Ten Points - Why Spreadsheet Automation ?

 

2 of 10 – Any Data,  Any Time,  Any Where - An Incremental Alternative to Traditional BI. 

The current king of business intelligence (BI) tools is Microsoft Excel.   Microsoft states that there are over 400 million Excel users, with many of them using it for reporting and analysis of corporate data.   What makes Excel so dominant?   It's on practically everyone's PC; there are no extra costs; it's easy to learn; it provides all the data manipulation and graphics companies need for reports and analysis; and many business people have become spreadsheet "jocks”.  

Even if "real" BI tools were free, Excel has such momentum that many people would still use spreadsheets for much of their reporting and analysis tasks.

Spreadsheet Automation makes use of this huge Excel skill base, Excel’s undoubted power and market penetration and makes live ERP data a click or two click away from within a Spreadsheet with no expenditure on additional hardware whatsoever and can be implemented in various levels according to needs  –

 

1. An Accountant’s Dream.  Plug and Go options have all the necessary technical definitions pre-installed.  Typically aimed at the Finance Department, this version of software can be installed in minutes and an End User creating their own Management Reports and Financial Analyses on Day 1 after minimal training.  Excelogy have installed numerous sites worldwide ( often remotely  ) and after, say one hour’s “Webex”, an Accountant is fired up to  continue to use with confidence.  This ready acceptance is as a direct result of the application's install as an Excel Add-In which provides additional Excel formula and so is virtually intuitive to an Excel skilled user.  Once a cell containing one of these new formulae has been built using a simple template, the User’s existing skills are quickly and simply used to quickly create and maintain the bulk of the report and address the formatting, graphics etc. “Your Software is Amazing !“

2. A Little Help From My Friends. With a moderate amount of knowledge of the database, a little technical competence and after some quick training, a User based Report Writer Person is able to  create their own tailored extracts ( with built-in drill downs  ) containing data from ANY source.  The resulting Queries can then be provided to other less-technical staff who can run them at will entering their own parameters, filters, formatting, graphics etc. to present LIVE data all from within Excel.

3. Share the Love.  “Good” data extracts developed by companies such as Excelogy and  by other end-users can be stored in the cloud and readily available to other potential users.  Thus the development time, effort and database knowledge required can be significantly reduced for users who require the same result.  AND an existing query often provides a start-point for company specific versions and customisation which is quicker ( and easier )  then re-inventing the wheel.  Excelogy encourage all users to publish their own reports to the cloud and hopefully, in the near future, for any given database or business application, a repository of useful extracts will be available….

 

Leveraging the existing knowledge and providing the flexibility to implement incrementally, Spreadsheet Automation can eliminate the HUGE BI expenses of licences, hardware platforms, consultancy, training and implementation.  Spreadsheet Automation can deliver virtually immediate quick wins with tremendous savings in timescales and user buy-in whilst delivering outputs which the end users themselves can  amend as business conditions change and requirements evolve.  Even companies with existing BI projects can use Spreadsheet Automation to enhance these effectively.

 

Any data, any ERP - any time……  If you may be interested in Spreadsheet Automation, come & see us at the Movex UK User Association Conference in October or contact us for an informal no-obligation chat or to attend one of our free webinars -  info@excelogy.co.uk