Re: Spreadsheets ; Can we do better?
- Posted by irv Jun 07, 2015
- 1644 views
It's amazing how many businesses and organizations mess with a spreadsheet instead of developing a custom database that can save many many man-hours. But, i supposed it's difficult or expensive to find a programmer to write it.
Partly that's because programmers are mostly anti-social. When was the last time a programmer came to your business and introduced him/herself and left a brochure or card?
Another reason is that in order to write a custom app, the programmer needs to understand the task. Which means someone is going to have to explain the task in sufficient detail. In many cases, there is no one who actually understands the task, they just muddle thru until the numbers come out the way management wants. No one wants to admit this.
And, yes, it's expensive. Got to justify a one-time expense. Just doing the job faster and more accurately isn't justification enough, unless the person doing the job is the CEO and your program will free him up so that he can get in another round of golf. (This is a good sales approach sometimes)
If the person doing the job is not the CEO, it's easier to let some poor salaried employee continue to work unpaid overtime until the reports come out right*.
Note: right is not the same thing as accurate. I once wrote a program which surprised everyone by showing that the company was losing money every time they sold a certain item. After several hours of work with paper and calculator, verifying that the numbers were indeed correct, the project suddenly became 'unnecessary'.
