The idea was simple enough, write a short post about the role of spreadsheets in organizations.  More accurately, write about the role of Excel in organizations. I’m trying to provide a frame of reference from which readers can gain perspective on what Indicee does.  My thinking was, I could provide a bit of historical context (background of VisiCalc and Lotus 1,2,3 – the original electronic spreadsheets from the days when you actually had to use the word “electronic” in order to differentiate the thing from a paper spreadsheet), then a colourful anecdote about one or two of my favourite “Excel moments”(to illustrate some of the benefits and drawbacks to spreadsheet use), some stats on spreadsheet proliferation, end off with an introduction to the concept of datamarts, and Bob’s Your Uncle, point made.  Readers could use the comfort and familiarity of the spreadsheet concept to relate to the new concept of Indicee I figured the most difficult part of the whole exercise would have been choosing just one title for the post.

I was contemplating something like:

• Confessions of an Excel Jockey
• Fathers of Invention; The Mother of All Spreadsheets
• or Ghosts of Spreadsheets Past

What is difficult, complex, or nuanced about that?

What I found, as I started digging into a bit of cursory research (what is a blog post without links?), was that the debate about the relative value of spreadsheets has been raging with a fair bit of intensity for some time.  It wasn’t long before I had compiled literally pages of links that espoused support for or against their use.  There’s a term out there describing the exponential growth in the number of spreadsheets in a company as “spreadmarting”.  Well, my links on the spreadsheet question were spreadmarting!

My web journey ran the spectrum of views!  There are those that dig excel to the point of self-applying a moniker like “Mr.Excel”; and on the opposite side of the spectrum, you have an actual institute dedicated to studying the dangers inherent in spreadsheet use.  There are web pages dedicated to compiling links to other excel resources [I randomly chose one here], and articles detailing some of the greatest business blunders attributed to spreadsheet errors.  If you feel you may have a spreadsheet problem, for the small fee of $1749 Forrester Research will provide you with a white paper (complete with a money-back guarantee) that promises to explain spreadsheet best practice for you – let’s assume it’s really great.  Or for the more frugal-minded, there’s Truth To Power’s practical Top Ten list.

Games have been developed based on excel in case you don’t get quite enough during the course of your work day (actually, I highly recommend this one!).  There are even spreadsheets designed to compare other spreadsheets.  Surprisingly, excel formulae only made it to #4 on the “Stuff Accountants Like” blog (#1 is Not Sleeping – sadly, the blog itself has recently gone to sleep).  And since I don’t want to leave out the rest of the blogosphere, here is a link to a list of other excel-related blogs.

What all of this tells me is that the role of spreadsheets in organizations is up for debate.

With that in mind, I encourage you to weigh in.  What is the role of spreadsheets in your organization?  How do you feel about it?  What are your best (and worst) “Excel moments”?

Regardless, there is little doubt about one thing.  The business world, collectively, relies heavily on this little piece of technology that grew out of Dan Bricklin’s need 30 years ago for a souped up calculator when he and Bob Frankston came up with Visicalc.  So, although I haven’t made much headway in relating Indicee to our good friend the spreadsheet just yet, hopefully this post will get you thinking more actively about this ubiquitous business tool.  We can tackle the Indicee connection soon enough as I plan to revisit this topic regularly.

We are Spreadsheet Nation!