Using Excel Spreadsheets or Google Sheets to capture data is a good start for your budding businesses. They are the natural choice to capturing data and performing basic analysis. Google Sheets is a spreadsheet program included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google.
According to Forrester Research Excel Spreadsheet is used by 81% of businesses and has 750 million users worldwide!
But once the data grows, response from Excel Spreadsheets or Google Sheets gets adversely impacted.
Many of us use spreadsheets daily because they are inexpensive to create, highly flexible, mostly easy to use and very easy to share. However, spreadsheets have their own challenges.
Here are the benefits and disadvantages of relying on spreadsheets for data capture and analysis:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Quick to create | Performance slows with increase in data |
Easy to learn and operate | Multiple copies of data |
Intuitive operations | Difficult to implement data checks |
Can create one's own copy for anaysis | No control over data and data security |
Easy to share | Difficult to use on mobile devices |
Can be used offline | No role-based access to data. Everyone can see everything |
| Unfit for managing multiple processes and operations in a growing organization |
The disadvantages of spreadsheets can be overcome by using an application for data capture and storage.
It is easy to covert your excel sheet based operations into an application with our platform. All it takes is 3 simple steps and less than 5 minutes:
Import your data stored in Excel spreadsheet
Create an application
Grant role-based access.
Advantages of using an application over using a spreadsheet to store data manage processes:
1 | Secure data with role-based access |
2 | Online data can be accessed in real-time and from anywhere on any device |
3 | Audit trail of changes |
4 | An application can handle large volumes of data with better performance |
5 | Reduce human error by implementing rules and validations |
6 | One version of truth than multiple copies of your data |
7 | Alerts and notifications on changes to critical data |
8 | License expenditure saved |
There have been instances where an organization began using Excel spreadsheets for data capture, but the data ended up being siloed. Additionally, data collected over time can be valuable and, if left unsecured, can easily be stolen. It is not possible to monetize information in Excel spreadsheets.
One of our customers faced this issue: they had collected contact information for buyers and sellers over time in Excel spreadsheets, but there were multiple copies of the information with no single reliable master copy. It was a time-consuming manual process to update the contact details after a certain period. We helped this customer transition away from spreadsheets and monetize their data.
For a growing business the advantages of moving away from Excel based processes to a cloud based application are immense. Usually the hesitation to make such a transition is due to lack of technical expertise and the perceived cost of implementing a software solution. It is no longer expensive to own the software that your business needs. We can give you a prototype for free!
If you would like to discuss converting your excel based data and processes into a cloud based application, do drop in a mail at: info@feldspartech.com
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