Five signs that you're outgrowing Excel
As a company evolves, its planning, analysis and reporting needs increase. While Excel is fine for basic analyses and evaluations, editing data in it manually is error-prone and collaboration is difficult. When the company reaches a certain size, you'll soon come up against your limits when working in Excel. But how can you tell when it's time for more efficient tools?
1. You're wasting time on manual routines
You're having to assemble your KPIs from scratch again and again and you're spending a lot of time analysing data from several source systems in Excel. You're putting in too much effort for too little reward. Different versions of the data regularly lead to your figures becoming obsolete, which means having to start the process all over again. Though you may have gradually got quicker at this painstaking work, you can still feel vast amounts of time slipping through your fingers. It would be more efficient if you were able to automate this tedious process completely.
2. You're sending Excel documents to the entire company
Working offline, you gather data manually by emailing Excel documents to various departments. You cannot track changes made by your colleagues in real time. Instead, you have to go through every document one by one as soon as your colleagues have entered their data. All those involved are extremely dependent on one another, which makes the process of consolidating the numerous files into one final report extremely complicated. It would be better if all colleagues throughout your company were able to work on a common database that was always up to date.
3. You find it difficult to trace the origins of your data
You are well used to working in Excel, but you're finding that ever larger data sets are getting increasingly difficult to follow. It's easy to lose track of things – though that's hardly surprising since there are now dozens of versions of your documents in existence. The steps that are performed manually lead particularly frequently to inconsistencies, the causes of which are almost impossible to trace. If the source of error cannot be located, the process cannot be improved. It would be simpler if everyone involved were able to edit documents with individual rights from the outset.
4. You cannot adequately protect sensitive data
When you send Excel documents to different departments, your files will inevitably pass through many hands. However, you have always been required to protect your data in a professional manner – not only since strict data protection guidelines came into effect. Sensitive documents, such as the HR budget or payslips, must be kept from the eyes of unauthorized persons. It would be safer if discretion could be guaranteed by central rights management.
5. You cannot keep track of your formulas
When you've gathered all the data separately from source systems and from colleagues, you find yourself faced with countless formulas. What's more, your predecessor has left you macros from various providers for which there's no support. You wonder how you might cut your losses and restore your data structures quickly and easily. It would be more convenient if you were able to access detailed data analyses for management reports as well as dashboards by mouse click without all those chaotic formulas.
And now?
Stop wasting your valuable working time and start automating your corporate performance management tasks. If you're ready for consistent data sets, standardized reports and efficient collaboration throughout your company, it's time for a professional corporate performance management solution. Introducing it need not be complicated at all. Corporate Planning will provide you with a made-to-measure solution that you can have up and running in next to no time without needing to involve your IT department. Corporate Planner will grow with your company, being a one-stop shop for software, training and support.
