The counterpoint to the big picture, big idea themes that pervade the annual user group presentations are the day-to-day issues that stand between (1) the individuals being inspired by the big ideas and (2) their ability to implement change in their organization. Attending the SAP and IBM/Cognos user group meetings I frequently felt like the quartermaster listening to the general’s truly inspirational message. His job is to get the troops all pumped up and ready to charge the enemy. Meanwhile, I’m worrying about the availability of the meals-ready-to-eat and the trucks necessary to deliver them. Desktop spreadsheets frequently are “logistical nightmare” that blunts attempts to implement fundamental change and improve performance.

Spreadsheets are extremely useful for one-off analyses and personal use. However, people have pushed their use well beyond their original design. Organizations ought to replace spreadsheets in every task where more than 6 people share a spreadsheet more than 6 times. Alas, even where they are truly inappropriate, it’s unrealistic to expect users to give them up. However, spreadsheets can and should be tamed. Funny enough, all major software vendors have solutions that address the spreadsheet challenge in practical and effective way. Unfortunately, they haven’t been pushing them too hard, possibly because the strategy has had limited success in the past.

I have discussed for many years the importance of an “enterprise spreadsheet” approach. That is, if a spreadsheet is the most appropriate choice to support and  manage a repetitive, collaborative task, it should a type of spreadsheet that does this well – one that enables data collection and analysis from and by large numbers of users, and one that enables people to make changes to the model structures and formulas rapidly, consistently and accurately, all within a a secure environment. Desktop spreadsheets are incapable of doing this. Over a decade ago Arbor Software created Essbase, a name  derived from “Extended Spreadsheet Server Database” (now part of Oracle) as a general purpose tool that marries a familiar spreadsheet interface with the real database for storage and data manipulation. Applix (now part of IBM/Cognos) does this as well with TM1 and Cognos offers “CAFÉ” as an Microsoft Excel interface to Cognos 9. There also are planning and budgeting applications such as OutlookSoft and SRC (both now part of SAP), which employ an Microsoft Excel interface to facilitate acceptance and adoption, also linked to a database. Microsoft itself has Excel Server and Sharepoint, but the company pushed down its performance management application, Performance Point into the enterprise portal product called Microsoft SharePoint, as my colleague pointed out earlier this year. Newer vendors, such as Boardwalktech, have an enterprise spreadsheet platform that facilitates collaborative processes addressing many specific application and business needs in a safer and more efficient manner.

Our benchmark research on spreadsheets suggests that the limited success of spreadsheet replacements is the result of several factors. One is that people underestimate the time they waste using spreadsheets for repetitive and collaborative tasks. Another is that those creating applications in spreadsheets often have a great deal of experience and are reluctant to have to learn new skills. A third is that, in the past, spreadsheet replacements all too often made life easy for IT people, not end users.

That was then. Products today are much easier for non-technical people to use while the cost of tolerating spreadsheet errors and inefficiencies are increasing. It’s time for companies to begin cutting their addiction to desktop spreadsheets as I have pointed out as a key priority for 2009 to reduce risk and increase performance. Doing so can be painless and should be cost effective.

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Regards,

Robert D. Kugel CFA - SVP Research