Escaping Excel Hell - Add-Ins for Excel

In an earlier article I mentioned that there are three principle ways to escape Excel hell.

The first is to make better use of the version you have, or upgrade to Excel 2010.


The second is to replace it with a database or specialist software such as budgeting/reporting.

The third is to use add-ins or integration. Looking at add-ins, there are several that are worth evaluating:

1. For dashboards: Excel gauges from Pendragon Systems, as in the graphic above. Click here for this example and a free trial.
2. For graphics: Sparklines for Excel (SfE)
3. For business intelligence – analysis and reporting: PowerOLAP 9 using Excel as a front end, from BIOLAP in the UK
4. For statutory accounts production: VT Final Accounts
   

If anyone has hands-on experience of any of these tools, good or painful, please comment. Likewise if there are any other favourites or best-to-avoids! Suppliers are equally welcome to comment.

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Social Networking – Facebook at the Limits (Privacy Advice)

When you take Facebook too far ....

How would you feel if your picture was in a national newspaper under the headline “I set up the Moat Facebook tributes”? That was what befell Siobhan O’Dowd, left, this morning after using Facebook to glorify the killer gunman Raoul Moat.

It reminds me of advice given at a talk I heard on Business Ethics: “Before doing anything in business or personally, imagine what it would look like on the front page of the Times”. Many business people over the years have failed to do this!

But this story also highlights how Facebook, and social media in general, is taking such a key part in our lives.

Siobhan is reported as saying she set up the Facebook “wall” simply for a few friends, not to glorify Moat’s actions, but how he had evaded police for so long.

She took down the page last night. But not before she had attracted some 38000 followers, dozens of “offensive” comments, the fury of the Prime Minister, and a host of other problems she and her daughter will probably regret for the rest of their lives. Had she followed the advice on Facebook privacy? I doubt it.

The other interesting aspect is that Facebook refused to take the wall down themselves. Their terms prohibit anything illegal, specifically anything that incites violence. Apparently there was no such breach.

Whilst at least one national newspaper has said they obviously support free speech, they thought Facebook should nonetheless hang their heads in shame. But what if Facebook started taking down users’ walls willy nilly? The press would lay into them for that as well.

Your views?

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Performance Management - Types of KPIs

Talking to businesses of all sizes, the term “KPIs” means different things to different people.

Yes the letters stand for “Key Performance Indicators”.

But some people just think of them as revenue, profit and other measures of performance. Is that all?

The real power comes when you consider what factors drive business performance, and how these can be measured. These can be both financial and non-financial.

Indeed it’s worth splitting KPis into two camps:

1. KRMs - Key Results Metrics
2. KPDs – Key Performance Drivers (the true KP “Indicators”)

I published a series of articles previously, which explore this distinction and the issues around them in greater detail. If you are interested, the articles can be found here

Cloud Computing - Hot Air or Business Reality?

Cloud computing is BIG BENEFITS, BIG RISKS.

See recent article Hot Air or Business Reality?

Weekly Review - iPhones and Norton Web Safe

iPhone 4 vs 3GS

You’ve probably already seen reports of the new iPhone 4’s problems with its antenna. This results in poor connectivity, especially for left-handed people.

Being right-handed, and with a Nokia N95 ready to be upgraded, I popped into my local mobile phone shops this last week to see what all the fuss is about.

As the iPhone 4 is not yet generally available until near the end of July, I could only find a demo model. Uncomfortable to hold, with sharp edges on the metal ring around the phone. The iPhone 4 is supposed to have a clearer screen, but I actually found the descriptions of the icons easier to read on the 3GS.

Now the 3GS is available with the same operating system (IOS4) as the iPhone 4, is there any good reason to pay extra for the iPhone 4?

This is Apple’s official comparison. Yes the picture resolution of 5MP (which my N95 has), the iPhone 3 does not have a camera flash gun (which my N95 has), and the iPhone 4 also has HD-quality video capture. There are a few other advantages of the 4 over the 3GS.

So it would have to be an iPhone 4, rather than 3GS, to be a complete “upgrade” on my N95. Reports of the multi-tasking in IOS4 suggest it’s not as good as on other manufacturers’ phones. Looks like I need wait for v2 of the iPhone 4, assuming it fixes these issues.

In the meantime, does anyone who has used both a 3GS and 4 wish they hadn’t changed? If so, why?


“Norton Safe Web Lite”

I was busily minding my own business a few days ago when a window appeared on my PC asking whether I wanted to install Norton’s “Safe Web Lite”.

As a Norton user (OK I know, I know), this was likely to be just an extra service. But I’m always sceptical of any software that purports to fix a security problem, and I hadn’t heard anything about it before.

Web searches indicated the software has been in public beta testing since February, whilst they built a database of “safe” and “unsafe” internet sites, and finished in June. This last week the software went on general release.

Whilst anyone can install the software for free, to automatically warn you if accessing an unsafe site, there is also a free manual facility to check on sites.

It’s worth checking out a few sites, including your own.

Whilst it's good to be warned about truly troublesome sites, what if your own website gets branded “unsafe”? There is a “re-evaluation” process, for website owners, but they are talking around 2 weeks. That could be 2 weeks’ lost business, and a struggle to re-gain trust thereafter.

I took a well-known website at random, www.bt.com. It’s given a green “safe” tick, but a “Community Rating” of only 3.7 out of 5. Why? There have been only three reviews, two of which gave 5 out of 5. The third is 1 out of 5, as apparently “anonymous” took exception to some small bit of wording on the website. What would happen if there were to be a concerted attack on a website by a group of activists?

Perhaps the lawyers out there could comment on Norton’s liability to website owners in the event of malicious or erroneous site ratings?

Perhaps someone could also tell me if Norton are trying to make any money out of this service. Are there plans for a full fat version? Does a site owner have to pay for re-evaluation, for example?

For legitimate website owners Web Safe Lite service is a two-edged sword – potentially making the internet more trust-worthy, to the benefit of legitimate operators - but with the risk of being unfairly branded “unsafe”. Views?

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