Can your business afford that?
In today’s highly competitive market place, every company is looking to deliver more with less resources. While recognising people are their most important resources, these same resources are often using tools which are no longer up for the job. For many companies using Excel was an effective tool for supporting their business. But now as their business has grown, more often than not, they have grown beyond Excel as a small scale analysis tool.
Many organisations rely solely on the use of Excel spreadsheets for their business IT. Small organisations, above most, cannot afford this sort of loss yet they are the ones more commonly using spreadsheets to cover all business aspects. Spreadsheets are very useful, however they are NOT a complete solution to all IT needs.
Larger organisations can have thousands, or tens of thousands, of spreadsheets distributed across the company at any given time. Minor errors can mean these can become uncontrolled or even lost and in some circumstances executives find themselves making decisions based on untraceable, questionable data.
Beside the inconvenience human error in spreadsheets can cost a business, there are also some very serious legal ramifications. Here are just a few things businesses have to keep in mind when using spreadsheets;
High Risk
If spreadsheets are updated incorrectly or not updated at all they create risk.
Regulations
Increased emphasize on regulators knowing precisely who touched what information, when and why, means with a lack of data assurance all dependent business decisions will be exposed.
Auditors
Auditors’ require all spreadsheet activity to be tracked. Even the smallest spreadsheets the resources needed to do this manually are costly and unreliable. For larger/more active spreadsheets this monitoring is virtually impossible
Efficiency? Accuracy?:
Manual data entry is:
- expensive,
- time-consuming
- misuse of the business analyst’s time and
- error prone
The simplest errors such as typos or a misplaces arrow can leave a quite a mess to clean up, whereas graver errors can also occur when the analyst makes errors in formulas because of bad keystrokes or bad logic with devastating results.
Examples:
Spreadsheets, used improperly and/or without sufficient control, pose one of the greatest risks to your company. Find out some minor spreadsheet errors that have cost companies up to $30 Million and other chaotic spreadsheet stories on http://www.eusprig.org/stories.htm
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Rogue spreadsheets with data from questionable sources is circulated throughout the organization.
The enterprise is at a loss to audit these numbers for themselves and for regulatory agencies.
The onus of solid spreadsheet design is still left to the spreadsheet developer.
Here at Cognite we are equip to help you find an IT solution that suit YOU. We understand that every business has different needs, that’s why we tailor our applications for you, regardless of industry, vertical, or market segment.
“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” – BILL GATES
These errors can equate to financial blunders, business loss and time consuming corrections; can your business afford that?