Dangers of MS Excel

The Register has an article about the dangers of spreadsheet misuse in the business world. Spreadsheets have achieved ubiquity in businesses. There isn't a business manager who could function without them -- and if you're a business manager who functions without them, chances are, you're not a real manager because you don't know you are using them, whether directly or indirectly (and I actually know some these strange beasts). The dangers with spreadsheets isn't the software, but the misuse of the software. Usually no controls governing the information, analysis or computations done within spreadsheets. An indispensable tool that too often is being used to enable critical business processes, spreadsheets also fall into a grey area for support -- most IT organizations could care less about them or their use/misuse. Often IT is busily enforcing controls on the huge ERP packages that business managers couldn't misuse anyway, and completely forget the millions of Excel spreadsheets and Access databases that run the business. PWC and KPMG estimates that 90% of corporate spreadsheets have material errors costing businesses anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per month. Will anything be done about it? Probably not. It's all a matter of control. Business managers are unwilling to give up control of their sacred spreadsheets and the problem is too scary for IT to throw controls over it.

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