6 Reasons Why it’s Time to Ditch Excel Spreadsheets for Custom Software

Using spreadsheets to run your day to day operations can sound and feel like a very convenient starting point when you are a small setup. But, over time as your business grows and expands so do your spreadsheets. And when they reach a point where you have to keep a seperate spreadsheet just to keep track of all the other spreadsheets in your system of spreadsheets *pun intended* then it’s high time to rethink your needs and part ways with the time-out far and wide spreadsheets. As you drag your feet along this chaotic web you also get accustomed to other frustrating challenges like, maintaining multiple copies of the same spreadsheet for use by multiple people simultaneously. In the end no one knows which is the most recent copy to be used. In short, you mostly find yourself hung up and perplexed in the whirlpool of spreadsheets. Can you imagine the kind of impact this has on your business performance and team productivity?

It’s estimated that an astounding 88% of all spreadsheets have errors in them, and more than 50% have material defects but are still in use by large scale companies (source; CNBC). Wonder why companies continue using them, and these errors remain unnoticed… The Tech Republic stated, “Troubleshooting an Excel worksheet’s formulas and functions can be a big job. Errors just come with the package.” I am sure, not everyone in your organization is an expert in calculus and add to that the cumbersome process of Inserting specific rows, columns, and tabs here and there across multiple spreadsheets. Formulas are not a formula for success, peace.  Now imagine you are using this faulty process to make critical decisions. If you realize that this can cost your organization a lot of money and extra hours, it is time for you to shift to custom software.

Organizations keep on using the same spreadsheet for years by inserting new sheets and cells without acknowledging how large it has become. A huge Excel file is not only sluggish, but also causes human error and can sometimes lead to data losses as well. Excel spreadsheets are not exactly automation-friendly. This can hinder your organization’s productivity and efficacy. Unlike custom software that generates immediate results, generating reports from excel spreadsheets can take nearly hours or even days. By the time it is compiled, it is mostly no longer required or relevant. Therefore, if you do not want your organization to become a sloth, ditch excel sheets.

It is steer clear that excel spreadsheets DO NOT offer sufficient protection as compared to custom applications. Adding mere passwords to spreadsheets does not ensure your organization any protection against cyber attacks. Cyber attackers will still be able to crack excel and gain access to confidential data. A lot of times I have seen organizations being concerned about their privacy, and excel does not provide that level of protection. If you want your data to be protected and not fall into the hands of other competitors, excel is no longer the correct option. Hence, if you are aware of the dangers that excel can pose to your organization, you should be on the lookout for a custom solution developer.

Imagine; AcmeOrder.xls, AcmeOrderOld.xls, AcmeOrderv2.xls, Acme2.xls, Acme.xls all in the same folder. I am sure you were not able to even read this. Merely writing this was exhausting for me. It also does not sound very easy to locate and use, right? This is just one example of the sort of mess excel spreadsheets create. Customized software or app is easier to use than an Excel spreadsheet for most organizations globally. This is another important  reason why I suggest my clients opt for custom applications instead of relying on excel. An app or software can easily be accessed anytime and anywhere through a cell-phone, whereas an Excel spreadsheet can be quite problematic to work with on your mobile.

One of the largest pain points we have come across is that excel requires a lot of manual labour. You must have a handful of employees just to add, subtract, and organize information on excel spreadsheets. Updating these require; time, effort, and manual labour, yet they are still prone to human error. The more spreadsheets you have, the more its organization and reporting becomes troublesome. This can also increase the risk for data manipulation, hence all the manual labour and effort goes down the drain incase that happens.

If you can relate to any of the above-mentioned challenges, then you have already grown out of the excel phase. This is a call to action for your organization to adapt to a custom software. Not only this, custom software development tends to offer many other advantages to organizations in terms of their productivity and abundance. Furthermore, the new solution  will be designed especially for your organization and will directly target the pain points and strategies required to make your organization less slothful and more thriving.