The traditional spreadsheet--the original business analytics tool--is being replaced as business intelligence technologies proliferate in an era of globalization and collaboration. Computerworld's Sandra Gittlen takes a look at the spreadsheet alternatives that several companies have recently adopted.

The old data maintenance and analysis routine at the Thule Group may sound familiar: "We had one person in accounting who kept all the data as up-to-date as possible, including departmental expenses that outlined the costs of running the factory," said Mark Cohen, vice president for Finance at the Thule Group. "However, it wasn't unusual for it to take a week to consolidate cross-company information, and it wasn't unusual to discover that what managers were looking at wasn't the final spreadsheet," he told Computerworld.

The company's Vehicle Solutions North America division, a seasonal operation, couldn't tolerate out-of-date figures, however, and in 2008 Cohen replaced the old spreadsheets with a software-as-a-service package from Host Analytics Inc. The package enables users to create and review business data in real time, and it gives them mobile access to the data as well.

Executives at Utah Flash were similarly frustrated with using spreadsheets, particularly for tasks involving the customer database. Updates were done in a piecemeal fashion, and the information was perennially out-of-date and sometimes incorrect. The company's president decided to replace the spreadsheet with a CRM tool, SugarCRM. It permits the sales team and other users to enter notes in real time via the web, so data is less likely to slip through the cracks.

For more:
- see Sandra Gittlen's article at Computerworld

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