Authors
Jill Gilbert
Abstract
As managers, engineers, and scientists, we often spend the majority of our time—up to 80%—gathering data, and minimal time acting on it. We find it hard to get the information we need from disparate, unintegrated data sources, much of it locked within spreadsheets. While many of us now use commercial or homegrown enterprise environment, health, and safety (EH&S) software packages as data repositories, some users still opt to download certain information into spreadsheets.
More than 30 years after their introduction, electronic spreadsheets are pervasive. The unrelenting use of spreadsheets creates risk when, unconstrained, they feed data and decisions into critical business processes and we rely upon them for compliance reporting.
Sample
Seven best practices for moving beyond spreadsheets:
- Evaluate the amount of data created in spreadsheets, how critical it is, how accurately recorded it is, and what controls can be put in place.
- Select the right tool (software) to meet your organization's needs.
- Optimize workflows across the enterprise and configure the software to use your workflows.
- Scale back on the data collected and focus on that needed to support key performance indicators.
- Leverage IT frameworks and integrate data that your organization already captures in other systems.
- Retire hundreds of standalone spreadsheets and small databases in favor of an enterprise database with a "single source of truth".
- Over time, build stakeholder confidence that the data they need are in the system, and are correct.
Publication
2012, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, October, pages 34-36
