Choking on Spreadsheets?
You're excited by the growth of your company, but a painful problem has crept in that is hindering your people and slowing your acceleration. Finding and sharing information – data that is critical to your operation – has become difficult.
We call this “spreadsheet suffocation.” It is that stage of information sharing pain that causes people to start cussing. Where did you save the Johnson calculations? Who has the orders spreadsheet locked? Where did my new inventory list go? Did someone write over it? There was 2 days work in that spreadsheet!
When your company reaches this point – whether you are a small company or a division of a larger enterprise – you need a system that helps you work together. You may be able to buy it, or you may have to build one depending on your specific needs. But the pain of trying to collaborate is now so high that you are suffocating. A significant growth bottleneck has set in.
The second wall that hinders a company’s growth is similar but another rung up the ladder. The system that supported ten people well is starting to break down under the strain of fifty. A new type of thinking must be applied to streamline the company’s operations and automate them – again. This time, the system will be larger, will take longer to design (or purchase), and cause more of a disruption in company operations when it is implemented.
What happens internally when your system no longer meets the needs of your busy staff? They start creating work-arounds to get their job done… and often their solutions involve spreadsheets. And so, the spreadsheet culture is reborn and the cycle begins again.
The need to renew a growing company’s information system is unavoidable. Just plan to address the problem before the pain at each juncture is so great that your people start leaving or you watch your newly automated competitor fly by.
Need some clarity on what to do next? Take our Ten Questions for Automation Readiness quiz to see if you're ready to step on the gas.
