Stop relying on Excel

There’s no denying how valuable data is to an organization, from sales forecasting to human resources, the marketing department, management, finance and all other areas. 

Companies see the important role that data plays and are joining the millions of companies adopting big data strategies. You would think that is great, right? Not always. Companies may be jumping on board with big data but they’re trying to make it happen with outdated systems and tools. We hear many companies that say they still use spreadsheets to communicate in meetings. That means wasted time on manually updating and trying to create simplistic visualizations. Think of how much time a year is wasted on spreadsheets when data should be at your fingertips, in real time. 

I’m not saying spreadsheets are terrible, because they are great for the right job. But if you are communicating the present state of a company and trying to make decisions for the future, a spreadsheet is not the way to go. 

Employees want information. They want to be kept in the loop and see how they impact the numbers. It provides accountability and we have seen proper business intelligence tools improve communication and even relationships within an organization. 

People rely on spreadsheets because:

1)They’ve always used it and they feel most comfortable with it

2)They don’t know the benefits of a powerful BI tool

3)They don’t know where to start

4)They don’t think they have enough data for a tool to be useful

Why you should be using a BI tool:

1)Not everyone is fluent in Excel. With a simple tool it can allow many people in an organization to have the full picture and the power to generate new insights

2)Data governance is not possible in a spreadsheet, you run the risk of misplacing data or having it deleted with no backup. Even more inconvenient is sharing through email – our inboxes are already full as it is, it’s more effective to have a dashboard that is accessible at any time by login

3)Data doesn’t stay hidden

4)Makes data analysis much simpler with clean visualizations

5)Data can be updated in real time, every few hours, every week/month 

Companies won’t be able to rely on spreadsheets for ever.

Are you willing to take the risk?