Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror!

Community Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror! Liam AndersonNovember 16, 2022 Woman using Excel to make a spreadsheet on her computer

Woman using Excel to make a spreadsheet on her computer

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Bill Gates has a lot to answer for. Every office computer has a spreadsheet application on it. Any task involving numbers is done on a spreadsheet.

Selling contact center technology, I am frequently told, “No problem, they’re only using spreadsheets.”

A professional colleague told me that when people replace existing technology, either they are looking for a solution that does more for the same price that they are already paying, or for something that does the same as their current solution, but for a lower price.

Since everybody’s computer already has a spreadsheet application on it, they see it as a zero-cost application.

How do you compete against a zero-cost application?

Know Your Enemy Microsoft Excel icon on a laptop

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Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.”

Now we’ve identified spreadsheets as our “enemy,” what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses?

The Strengths Of Spreadsheets Man on laptop looks at a spreadsheet

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Their greatest strength is that they are essentially free. Even if a company does buy your solution, they are not going to give up their spreadsheet licenses. They use spreadsheets for so many other parts of the business, so there is no saving by adopting your product.

Spreadsheets are the legacy solution. People have designed and amended their files over the years to meet their needs exactly. People feel as comfortable using spreadsheets as they would wearing their favorite pair of slippers.

The final strength of spreadsheets is their flexibility. The average Excel user regularly uses about 5% of its full functionality. Spreadsheets’ formulae address all aspects of mathematics and contain many tools for analyzing and processing data. Most software cannot emulate all the different functions that spreadsheets have to offer.

The Holes In The Spreadsheets’ Armor Empty spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel

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Spreadsheets were originally designed to make calculations and save them in files. These calculations could be shared by sharing the file.

More than one person can work on a spreadsheet at the same time, but it has its challenges. The key challenge is that the number of users working on a spreadsheet at any one time is limited for practical purposes, to two or three. If you create a database table in Excel, it’s not possible to have 100 users making real-time changes to it simultaneously.

Security is another headache. Spreadsheets can be password protected, but that password protection cannot be integrated into an identity and access management (IAM) tool. The password is unique to the spreadsheet and not to the user If 100 users use the same spreadsheet, then 100 users know the same password. Alternatively, each user can use their own spreadsheet and then regularly merge the files. This requires a lot of manual work, which is prone to error.

Automation is possible within spreadsheets, but it’s complicated. Not many people know how to write macros in VBA. If your product has a functionality that would need a macro to replicate it, then it’s unlikely that your customer’s organization will have someone who can write that macro. On the other hand, if your customer’s spreadsheets use macros to perform certain functions, it’s pretty unlikely that your product will perform the same function as the macro. I have often worked with customers using spreadsheets with macros. When I ask how they work, they will tell me that the person who wrote the spreadsheet has moved on. No one in their company knows how it works, but they have to keep using it.

Replacing Spreadsheets — Including The Value In (Return On Investments) ROI Calculations Woman looks at a spreadsheet on her computer

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As discussed, people look for solutions that do more for the same price that they are already paying, or for solutions that do the same as their current solutions, but for a lower price.

The trick is to understand what are the units of work being done on the spreadsheet and to attribute a financial value to them based on the manual labor. This is usually based on the time it takes to do the work. If you can show that your product can do the same units of work in a shorter period of time, or with the reduced attention of a human worker, then you can estimate a cost saving.

This manual work can include the costs of someone checking the work, and also the costs of rework to rectify mistakes.

The second way to calculate the ROI is to look at the consequences of non-compliance. Keeping customer data on a spreadsheet is not very secure for the reasons mentioned above. It is likely to violate data protection laws. You can also factor the likely penalties, fines, and legal costs into the ROI.

The wrap-up

If you’re selling to small and medium-sized customers, spreadsheets can be a fearsome incumbent to beat. You need to reveal the effect of the spreadsheet’s weaknesses on the business while being ready to handle objections based on the spreadsheet’s strengths.

Are you competing against spreadsheets? Why are your customers considering replacing them? How are spreadsheets holding them back? What do they hope that your product can do that spreadsheets can’t? How does the value your product creates compare to the value spreadsheets generate?

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Man on laptop uses a project management platform

As an educator and administrator, I enjoy helping young adults as well as adult learners with their academic journey. In my role, I oversee policies and procedures that help support student learning and success. Therefore, I implement multiple innovation projects to support students and meet them where they are.

Monday.com Is Perfect For Managing Projects Monday.com, a project management platform

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Monday.com Capabilities Project manager uses project management software

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Since I work on several projects, Monday.com software allows me to assign tasks and prioritize what's most important for the team to execute. To do this, I break down the components by color and timeline. For example, our digital badge project had a short implementation timeline, milestones, and deliverables. The platform allowed me to manage the entire workload all in one space.

Conclusion Man uses project management software during a team meeting

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My biggest takeaway: the platform fosters creative collaboration with my team and other departments. More importantly, the collaboration is seamless and provides visibility into the progress of our work. It saves time and money. You may want to give it a try!

