Disparate Data Sources
Corporate data is often stored across many different departments and often in many different formats.
These "Islands" of information have often been "home grown" over time.
Management reporting requires the availability of data consolidated to a
"single source of truth"
Many businesses use spreadsheets as their main data processing and storage tool.
Sharing via email is a common practice and produces multiple copies, amendments to any of these copies produce multiple versions.
Often a copy is stored for “safe keeping” while working on what was the original, producing yet even more versions.
Analysing and reporting on company data becomes an error prone mammoth task.
Many hours are spent daily updating multiple spreadsheets increasing administration cost.
Spreadsheets can be shared with almost everyone with very little control.
Compliance with “The Data Protection Act 2018” becomes a major issue.
The use of spreadsheets is often an easy way to get something done quickly, they can be enhanced gradually and are commonly stored on the local computer often on the desktop.
A change of computer/user often results in the loss of the “user desktop” and therefore the data stored there.
The recommendation is to consolidate and verify data using a controlled network database.