Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool. And power should be respected and used wisely. Unmanaged, Excel can undermine
important data quality and information management principles and significantly eat into company profits. Consider these questions and you'll
see what I mean.
1. How much time are high paid managers spending doing data entry and formatting tasks?
2. Who is making sure Excel spreadsheets balance to production data?
3. Are critical Excel spreadsheets backed up?
4. How many people have access to the data when they need it?
5. What is the time lag from production to Excel data? What opportunities are lost during this time?
6. Is the dependence on Excel reducing the accuracy, standardization and completeness of production data?
7. With Excel spreadsheets being emailed everywhere, how do you know you have the accurate and current version?
8. Does Excel data meet data security and HIPAA compliance policies?
Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool. It has a place in your organization. However, production data belongs to the
production system where everyone can see it, manipulate it according to their security rights and report on it as needed. Use Microsoft Excel
wisely.