There are many benefits to be had from drawing on the power and flexibility of spreadsheets to perform business functions rather relying on specialist software, not least being the fact that everyone has seen a spreadsheet and has a rudimentary idea of how to use one! Below, briefly outlined, are the economic, training and operational flexibility arguments for using spreadsheets in general and our range of standard and modified spreadsheets in particular.
Low Spreadsheet Software Cost: A spreadsheet program, such as Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 is invariably already in place on employees desktops. Therefore, verses purchasing specialist or bespoke software, usually provided by separate and often incompatible sources, increased use of spreadsheet software (mostly Microsoft Excel) adds nothing to your organization’s overall IT budget nor to its existing software maintenance concerns.
Low Spreadsheet Cost: Many spreadsheet templates are free and others are inexpensive. These templates are good to go out of the box, but are also highly customizable which means your organization can work the way you want it to rather than the way the your specialist software provider forces upon you.
Ultimate Problem Solving Flexibility: Spreadsheets can be used to solve a truly diverse range of business problems, from small to large and from technical to financial. This allows organisations which draw on the flexibility of spreadsheets to break from the limited features of their specialist software packages.
Ultimate Skills Flexibility: The skills gained learning to manipulate one spreadsheet can be readily applied to any other spreadsheet, that is, the skills are readily transferred between spreadsheets. This is most definitely not the case when working with multiple business software packages each of which inevitably has its own idiosyncrasies which must be understood and worked around for each package to be used effectively.
Incredible Software Availability and Reliability: Microsoft Excel is one of the biggest selling pieces of software in the world. This means not only that it is well tested, both prior to release and by uses, on a huge combination of hardware/operating system mixes, but also that there are a wealth of people in the world who have strong spreadsheet manipulation skills.
Non Installation and Easy Backup: Since spreadsheet software exists on most business computers, new software installation is often unnecessary and as the “application” is essentially a spreadsheet backing up and duplicating copies of files couldn’t be easier, minimising the risk of data loss.
Relatively Easy to Learn: Getting to know the basics of spreadsheets like Excel is fairly straightforward and does not require any type of computer programming knowledge or expert math skills. There are several ways in which most people sharpen their Excel skills. Some common ways include: taking courses at a local school or community center, researching online resources, training courses or even hiring an Excel expert for training. Don’t think “tackling” spreadsheets is a daunting task because it’s not. You can absolutely learn how to use spreadsheets for your business (and even personal tasks) to make your life easier.