Outgrown Excel? Think Custom!
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Leaders of companies both big and small bank on Excel capabilities to handle some of their most important business functions. While they can use this software for a wide array of tasks, many are finding that company needs eventually outgrow this tool’s functionality. As a result, business leaders are turning to creating proprietary software — systems designed and created for specific company needs.
Whether your business has already outgrown Excel or it’s on the horizon, creating a custom solution may be the best fit. Relying only on spreadsheets can be a dangerous way to handle data and can limit your business. Consider the following when you’re deciding when your business is ready for a custom software solution:
Efficiency 💡
Company decision-makers often grapple with when it makes sense to consider a custom software solution. Using an out-of-the-box system such as Excel may work initially, but when is it time to stop using basic spreadsheets? Some questions to consider when deciding include: Are employees spending more time working on spreadsheets than they really have? Do you have to hire in-house Excel experts? Does Excel limit what your business can do, hurting your bottom line, and lessening your ability to move your business forward? Is Excel unable to provide the company data you need to make solid business decisions? If your answer is “yes” to one or more of these questions or if a “yes” answer is likely in the near future, a custom solution may alleviate some of your frustrations.
Scalability 📈
Business leaders can achieve tremendous return on investment (ROI) when they have the tools in place to scale and grow more effectively. With added visibility and transparency in a custom solution, executives have the data they need to make sound decisions and can eliminate labor-intensive processes that prevent valuable employees from focusing on other tasks. Often, business leaders are limited in the ways they can grow their companies when using Excel, but a custom solution may provide the growth options they require.
Centralized data 💻
Excel creates a distributed data model rather than a centralized data model, meaning data isn’t stored in one central location that everyone uses. Instead, all employees can download the data to their own spreadsheets and manipulate it. The source data — or the hard-copy — is immediately obsolete to everyone else and there ceases to be a canonical data source for the company. This leaves company leaders at risk for missed, overlapping, or inaccurate data. Custom solutions can allow for centralized data systems with distributed access, safeguarding data and streamlining processes.
For example, when The Intellection Group (TIG) professionals first met members of one investment management company, the largest fund the investors had raised to date was nearly $300 million. Soon after their custom-built software system launched, they made plans to raise their first $1 billion fund. With the use of the new system, long-term partner investors had no fears in light of the new system. Without leaving Excel behind to move to a custom system, this growth would never have been possible.
Creative custom software systems can help business leaders reduce organizational risk, ensure long-term survival, and offer novel ways for executives to achieve company goals. As businesses grow, custom software solutions begin to make more sense than Excel.
Curious to learn more about a unique solution but don’t know where to start the custom software development journey? Contact the experts at The Intellection Group (TIG) at 678-283-4283 today to get started on a unique solution that exceeds your unique business needs.