The pitfalls of running company processes on spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are great for adding up numbers. Over the years though their capabilities have grown and they are used for storing & organising all sorts of data and attempting to automate & systematise business processes.
Quite often these uses start as small projects early in the life of a company. Over the years they grow & grow, are maintained and added to by different people with no real structure of governance until you end up with a hard to control, Frankenstein creation sitting at the heart of your business process! They become difficult to manage, require a large amount of staff time to maintain and worst of all they are probably riddled with errors and outdated information.
An analysis of field audits undertaken by some of the world’s largest accounting and consultancy firms (such as KPMG and Coopers & Lybrand) carried out by Raymond Panko, a professor of IT Management at the university of Hawaii, found that 88% of large spreadsheets used by the companies audited contained significant errors.
Over the years, we have encountered many companies who have reached the fatal point of not being able to carry on using their spreadsheet-based systems for their daily business process and in worst cases, experienced loss or corruption of valuable data.
We therefore decided to write a detailed white paper listing the pros and cons of using a spreadsheet-based system versus a web-based management system.
Get our free white paper in PDF format and learn how to improve your business workflow.