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When you hear the words “internal controls” does the early 2000s, Enron scandal, and SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) come to mind? It probably does especially if you work in finance or accounting. Internal control as defined by COSO is “a process for assuring of an organization's objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad concept, internal control involves everything that controls risks to an organization.”

Many people will focus on the financial aspects when they think about internal controls, but as the COSO definition states, internal controls are for the entire organization. This includes operations and information technology (IT) and may not have realized that some things being done are internal control related. For example, if you work at a manufacturing plant, the equipment is critical, and you want to make sure that it’s working properly. So, you’ll have inspections and routine maintenance, which are considered internal controls.

Technology is at the center of most organizations, so you definitely want to make sure your IT assets are working and protected. If there is security breach or ransomware, the CEO will want to know how it happened. You might not think of internal controls, but it certainly could be related to an internal control weakness.

Types Of Internal Controls internal controls /safeguard assets concept

Photo by Debra Shannon

Internal controls are typically divided into three categories:

Preventative controls – policies and practices designed to “prevent” problems from occurring.

Detective controls – procedures designed to “detect” if a problem occurs. It identifies that something has happened.

Corrective controls – these are implemented after the fact to “correct” so that it doesn’t happen again. It could be offering training, applying a software patch, or rebooting a system.

There are two types of IT-related internal controls – general controls and application controls:

General controls – are for the overall environment and include physical hardware, software, security, etc. For example, make sure you schedule (and test) routine backups. In the event of a disaster, you want to be confident that you can restore the system. Other general controls are antivirus, firewalls, and change management processes.

Application controls – are specific for input, processing, and output for each application. Examples are required fields, correct date format, and data completeness checks.

How To Identify And Mitigate Internal Control Weaknesses internal control concept

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Some elements to help identify and mitigate control weaknesses are:

1. Defining and inventorying risks. While some risks may be common across an industry, some will be specific to an organization. It’s important to identify which risks are mission critical to your organization. There are some individuals who specialize in identifying ongoing risks.

One of the top risks is cybersecurity! Many organizations have a dedicated CISO (chief information security officer). Also, individuals can obtain the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification.
Some organizations have a specific GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) group.

2. Frameworks and conducting risk assessments. There are numerous tools, processes, and templates available. You’ll want to determine and document the risks, the likelihood of the event happening, the impact including potential cost, if/how to mitigate the risk, etc. Some frameworks and considerations are:

COSO Internal Control – Integrated Framework
COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies)
NIST Cybersecurity Framework

If you work in healthcare, how do you ensure you are HIPAA compliant?
How often do you perform penetration tests?
If you have an ERP partner, have you reviewed their annual SOC2 (System and Organization Controls Type 2) report to review their internal controls, and any client considerations you may be responsible for?

3. Involvement by Internal Audit (internal controls is practically their middle name). They can be a valuable business partner and provide an independent perspective to make sure the internal controls are effective (including cost effective) and working properly.

4. Continuous monitoring. Both your organization and the threat landscape are constantly changing. You want to regularly conduct assessments and reviews to ensure the controls are effective. Don’t make controls so rigid that it’s impossible for the business to function.

There are tools that can systematically monitor, identify, and remediate issues such as Norton identifying viruses and malware.
Conduct phishing training and testing for all employees to increase security awareness.

You can’t make the organization 100% secure without shutting the business down, but you can create and maintain a framework of internal controls to safeguard the organization’s important assets.

There are great resources regarding internal controls provided by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

For more information on internal controls, follow me on LinkedIn!

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Monday.com: Project Management Made Easy {"customDimensions": {"1":"Executive Community, Maria Grandone","3":"using monday.com for project management, monday.com, project management, project manager, projects, managing projects, educators, teachers, administrators, students, project management tips, project management advice, monday.com capabilities, team, teamwork","2":"executive-project-management","4":"11/17/2022"}, "post": {"split_testing": {}, "providerId": 0, "sections": [0, 545658308, 544324100, 544398569, 479660731, 473333499], "buckets": [], "authors": [21030904, 25447180]} }

Now Hiring: Remote SysOps Engineer {"customDimensions": {"1":"Work It Daily, Kinsta \u00ae","3":"kinsta, hiring, remote jobs, remote work, remote workforce, remote companies hiring, remote companies 2021, sysops engineer, sysops engineer jobs","2":"popular","4":"05/18/2021"}, "post": {"split_testing": {}, "providerId": 0, "sections": [370480899, 545998439, 545998440, 473310812, 376489962, 526353713, 545658354, 548352055, 548352058, 543270555, 473333499, 473310813], "buckets": [], "authors": [19548593, 21891195]} } J.T. O'Donnell reflects on lessons professionals can learn from athletes.

J.T. O'Donnell reflects on lessons professionals can learn from athletes.

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Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror!

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