America doesn’t run on Dunkin Donuts, but on Excel! It’s like the miscreant on the corner selling illicit drugs, “Hey man, you want score some Excel?! Just try it once. It's the bomb!.”
Like most everyone in business today, I use Excel. I like it, but there are also some serious downsides with its use.
Many small companies start their business with spreadsheets. It usually starts with Excel because it is a cheap and easy solution (initially, but so are illicit drugs). Most people know a "little bit" about how to use Excel. In my experience, I have found that a little bit of knowledge can always get you in deep dodo. Raising teenagers confirmed my beliefs.
Because spreadsheets are flexible, they appear to be a great solution. Eventually, the flexibility of the spreadsheet becomes, not an advantage, but a disadvantage. The data is not easily addressable by automation techniques because they can be built however the user likes. There ought to be a HOA (homeowners association) for spreadsheets – lots of shacks being built out there!
To each user, their spreadsheet is a "work of art". Andy Warhol is ALIVE! Eventually, the company finds them self in "spreadsheet hell" as issues start to grow and multiply like a virus (think Covit), Just a few of the issues are:
- Multiple versions of same spreadsheet. What is the latest and greatest? If the creator were Muhammad Ali, he would say “I am the greatest!!” or more aptly “Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee!” Or, more likely get stung by a bee.
- Network gets clogged, "Don't get rid of that spreadsheet from 2000, we might need it someday!" The cloud people love charging for storing junk just like storage units! I'm sure storage unit REITS got to be making a killing.
- Formula errors multiply. People have hugely different competencies with their use of Excel. VBA, pivot tables and linear programming? Huh? What’s that stuff? All I need is a vlookup and sum!
- No one can untangle, understand or audit the “work of art” that Jack created, but it is a key spreadsheet that feeds to others. Jack has been gone for a decade.
- Formulas are created that are so complex and long that it wears you out just trying to understand what one cell is doing. Only 1,500 more formulas to figure out. Can you say spagetti code?
- One of the worst issues is linked spreadsheets that are several layers deep that have various cross links. Now, that’s a “hairball”! I’m sure my cat would disagree.
Companies get so tied up that it is difficult to extricate themselves from "spreadsheet hell".
These issues are not just isolated to small and medium sized companies, but are pervasive with the biggest companies in the world. Big companies embrace spreadsheets because they are a cheap solution. Forget system capex, glue and tape it together with some spreadheets. As a result, they get pulled in "spreadsheet hell" too.
Auditors have begun to issue qualified opinions because of the spreadsheet phenomenon. It’s interesting to note that the auditors were some of the first to embrace the spreadsheet. The brought it into the corporate world. It spread mayhem (think Allstate) and now they are there to clean it up (for a profit, of course).
I've been helping companies with identifying the issues and solutions for a long time. The problem is, like it always has been, good solutions take time and money. So the question becomes, "Do you want to pay now or pay one hundred times more later?" It only takes a short time to create a knotted mess with a ball of string, but a very, very long time to untangle it.
I gotta dip (leave), because I need a spreadsheet fix or those DT's (delirium tremens) are going to put a hurting on me.
Be smart, be well-read, be aware and be successful.
