Turn Your Spreadsheets
Into Software
Our most popular project? We replace critical, complicated spreadsheets with reliable, intuitive, bespoke software. Spreadsheets can be agile, flexible, effective. However, Excel and Access have their limitations, particularly when it comes to managing and analysing critical data. We've seen spreadsheets that started life as stop-gap solutions become central to how a company operates.
What are the problems?
The most common scenario: a large, complicated Excel/Access file is the linchpin of a critical process. The spreadsheet has been tweaked and modified so much, by so many people, that only one or two people understand how it works. They know which cells can be edited and which can't. Which colours mean what. Which figures feed into which reports. They know how it connects to data in other places. Everyone else just hopes that the magic will continue.
No conflict resolution. Two people can unwittingly edit the same cell at the same time, because Excel will let them, then erase one set of changes. No record of who's been changing what.
Difficult to untangle dependencies in complicated worksheets, as how do you know what happens when you change something?
Difficult to limit who can do what. Difficult to see who's done what. Difficult to recover from error. Difficult to connect to other tools. Difficult to analyse data. Difficult to communicate changes, such as emails and duplication of data entry like to a CRM, etc.
The fix
We can help you move away from your current system and onto a bespoke, intuitive, reliable, flexible tool that does what you need it to and nothing else. Examples include Olton Bedrooms' project tracking and workshop timetables, and AM2PM Recruitment's job offers and training workflows.
Firstly, we'll work with the person(s) who manage the spreadsheet to understand how it's used. We'll also speak to users to understand processes and edge cases. Then, we'll unpick all of the business logic that exists within the spreadsheet, sometimes quite explicitly, other times spread over colour coding, comments, formatting, linked databases and external APIs.
We can then propose a plan for gradually replacing each element with custom-built software, starting with the bit that would be most risky if it broke.
The benefits? Conflict resolution. Fine-grained permissions: stop people seeing things they shouldn't be seeing and only let people do things they're allowed to do. Automatic audit trails. Automatic backup. Connecting to other tools. Automated reports and alerts. Easy-to-understand user interfaces, etc. etc.
Questions we get
How long will it take? As with all bespoke software projects, scoping and costing comes first. Building begins after we've shown you some working code. Timing depends on the size of project, but also on your side: agreed scope, tidying of data, etc. We'll help wherever possible, but we can't give solid timescales until we know what we're dealing with.
What about migrating data? The last stage is moving across historic records. We'll write a bespoke import for each project, migrate data in tranches, double-check against live data in the spreadsheet, then stand it down once everyone's happy.
Can I own it? You own it: the code, data, intellectual property. We'll help you maintain it and develop it by adding new fields, views, reports, workflows, alerts, notifications, connections to other tools. But, at any point, you'll be able to give it to someone else to take over. We'll deploy to our cloud or yours. You choose.
Is this project suitable?
The best-fit projects tend to be:
At an established company, usually making more than £10 million a year
Where there's a keen sponsor
With access to all relevant people and data
We'll also take a look at whether there are off-the-shelf products that would work. We'll be happy to talk through the pros and cons of each option, including keeping the spreadsheet, considering setup/migration costs, running costs, degree of fit with current processes, likely timescales, etc.
We'll probably turn projects down where there's no champion for it within the business, where we can't access all of the people/data we need to understand the situation, where the problem seems more suited to complex machine learning that we're not able to verify would work.
Get in touch
If this sounds like you, start with a quick spreadsheet audit. Send us the sheet, along with your users and any connected systems, and we'll look at the current risks and give you advice on your options.