CollateBox Blog

Spreadsheet saga, where you fit in?

Every generation of technology lends itself to improving the past and bringing higher benefits to customers. If the world wouldn’t have experienced a Douglas DC-3, we probably would never have seen a Boeing 737 in a commercial airline fleet service. If the world would have never seen a spreadsheet, we probably would have never imagined how regular business users would store their small business data electronically (Microsoft officially sold 70 million copies of Microsoft Office) and parallel pay for structured RDBMS software (database programs make $ 21 billion dollar market today).

It’s funny and a bit scary on how one idea leads to another great idea and how the original idea percolates towards unforeseen territories. Let’s take the current example of data management in small and large companies with spreadsheets and spin a small hypothesis on the possible future of simple yet killer data management business tools.

Now a spreadsheet utility like Microsoft Excel is undoubtedly the most successful business application of the 20^th century that started as a business tool used primarily by Business Managers for accounting and database purposes. Accounting type guys love it – they type and math and transpose to type and math again. Not every day you get software that offers 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns with the ability to put almost anything. From sales figures to budgets to personal tax calculations, to a database size only limited by the amount of hardware RAM available in your machine, awesome. On the other hand, Business Analyst charged to accumulate, formularize and report on business performance dealing with multiple complex formulas and files on a daily basis swear by it too. You may call these users as experts or power users, they know how to enumerate many flaws from your best hypothesis using merely a few clicks in Microsoft Excel. 

But wait, isn’t this the same spreadsheet which has limited us for years. Why?

While Microsoft Excel might enjoy the de-facto business user working program status, I think its glamour and value is beginning to be threatened by:

(a) self created limitations to service the real spreadsheet user (power users)
(b) mushrooming options from a host of smaller vendors

I have attached a small hypothesis below, special thanks to Praveen, Karissa and a few others.  

 
Clearly the inability to service the multi-user collaboration needs, growing demand for higher security, lack of structured methods to gather data – automatic data synchronization – etc – etc –have already spawned an array of products and possibly a complete Cloud-based SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) industry around it. This positions the good old spreadsheet as the starting tool for your professional career/learning program and not essentially one that is cut out for your future needs or can cut code.

Unlike a detailed hypothesis, I have only captured an overall essence of how spreadsheets started, gathered momentum and how the same idea spread to 14 other possible tools due to its own immediate limitations. I am quite curious to know what you think about the current ideal tools available in the market for LOB managers, DBAs and Programmers. 

Surely all of them are waiting for Office365 from Microsoft, but what else are they using today?  How does the Value square look for them? Will they continue to use the good old spreadsheets...?

Missing link holding 500 million users from going online

When you think about the recent IT related social, economic and business changes that are affecting millions of lives – the first name that comes to your mind is undoubtedly Apple. How they constantly create simple yet elegant products that generate desire and unforgettable human experience is the hub and spoke of all business and product related discussion around the world today.

Apple relentless pursues and invests in creating the best products in the world for their users (regardless of the fact whether they are enterprise customers or just consumers) and demonstrates the permanent shift of a new trend that is sweeping the industry – simple and elegant user experience (UX) driven products – we refer to this sometimes as ‘Usability’.

Roll back 10, 20 and 30 years, perhaps we have witnessed a similar trend with VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3 and finally Microsoft Excel in transforming BCL (Business Computer Language) that in turn changed the personal computer to a business machine?

While such impacts of the Apple / web 2.0 usability is not new to us, I wonder how this new trend will play into the likes of simple database applications/list/ad-hoc reports/forecasting apps that are managed using good old PC-based spreadsheet utilities such as Microsoft Excel. Will spreadsheets morph into something else? Or, will we see a new way of managing data/simple apps and calculations on the web? 

Wait a minute, if you are wondering why this discussion is even relevant – consider this; Microsoft gauges the number of Excel users worldwide at more than 500 million plus, and Forrester Research estimates 50 to 80 percent of enterprises still rely on stand-alone spreadsheets for critical applications like financial reporting or budget forecasting. And why will they not use spreadsheets? Is there any other tool that is available in every PC, lets you start in seconds and gets you to your ‘last mile’ activity as most CFO’s and Business Managers do with Excel in less than 5minutes? 

The convenience coupled with the spreadsheet culture is addictive, even though we know its extent of abilities. Maybe there is a VOID in the market for addictive spreadsheet-type, online database application – a missing link that is holding 500 million users to go online…

Hand written register with simple math or spreadsheet

If there is one thing that keeps on growing in business it’s always data. Walk into any super mall, a bank, a restaurant, your insurance office or healthcare pharmacy -  and you will see tons of data being accounted from everywhere, all the time. And why not? Without these records and transactions the whole business  will be illegitimate - right?

Now these are just transactional data, what about emails, files (docs, excel, PowerPoint, pictures), to-do lists, contacts, web links, blogs, podcasts, youtube videos, news, google search, etc etc. This is how we live - communicate and do business today, a world increasingly dominated by data. Whoever you are - Small or big -  a business or consultant - data is all that really matters.

Managing the amount of data we are talking about here needs systems and skilled people. Undoubtedly the big enterprises spend millions of dollars and countless hours to manage their data/transactions - initiate IT projects to build core systems, the small ones driven by light users on the other hand admiringly do a great job with spreadsheets, emails and accounting tools.

We know some of you might argue that both of these segments face the same fate (somewhat hard to believe why software’s lend to more complexity and not simplicity, but that's for a later post) - one with all the planning and one without any, it's worth paying attention on how the small businesses / non DBA's manage their data/automation and develop so called database or applications as they grow.

For many years, we personally believed that process development before automation (leave maturity) is the hidden secret to success, but that's like expecting a lot from a normal user for whom ease of using a hand written register with simple math or spreadsheet is all that's needed.

It only struck us a few months back that probably the way data is managed in smaller companies by not so skilled users is lot different. Somewhat like that simple register with simple math, maybe spreadsheet is a culture in there? Maybe, it is evolving, iterative and a chaotic way of managing data where one can find email, spreadsheets for database & accounting and the ubiquitous google search toolbar. Anything else is overkill.

Sunny Ghosh