Important knowledge sits with individuals and in Excel
Sound familiar?
- Only one person understands the spreadsheet
- Holidays and illness bring things to a halt
- New colleagues take a long time to get into it
What this is about
The business rests on one person
Key person dependency means a workflow can only run because one particular person knows it. A colleague built the sheet and knows how things are worked out. The day she is not there, you are left with a sheet nobody dares touch.
- Why the shortcut appeared
We see it most often where the formal system is too rigid for an exception, and a spreadsheet is the quickest way round it. Nobody rings a helpdesk about a spreadsheet, so the shortcut is never seen, and each exception was reasonable in itself.
- What the dependency costs
Holidays, illness and resignations stop workflows nobody had written down. New colleagues take a long time to find their way into the sheet, and until they have, the work still rests on the one person.
- When it is a search problem
The rules may already be written down but hard to find. Then there is no dependency to solve, and making the knowledge easier to find is a smaller job than building the logic into a system.
The work in the sheet is not thrown away. The logic moves into a system the company owns, so the rules stay in place even when she is not there.
Start at the source
An overview is only worth acting on if the numbers behind it hold.
The safe route
How we start, without you committing to anything big
- Step 1
Clarification meeting
A short conversation about where there is most to gain, and what it is worth. Free and without obligation.
- Step 2
Digital pre-project
We map out what sits in spreadsheets and in individual heads, and what is most critical. You get a concrete recommendation with numbers behind it, and if it does not pay off, we say so. A fixed price that is offset against the first stage if you build on within 90 days.
- Step 3
Development in stages
We build in stages at a fixed price and take whatever pays for itself fastest first. After that, operation and support from the people who know the solution.
You can stop after each step without the effort being wasted.
What the solution usually consists of
We decide exactly what is needed together
Exactly what it takes, we work out together in the pre-project. A challenge like this one we usually solve with one or more of these approaches.
- Digital advice Strategic use of technology and support for your processes, so you get overview, control and better insight into your own data. It is part of most projects.
- System development A system built around your own process, when no off-the-shelf product quite fits.
Ready to talk to us?
Contact usA concrete example
What we would do here
DTU and Open Experience. We have built structured data models and process support, so knowledge sits in a system rather than in spreadsheets. That is related to your task. The precise gain for you we prove on your own knowledge in a digital pre-project.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a case that looks like ours?
How do you get knowledge out of one person’s head without disrupting operations?
Our Excel sheet works, so why change?
What does it cost, and how do we get started?
How long before we feel an effect?
What if it does not work, can we stop along the way?
Do we own the code and our data afterwards?
You are a smaller agency, do you fit our size?
Related challenges
These often go together
Solve one and these tend to turn up alongside it. See how we approach them.
- Growth & scaling We cannot grow without hiring more people More volume takes more hands, because the work is not carried by the system. See what can be done
- Data & overview We have no overview, our data is scattered Numbers sit in several systems, so there is no single, reliable status. See what can be done
- New & unique We have a process or an idea no finished system supports The way you work is your own, so you live with workarounds. See what can be done
We work with many different challenges, and they hang together more often than you would think.
See all challengesDo you want your knowledge out of the spreadsheets?
- A reply from one of us by the next business day.
- A no-obligation review of your situation.
- Clarity on which options are relevant to you.
- A concrete plan, if you choose to go ahead.
Thanks for the feedback.