Why Do Employees in Companies Repeatedly Use Microsoft Excel or Powerpoint to Manage Business Data and Tasks?
Companies today have a variety of business applications in use. Some for legacy reasons, some for strategic reasons, and some just because they are hip and fun. Most of the time, these applications are not enough to cover all aspects of daily working life. A lot of tasks and data that need to be processed on a daily basis are often managed with Exel and Powerpoint. This is not wrong in general and provides employees a way to prepare business figures in tables or display them clearly in a presentation. But often, these applications are abused for a kind of data management, however, Excel is no database, and Powerpoint is not a messaging tool. The problem is that these tools often collect data that is needed to implement certain business processes and for which there is no suitable application available. In a short time, these solutions become indispensable and are passed down from generation to generation.
What is the Difference Between Business Data and a Business Process?
Now the question is, what is wrong with this situation? The problem comes from the field of computer science and data processing. We often try to describe our environment in an easy way. In other words, we combine the properties of our environment and compare them with each other to find alternatives to react faster. A spreadsheet or database provides a seemingly simple way to do this. But we can only record and document business data. The data is in fact only the basis for achieving a specific business goal, and these goals are represented by business processes within a company. When looking at a business process, we want to see where data came from, how it was processed, and what needs to happen next in order to achieve a business goal.
