Software sprawl

Friday 25th November 2011

It’s oft said but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true – most businesses seem to run on one or more MS Excel spreadsheet(s). It’s amazing how many organisations I meet, with sophisticated technology departments, expensive software products and high-profile risk management, that still have that all important spreadsheet (or perhaps an MS Access database or similar).

Why is this the case ? These products are inexpensive, pervasive on the desktop, flexible and familiar, so it’s no wonder that they get used to solve “today problems”, where people are frustrated with slow response times from IT departments or costs inflated by heavyweight IT processes.

What’s the problem ? The main problem with these kind of application is not that they are not functional; in fact, it’s that they are very functional and get used beyond their original context as a quick, “stop gap” solution. Typically, these applications don’t scale well, don’t support multiple users readily and are difficult to deploy and control.

The problem just gets worse when you start talking the language of compliance – data control, application security and auditable processes.

The challenge is to provide scalable, robust and secure software which can be built easily and rapidly to solve a “today” problem without causing a “tomorrow” headache.