What is the nature of the Retail relationship with Excel? Well it’s a complicated one!
Small companies use it as their primary resource for any data requirements!
Big companies seem to spend a lot of time using other systems, but ultimately export
data into excel to manipulate and share!
What does this look like?
Just as an example – Buying and Merchandising teams might use excel, or a system, or a platform to manage
each of the following activities.
- Range Plans
- Product Data
- Price Management
- Business Intelligence
- Stock Management
- WSSI (Weekly Stock, Sales & Intake)
- Assortment Planning
- Flow Planning
And in some cases there isn’t just one option, there are several tools and groups that work together but
separately! So think of forecasting and the analysis that takes place in Business Intelligence, WSSI, Assortment
Planning and Flow Planning, but the output is then needed in a Stock Management application that will raise
purchase orders or allocate stock to locations.
This creates problems
There are several problems with this, firstly, with so many ‘inputs’ there is the danger of inconsistent data and
multiple versions of the truth. Some data may be updated at close of business, some at the end of week, some
might need to be approved.
Secondly there is the user experience, different levels of knowledge and expertise combined with the need for
different information throughout the organisational hierarchy can make for some challenges.
The other thing Retail is famous for in regards to spreadsheets, are the Monday reports and dashboards which
are time consuming, and the hardest part is knowing that you arrived in the office at silly o’clock to create and
send them around, but only a very small percentage of the information would even be used.
Even though this analysis has moved on from the days of printed reports, it still has a long way to go. This is
nothing new, everyone seems to know about the reliance on excel, it’s the same in a lot of organisations and
there just doesn’t seem to be an easy way to move away from it.
Why is Excel an issue in this?
With so many chanllenges, why do we think Excel is a problem? Well, it isn’t so much what it does as how it gets
there.
Using Excel can result in a seemingly endless catalogue of spreadsheets and finding ‘Spreadsheet Hell’ as well as
leaks in governance and data security. With many users all playing different parts across an organisation, it can
all get a bit out of control and end up with multiple versions of the truth, either by using data from different
points or by similar outputs being created by more than one person.
Not the most efficient way of working, and can lead to some poor business decisions being made.
How do we move on?
If we look at why Excel is used and the potential difficulties that can arise, think about the alternatives and solve
the issues, then we can find a better way to work that will help Retail overcome some of the challenges.
- Why do we need to use Excel to format data from other sources? There might be a couple of things to
consider here. On one hand the source might not be capable of meeting these requirements, or it may be
that the user doesn’t know how to do it. - Why are there so many versions of the ‘truth’? This happens because businesses grow and buy additional
systems that they hope will fit together. Here’s the thing, sometimes they do but sometimes they don’t!
Another side to this comes when you have multiple users all creating their own data because they need
something specific, actually you’ll probably find that the data is already available because someone else has
created or found it, it’s just not been shared with everyone appropriately.
Do people actually know enough on how to use spreadsheets effectively? This is about everything from sorting &
filtering to adding calculations, and although some people do know huge amounts, have vast experience, and
can create fabulous spreadsheets, a lot of the time the answer is No! This lack of knowledge can lead to errors
and misinformation, which on a good day may just be a small glitch, but on a bad day could cost a business
money.
There is often an expectation of knowledge but the reality is that many people just end up turning to google to
find out how to create calculations, or things like lookups and pivot tables. So training is required, not just on the
mechanics and how to, but on the why, (Why do you need this information? Why is it important and What does
it tell you?) and also this needs to consider who is using it. From the tech wizard, to the person who just wants to
know their best sellers to make sure they are on display. If you want someone to use something well, it is better
all round to ensure that they know how.
What does the future look like?
What is needed is a platform that:
- can take data from other sources,
- can be formatted and used to create great visuals,
- can be shared for others to use,
- can be scheduled to run regularly,
- can be used for detailed analysis and forecasting,
- and can be used at various levels.
Now that would be perfect!
We looked around in the market and Pyramid ticks a lot of boxes for us in the process. There will always be a
place for excel but it doesn’t have to be the only way, especially with the addition of Tabulate & Solve, Pyramid
closes the gap that we have described above.
