Incisive

Fig 1 - Test results in Incisive Software Xcellerator

Incisive Software Spreadsheet Management works distinctly differently from many other spreadsheet management solutions. For example, Figure 1 shows a screenshot from Xcellerator in which you have run a series of tests. The results, and the spreadsheet, are displayed using patented overlay technology to highlight the location and severity of the risk associated with each test, and the user has clicked on a result causing a speech bubble to appear showing details of the potential risks.

There are 60+ tests delivered out of the box with Xcellerator, including both structural and link testing, and you can either customise these or build your own. Locator is used for risk scanning and reporting and Concourse for collaboration, version control, and workflows. There are also notification capabilities to alert users when a new version is introduced.

Fig 2 - Incisive Software Spreadsheet Management product architecture

Concourse Gateway works in conjunction with the Concourse server/repository and the Concourse Control Center, as illustrated in Figure 2. Typically, this involves either loading your spreadsheets into a SQL Server or Express database for the tightest control, or letting them remain where they are for ease of use. However, unlike other vendors that either decompose spreadsheets into rows and columns or treat them as pure XML, Incisive Software works on the basis of the entire spreadsheet, its argument being that some things in a spreadsheet don’t get rendered until they are actually opened in Excel.

However, it is pertinent to point out that users have a choice: you can store spreadsheets in a central repository for tighter management, collaboration and so forth, or you can monitor spreadsheets and other EUC assets where they are currently stored. In either case, all revisions are controlled, all can be alerted, and all are configurable without code. The end result is that Concourse can act as a central monitoring platform for your spreadsheets.

Finally, Locator will discover your spreadsheets and assess the risk associated with them. This risk assessment may be based on financial or other business criteria – defined by you – or based on the complexity of the spreadsheet and its links (and therefore its propensity for errors). In any case, you can configure the risk assessment to suit your company needs. A useful further feature is to monitor and report on trends in risk measures, so you can see whether a particular spreadsheet is becoming more or less risky over time. In terms of discovery, you can either search through your spreadsheets and other EUC assets using a selection of criteria or use an existing spreadsheet as a search template and attempt to discover similar assets. You can also use Locator to identify changes to your spreadsheet inventory. In addition, Locator has built-in scheduling and can be configured to constantly poll for changes, providing near real-time visibility into your EUC assets.

Incisive Software distinguishes itself in the way it incorporates its user-facing functionality into Excel directly while maintaining Excel’s original look and feel. This is possible due to its lightweight nature and makes it exceptionally convenient and approachable for its target audience of business users, including all levels of senior risk and finance leaders (who will often be very familiar with Excel to begin with). That it is easy to use in general, that it is highly configurable without requiring any coding ability (it is ‘configurable, not customisable’, in the company’s language), and that it has a small footprint further facilitate its ability to sit with your business users, the upshot of which is that your spreadsheets can be managed by the people who use them the most, and with minimal IT involvement at that.

Further, Incisive Software makes a point of working with your actual spreadsheets. It is therefore able to capture the history of, and provide visibility into, how those spreadsheets have evolved and changed over time. This is more than simple change management in that it is able to provide the historical context for each change. This allows you to get a much clearer picture of the intent behind those changes, and thus the business decisions that were made and the impacts they had. This is especially useful when knowledgeable employees resign, as it allows you to ensure that their knowledge of your spreadsheet history is retained even without their physical presence.

The Bottom Line

Incisive Software offers risk mitigation and improved data quality – and thus greater trust in your data – through the medium of spreadsheet and EUC asset management. Moreover, its emphasis on self-service and ease of use is felt throughout its products.