Despite many attempts by IT departments Microsoft Excel remains a favourite reporting tool for users. The main reasons users love Excel are:
Excel as a prototyping tool : One of the reasons that formal reports and software development quite often takes a while is that end users don't always know exactly what they want before IT develops it. A lot of time is spent on trying to document the problem, coming up with a solution only for users to change the scope of the project once they see the end result (and IT crying foul that the goal post have been moved on them), Well there is another way! Excel can be used as a way of allowing the user to discover what they want by building the prototype themselves. After they understand what they need they can share this prototype with IT who will find it easier to understand what is required by asking the user to explain their prototype. IT can then build a proper report or application that is well managed, has validation and the relevant levels of control that is dictated by organisational policies.
Excel as an ad-hoc reporting tool : If Excel is used by power users as an ad-hoc reporting tool then that actually leaves IT departments to focus on the mid to long term initiatives rather than on managing a long queue of ad-hoc requests. This is definitely a win-win scenario as users feel empowered to get on with their work and IT resources are freed up to focus on other issues.
Of course Excel does have its limitations so where a reporting is required by more than a single user it is better to explore other tools such as Microsoft SQL Reporting Services, Tableau, Crystal, SharePoint or any other quality reporting tools (including some open source tools). Excel also has limitations about the speed of handling data, version control and it does get more and more complicated and unstable as you add more features - especially if the original author leaves the company.
In short, Microsoft Excel definitely plays an important part of a business' toolkit but it should not be the only tool in the kit.
If you are a business struggling with monthly or weekly reports then contact Techlogix to talk to one of our consultants who will help you to determine the right mix of tools for your organisation. Consultants will then work with you to mature your processes over time, leaving you with time to focus on your business!
- Familiarity : Many users are already proficient in Excel so it's a natural choice for them. Powerful features such as pivot tables make them a natural choice for users.
- Speed of development : Users are able to immediately use what they create without having to wait for formal testing and other processes that IT projects have to go through (note: this is a double edged sword as things don't always work as expected - but users don't seem to mind this too much.)
- Control : Users are fully in control of making changes and sharing their spread sheets with others.
- Loss of data risk : IT is not able to easily backup these spread sheets because they quite often don't know that they exist. And even if they do, who knows what "book1.xlsx" is???
- Lack of documentation : No one other than the creator quite knows all the business rules and assumptions behind these spread sheets.
- Lack of control : Controlled data, such as employee payroll, becomes uncontrolled when it is exported to Excel. There is no stopping users from emailing these uncontrolled spread sheets to their colleagues.
Excel as a prototyping tool : One of the reasons that formal reports and software development quite often takes a while is that end users don't always know exactly what they want before IT develops it. A lot of time is spent on trying to document the problem, coming up with a solution only for users to change the scope of the project once they see the end result (and IT crying foul that the goal post have been moved on them), Well there is another way! Excel can be used as a way of allowing the user to discover what they want by building the prototype themselves. After they understand what they need they can share this prototype with IT who will find it easier to understand what is required by asking the user to explain their prototype. IT can then build a proper report or application that is well managed, has validation and the relevant levels of control that is dictated by organisational policies.
Excel as an ad-hoc reporting tool : If Excel is used by power users as an ad-hoc reporting tool then that actually leaves IT departments to focus on the mid to long term initiatives rather than on managing a long queue of ad-hoc requests. This is definitely a win-win scenario as users feel empowered to get on with their work and IT resources are freed up to focus on other issues.
Of course Excel does have its limitations so where a reporting is required by more than a single user it is better to explore other tools such as Microsoft SQL Reporting Services, Tableau, Crystal, SharePoint or any other quality reporting tools (including some open source tools). Excel also has limitations about the speed of handling data, version control and it does get more and more complicated and unstable as you add more features - especially if the original author leaves the company.
In short, Microsoft Excel definitely plays an important part of a business' toolkit but it should not be the only tool in the kit.
If you are a business struggling with monthly or weekly reports then contact Techlogix to talk to one of our consultants who will help you to determine the right mix of tools for your organisation. Consultants will then work with you to mature your processes over time, leaving you with time to focus on your business!