Excel stands out as the premier spreadsheet software in business. The primary purpose of Excel is to automate various complex business calculations. This makes it a tool that can be set-up and then left to handle the daily work on its own. This often means it’s not cost-effective to have a regular staff dedicated to implementing excel projects. On the other hand, it’s an extremely powerful piece of software. It requires expertise to realize its full potential. It’s not something that can be handled as a side-project by just anybody. Making maximum use of this software takes the skills only Excel consulting can provide. Bespoke consultancy has proven itself as a top performer in the consultancy field. They can get a project up and running quickly and efficiently.
To get a better idea of why Excel consulting is needed to develop a project, consider some of the features of Excel. Not only does this software have the basic capacity to handle around 1 million rows and over 16,000 columns of data that can be configured, through functions and macros, in any manner, it also has pivot tables that can multiply the total amount of data beyond this level. Excel can also interact with other Microsoft packages like Power Point, Office, and Word. Bringing these different elements together can take office automation to a higher level. The key to achieving this is Visual Basic for Applications, often known simply as VBA. This is a full-fledged programming language, contained in Excel, that greatly expands its abilities. It’s not something a member of the accounting department is going to learn in their spare time. VBA makes Excel a powerhouse in its own right, and it seamlessly ties it together with the other previously mentioned programs. Data can flow from a Word document into Excel, where it can be refined and turned into an understandable pie chart or bar graph.
Of course, to create the code that allows excel to accomplish this requires knowledge of business practices. It takes not only a detailed understanding of Excel’s capabilities, but thorough knowledge of formulas and modeling used in business operations. Statistical analysis, marketing projection, and accounting procedures are just as important as experience with VBA in harnessing the power of Excel. A capable Excel consulting firm has to grasp formulas dealing with profit ratios or marketing trends as easily as managing databases. The consultant has to be able to communicate with the business and turn their desires into working models. There is no shortage of people who know Excel programming with no knowledge of anything else. This is as bad as an employee with no in-depth experience of VBA. The combination of business and programming know-how produces results that are very user-friendly for the employees.
