The Hidden Cost of Spreadsheets I
As any project manager knows, the success of a project depends on whether it comes in at or under budget and whether it was completed on time. What most project managers do not know is that by using spreadsheets to manage multi-site projects, they significantly decrease their opportunities for success.
In today’s fast-paced, technologically advanced society, spreadsheets are quickly becoming obsolete because of their inefficiencies. Listed below are a few of the hidden costs associated with spreadsheets that make them a poor choice for today’s project manager.
Personnel
Considering it typically takes a large number of people to complete a project—especially multi-site projects—your overhead is already going to be high. Now, factor in each person updating, merging, sending, saving, finding, emailing, fixing and even losing the information. A significant amount of personnel time is wasted here.
Out-of-date information
Spreadsheets contain critical information needed to make decisions throughout the project. If the spreadsheet has not been updated, or an older version of the spreadsheet is making the rounds, inaccurate information is being used to make decisions, which in turn can cost a company hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars if decisions are being made using incorrect information.
Errors
In multi-site projects, data can often arrive daily or weekly via spreadsheets from other sources (shipping information, billing information, etc). The project manager or project coordinator must merge that data with the master spreadsheet. Even assuming every party is using the exact same software on the exact same operating machine, this process is very error prone.
More hidden costs in my next post… In the meantime, click here to see how BigWave can help eliminate the hidden costs of spreadsheets with multi-site project management.
Written by John Livermore - Multi-site Project Management
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