Spreadsheets in business

The commercial spreadsheet is 21 years old and is now a commonplace business tool. To assess its impact on today's modern business, this paper presents research based on a questionnaire survey of 227 respondents drawn from a range of business disciplines, and at various levels within their organisations. The results suggests that over 80 per cent are regular spreadsheet users, with Excel being the dominant spreadsheet. However, while its use in a variety of business applications is apparent, often only relatively low-level features of the spreadsheet are utilised. Limited and inappropriate training persists and it is argued that unless this issue is embraced and appropriate resources channelled into developing expertise in this area, companies are unlikely to fully capitalise on the potential of the spreadsheet to encourage knowledge transfer and enhance workplace performance.