Spreadsheets can be Seen as a Square Peg in a Round Hole

(PRWEB) May 16, 2006 -- During the period, January to April 2006, Rosetta Stone carried out telephone research with 287 people from 71 companies across these sectors: Insurance, Banking, Retail, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Packaged Goods. The smallest company employs 850 people and the largest over 100,000.

The objective of the research was to determine how many companies had implemented complex business performance measurement systems using spreadsheets as opposed to applications underpinned by databases. It was Rosetta Stone's belief that many of these projects are started as prototypes that simply go live and then grow to become cottage industries consuming vast amounts of unmeasured resources. A major bank told us that just one of their spreadsheet systems was costing them over £700,000 a year to maintain and that it was inaccurate anyway.

The results are rather surprising in that 78% of companies currently use spreadsheets to measure Business Performance in the form of a Balanced Scorecard or via KPIs or Metrics and another 4% of companies have a different software solution in place that they have either purchased or developed. Of those companies that have neither, 12% said they would implement something within two years and 5% said that they would not and only 1% didn't know.

Of those working with spreadsheets, 85% said it improved their understanding and ability to control the business, 11% said that it hadn't and 4% didn't know. Of those with a non spreadsheet based software solutions 78% said that it improved their understanding and ability to control the business, 6% said it had not and 16% didn't know.

However, 92% of those working with spreadsheets have found technical limitations or challenges in running the system and 7% said they hadn't and again only 1% didn't know. For those with a non spreadsheet based software solution only 30% have had technical limitations or challenges in running the system and 57% said they hadn't and 13% didn't know.

For those working with spreadsheets, we asked if they had the ability to make 3 fundamental changes, what would they be? (NOTE, this summary has been created through significant interpretation)
(i) Automate the data capture and calculations to remove manual effort and thereby reduce running costs.
(ii) Utilise a database that would support better reporting and analytics.
(iii) Provide automated alerts to enable users to be more responsive to changes

For those with a non-spreadsheet software solution, if they had the ability to make 3 fundamental changes, what would they be? (NOTE, this summary has been created through significant interpretation)
(i) Change the users interface to a more pleasing one and give the users an easier experience.
(ii) Have more flexibility around formulae construction and model creation.
(iii) Make it easier to create custom reports.

Conclusions:
Although a very significant proportion of the companies spoken to had developed a solution with spreadsheets it was found to have some fundamental technical limitations because it is neither a database nor a development environment. However, software either bought in or developed in-house generally lacked either a pleasing user interface or the ability to easily get information out.

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Press Contact: Donald Macdonald
Company Name: ROSETTA STONE LIMITED
Email: dmacdonald@rosetta-stone.co.uk
Phone: 01932 724006
Website: www.rosetta-stone.co.uk