Whether you are an expert or a novice, the work you currently do with Excel can be done in half the time. Not only that, the quality can be increased greatly. Better quality includes reduction of errors, improved presentation and greater confidence in the figures.

Slash IT development costs. With the right balance of user involvement and skilled support, many smaller IT developments can be done at a fraction of the cost and time ?and with minimal risk of failure. Empower users and engage continuous improvement.

Do your own savings/improvement calculation:
Take one department that uses Excel extensively, count the users (let’s say ten), estimate the % time spent using Excel (say, 50%), add a rate per day (US$500 is low) and number of workdays per year (220). Then, multiply:

10 x 50% x $500 x 220=$550K

You could get so much more out of that investment. How?

Do you think sending people on training courses will achieve improvement savings of that magnitude? How about getting external consultants to develop professional Excel applications for you? These activities will have an impact, but are unlikely to double productivity. In brief, there are five things needed:

(i) Conventions and best practice. Excel users spend a fair proportion of time trying to understand spreadsheets. Conventions and best practice considerably reduce that comprehension time, reduce errors and eliminate waste (scrapping and rebuilding).
(ii) ESP Excel add-in software. Many aspects of building and working with spreadsheets can be sped up enormously. There are many standard components to all spreadsheets. ESP provides those components to cut development time to a fraction.
(iii) Mentoring and training. What percent of learning on a training course is forgotten by the next day? Perhaps 90%? Of what is remembered, hurdles frequently stymie implementation. The net result: often, the training is wasted. We propose mentoring as a solution: having an expert spend, say, 30 minutes, on a regular basis, at the desk of each Excel user. Problems get solved, hurdles overcome, memory jogged, tips imparted, training needs evaluated and projects for automation identified. Instigate a mentoring programme and supplement with short training courses.
(iv) Automation. There are many small and large tasks that can be automated. Frequently, time needed for the task reduces to a few percent.
(v) Empowerment. Motivate and make use of staff to implement many IT developments. With additional skills and expert mentoring support, so much more can be achieved. Retention of key personnel will shoot up as staff members take advantage of the learning environment. Who doesn’t want to learn?

EPeP stands for Excel Productivity Enhancement Programme. It is not use of a single product or service, but a holistic programme that is weakened if elements are omitted. An integral part of EPeP is the use of conventions and best practices.