Did you know that 95% of SMEs still manage data on excel?
A very interesting statistic don’t you think? Especially when it’s the 51-250 employee bracket of SMEs that still manage this data with Excel. With the abundance of systems and tools our there for organisations, shouldn’t Excel be redundant by now?
Gathering data from multiple sources to analyse and interpret is often the most time consuming part of your overall business analysis. We recently surveyed a large group SMEs on their data management, 100% of them used multiple sources for their data.
It’s not surprising really, with the amount of systems out there that can work on every function in your business; accounts, marketing, ERP, whatever your business needs there is now a tool to help you manage that. But what happens when you have an abundance of data flying around- it becomes a constant struggle to gather, visualise and interpret. Even displaying data can take longer than the meeting you are preparing your data for. Again unsurprisingly from our research Time efficiency was the most common data management need.
Here are some more of the Data management challenges we came across as quoted from the anonymous survey we sent out:
• ‘Matching up and interpreting data between different departments’
• ‘Finding data is too time consuming’
• ‘Being able to produce reports that we understand’
• ‘Having different data systems that do not talk to each other’
The best bit (and most shameful) bit I can tell you about this research is that we have a solution. An extremely clever dashboard system (Q2Q Sofia) that pulls data from multiple systems and displays your business performance in one place, in a way you can understand. The data can be as live as you need it and the visuals created to suit the interpreters in your company. You might be an MD wanting to gain a better financial position of your organisation, or the marketing team wanting to analyse open rate of mailshots against new enquires.
If you are one of the 95% of SMEs using Excel to manage your data, it’s time to give us a call, 01524 581 690.
