system is the Business Information Framework now being offered by onDemand (Collaborative Solutions ). The solution offers a web-based method of quickly turning spreadsheets and single-user databases into dynamic, web-based applications that can manage everything from order entry & tracking, to customer self-service, billing, and vendor and supplier management. In essence, any information that needs to be entered, managed and tracked in real-time can now easily be turned into a live, web-based system.

Key advantages of the Business Information Framework include:

• Can utilize your current spreadsheets and database programs as a starting point to a new online system
• Will enable single entry of data, view by all (security permitting) and absolute integrity of important business facts
• Hosted and includes essential system management disciplines (audit trails, back-up/restore, administration & security) built right in.
• Interactive, graphical dashboards and metrics enabling proactive management of critical business activities.

Whether you are a small or mid-sized company ready for life after the spreadsheet, or a department within a Fortune 500 company that is tired of doing the spreadsheet shuffle, the Business Information Framework is a rapid and cost-effective way to optimize your critical business activities.

You know that you are ready for life beyond the spreadsheet when:

• Spreadsheets are routinely emailed (or accessed via network) to check the status of a live business activity (e.g. order status)
• There is critical need to share all or part of the information contained within your spreadsheets and collaborate with multiple constituents (e.g. vendors, customers, geographically dispersed co-workers)
• Data is copied or re-keyed from a multitude of other sources simply for the purpose of gaining management visibility
• Customers, co-workers or suppliers are forced to rely on phone conversations, email or fax to get answers to questions that are more efficiently handled by systems.

For more information on the Business Information Framework or optimizing the management of information within your organization or department, contact onDemand LLC at info@indemandinformation.com.

Jeff Seifert is Co-Founder and Managing Member of onDemand LLC, an information solutions company based in Naperville, IL. You can email him at jseifert@ondemandinformation.com or call him at (888) 988-9880, x15.