Does your business show symptoms of spreadsheet abuse? On the one hand you may shudder at the thought of “expelling” Excel because you find it difficult to imagine how else to delve into your business data. On the other hand you may be experiencing the side effects of long term over-use of this tool but you dread ditching those formidable formulas and how much you will miss passing on those pivot-tables and spreading spreadsheets faster than lightning.
By now you may have felt the common pains of Excel-lulites: laborious and time consuming efforts of integrating data, database-less, single-user, volume-limiting, unsophisticated-security, limited authentication and most troublesome of all – multiple versions of the same data!
The Excel-fundi will be quick to remind us of benefits such as simplicity, independence-from-IT and how widely accepted it is. All true.
Actually we do not really have to expel Excel! Provided prudent data management guidelines are followed which calls for: upfront determination of global business requirements, building data models suited for information analysis, extract, structure and storing a consolidated base of information (also known as a Data Warehouse), ready for deployment using any tool of choice, including Excel.
Every now and then we need to examine the status of Excel within our businesses. Early diagnosis of Excel-lulites can be remedied by following an architected data management approach. There after the benefits of using the ever popular spreadsheet against the DW backdrop will outweigh the pitfalls.
Enroll NOW for the Concepts, Design and Modelling for Extended Data Warehousing class offered by Alicornio Africa. It is a technology independent course that teaches sound principles to be applied no matter what technology is used.
Read Toss the Technololgy Part 1