I have worked in digital transformation over the majority of my career in various roles and the spreadsheet was by far my favourite tool. As an ERP integration consultant, I loved VLOOKUPs, parsing the data, and pivot tables.
One of my projects involved consolidating 16 divisions across North America into an ERP system. It was over 2 years of spreadsheets, general ledger, inventory, product schedule and customer data mapping.
Here is a recap of the data life cycle stages. You might be using spreadsheets in some or all of the stages:
- Generation: Data must first be generated.
- Collection: Not all of the data that’s generated every day is collected or used.
- Processing: Data has been collected, it must be processed.
- Storage
- Management
- Analysis
- Visualization
- Interpretation
If you are still using spreadsheets and are experiencing roadblocks to business growth, it is time to evaluate the next generation of data tools and close the gaps and inefficiencies in your business processes.
Technology and software evaluation is a business strategy endeavour. Before you start evaluating data tools, you need to do a bit of pre-work to understand what problems you are trying to solve. These steps include:
- Define the business strategy.
- Define your business requirements.
- Set a budget and weigh your requirements by priority.
Following these simple steps will get you ready to evaluate, select, and purchase.
Closing the data gap and making data usable faster is what we do at ScriptString.AI. Contact us today for a free consultation on how we can help info@scripstring.com.
