Crystal Reports Administration: Exorcise Excel

Those of us who used paper spreadsheets before the era of the desktop computer have watched some interesting things unfold.

First, there was the "killer app" that made the desktop PC get serious attention from engineers, accountants, and managers. It was a simple spreadsheet program. What was great about is was "Wow! Now you can type information into rows and columns rather than have to erase and rewrite." Even better, you could let cells calculate values for you instead of calculating them and writing them in. VisiCalc became legendary in short order.

Other developers improved on VisiCalc. Borland produced their killer spreadsheet program, and many people switched over to it. But then Lotus came out with their 1-2-3 product. They touted it as being:

1. A graphics program
2. A spreadsheet program
3. A database program

That was half of the reason for the name 1-2-3. The other half was "It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!" This fact has turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. More about that, in a moment.

The next big evolution in the spreadsheet world was the emergence of a hugely improved Microsoft Excel in Microsoft Office 4.5 (as a separately mailed add-on) and then 5.0 (as part of the suite). After a brief struggle in the marketplace, Excel became the de facto standard in electronic spreadsheet programs. Today, many people don't even realize the name is a proper noun.

Because of the great flexibility, graphics, and ease of use, Excel has become as ubiquitous in management offices as PowerPoint is in presentations. And that is not good.

Why is this not good? Let's not address the "death by PowerPoint" angle here, but stick to the Excel costs. It's bad because managers want to have the freedom to fritter away countless hours manipulating data instead of deciding upfront what really matters and having that presented in a report. The sense of control and empowerment is illusory, but comforting.

One huge downside to this, other than the billions of dollars in salary it costs industry each year, is the "islands of information" problem. All of these managers are using "snapshot" data from different reporting periods, manipulating those data in different ways, and arriving at contradictory conclusions due to the different information thus produced. In many cases, the spreadsheets produce false information--even from accurate data. The reason is the errors that people inevitably make, as each person constructs a custom set of spreadsheets. These often reach levels of complexity for which Excel was never intended and for which it is not suited.

Because Excel is on the desktop and because people have an inherent distrust of what they can't see, they want to use Excel. Maybe if they come to understand how expensive this is, they'll quit trying to fit cloth sails to a nuclear submarine. Or would that be the oars in the back of the engine room?

What to do

If you are the Crystal Reports administrator, you have no doubt been trying to exorcise Excel. But people want to stick with what they know, even if they don't know it very well (especially if they don't know it very well). Someone who has always used a hammer has a hard time seeing the advantages of a screwdriver. You could try to force the issue, policy-wise. That approach will fail, and will certainly cost you the good will you need for job security.

What you have to do is get people to want to have the data manipulation done in the report. Yes, there may be some additional Excel work that makes sense. But generally, most of what people are doing over and over in Excel can be done in the report.

Today, everyone is overloaded and working too many hours. So, there's your key. You are offering some relief by offering saved time. The trick is to be able to do this without making people feel they are giving up control.

Modify the following approach to suit your specific needs:

1. Form a small, informal advisory team. Limit it to no more than 4 people, or you will go nuts. The purpose of this team is to give you input on what calculations the report should do "to reduce the time needed by overworked managers to do the same thing in spreadsheets." Pick at least one person who is a major Excel user. Another great person to have on this team is one who lives by reports but doesn't spend much time with spreadsheets.
    
2. Identify some calculation that is currently done in Excel that you can easily do in Crystal Reports. It's critical you get this one implemented with zero errors the first time. So, make it something easy. Once you have implemented this in a test report, have your advisory team critique it. You may get some severe criticism--don't let it phase you. Thank everyone for their input, ask for specific suggestions on improvement, and then roll out the revised report.
    
3. Now that you have "proof of concept" that the report can replace some Excel work, identify the three things your advisory committee says use the most time. You can ask them for time estimates, if you think that helps. If something is especially difficult to do or to test before release, pick something else. Then repeat the previous step, and wait. You should begin seeing requests start to roll in from Excel abusers to have the report do their pet "mission critical" calculation.

Putting these three steps into action will help you to exorcise Excel from where it's not supposed to be. As you move your Excel abusers on the road to recovery, you may eventually find there are a few stubborn holdouts. These people will be out of synch with the rest of the organization. Therefore, they have self-selected themselves into being discarded by the organization. You probably won't need to wait long for that to happen in today's competitive world.

To avoid getting bogged down with a hostile advisory panel, put a time limit on it. You can put up with anybody for 90 days. If someone is especially helpful, ask that person to re-up or suggest a successor.

As you go about exorcising Excel, remember it's about making the jobs of users easier and more efficient. It is never about getting your way or getting people in line. It is never about improving people, correcting them, or making them change. It's about saving them time, improving the tools they use, and helping them look good.

Those who choose to stay inefficient sow the seeds of their own dismissal. There is no reason for you to take any action in that regard.

Have patience, show courtesy, and focus on the user needs--you will succeed.

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