Many businesses still rely on spreadsheets

Posted by Justin Hesser on July 17, 2014

When it comes to business intelligence software solutions, there is a growing list of potential options on the marketplace. Despite this, there are still a high number of company decision makers that rely on traditional solutions, like Microsoft Excel, as a key business tool.

According to a recent article from ITWeb, spreadsheets are used by a majority of senior executives to manage projects. The site conducted a survey over the course of 14 days in May and June of this year. It found that 76 percent of top executives in the United States are using spreadsheets internally. This is the same in markets outside the U.S. as well, as 75 percent of decision makers in South Africa rely primarily on spreadsheets.

While spreadsheets do have a place, some experts believe that it has become an outdated technology. Diederik Jordaan, an MD at Gen2 Enterprise Software, a company that helped with the report, said that 57.1 percent of the companies relying on spreadsheets have more than 500 employees.

"Given the size of these organizations, this can easily lead to project management or project portfolio management, data integrity issues and agonizingly inefficient feedback loops," the article reads. "Today's organizations need the agility to see and trust information as it develops, to make informed decisions and maintain a competitive edge."

With the help of a custom web application development firm that specializes in more complex systems like FileMaker, any company can start taking deploying more current solutions. This provides a simple way to step out of the comfort zone and implement something new.