When it comes to capturing product information, many companies use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. And why not? Both apps are basically free, easy to use, and super flexible. But Excel isn’t just something reserved for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Even large companies use Excel with sophisticated macros to mimic complex relationship lookups. While many companies can continue using Excel to manage product data, there are many limitations with Excel that can undermine the success of your company’s products.
Visibility into Changes
When you update product data in spreadsheets, it’s extremely difficult to know what’s changed from one version to another. How do you also know which version of your spreadsheet is the right one to use? And once you need to share a file with someone else, it’s nearly impossible for them to determine which version of the spreadsheet they should be using. If you use workarounds like macros, comments or color-coding, you also need to be sure everyone is using the same version of Excel that you are; otherwise, some of your workarounds may be lost in translation.
Customer Insights
Any time you make a product change, it’s critical to know what the impact is in the field, especially with customers. Unfortunately, Excel is a standalone tool that provides no integration to customer or partner data. Instead, you should ideally track the relationship between customers, product revisions, and partners, so you can take appropriate action.
Change Approvals
If you need to have people approve changes, the most common method is to email a spreadsheet to everyone. But even if you have all the right people on the email thread, your email may get lost in people’s inboxes. Tracking approval history via email adds to the hassle of email approvals. Instead of email, you should rely on a centralized change approval system.
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