Nearly every business starts simple. I’m sure that statement brings to mind various examples. It’s often a challenge to update things that were once simple and effective to support a growing and increasingly complex business. I’m sure you can think of some instances where this has happened.

I want to focus on situations where an organisation relies heavily on spreadsheets or databases for day-to-day operations. It could be one or two Access databases, a Google Sheet instead of an Excel file, or any other type of spreadsheet or database. I have observed businesses of all sizes using these tools, which have become essential but present certain challenges over time.

Where do these tools come from? Sometimes, a startup uses the tools they have on hand to organise and operate their new business. These tools work well initially and allow a small team to manage complicated tasks, such as delivery tracking or order fulfilment. Keeping costs low is important, and finding an existing system that fits the business perfectly might be tough. However, as organisations grow, they refine and perfect their processes. Naturally, these processes change over time as the business becomes more efficient at what it does.

In a large organisation, individual teams or departments may create spreadsheets or databases to assist in fulfilling their specific roles within the broader company. These tools are used for finance operations, shift management, manufacturing, and customer service. While these resources are crucial for the teams that utilise them, they can become obstacles or issues during periods of expansion or reorganisation, often remaining unknown to the broader organisation.

Digital transformation or Legacy Modernisation?

Both! You’re in the process of modernising a legacy system (a spreadsheet) that has served its purpose well but is now showing its age. It may need to scale more effectively to support your growth. Simultaneously, you’re transforming the functions performed by the spreadsheet into a mix of automation, applications, and web portals – utilising whatever is necessary to accomplish the task.

Additionally, you have the opportunity to refine the capabilities of the old spreadsheet. You can improve and automate processes such as sending emails or notifications, implementing a small mobile application for your staff, or creating a customer portal. While all of this is feasible, it’s vital to prioritise your time and financial resources to get the core functions right before incorporating too many additional features.

Some things that may be crossing your mind

You may be wondering about costs and security. While there are potential pitfalls, the returns are often worth the effort. I’ve organised the most common points into the categories below.

Cost

The decision to invest in a custom software system involves various costs. These include the cost of creating and owning the system, replacing the existing spreadsheet with off-the-shelf systems, and even doing nothing.

While it may be initially amusing to consider the implications, the fact that the current Excel spreadsheet is causing issues suggests that exploring alternative solutions is warranted. Quantifying these costs can be challenging. While it’s feasible to calculate the potential time savings from automation or the increased business efficiency from customer interaction through a portal, there are also subtler impacts to consider. For example, a customer-facing system can enhance your professional image and streamline processes.

Consider this scenario: Which would you choose if you were deciding between two tradesmen—one using a phone calendar and the other with an online system providing real-time updates on their arrival? A streamlined operation not only allows you to manage more business but also has the potential to attract and retain customers.

Furthermore, the cost of off-the-shelf systems should be evaluated. If your current spreadsheet fulfils common business needs such as CRM or order management, a cost-effective subscription-based system may suffice, even if it’s not an exact fit. However, the cumulative expense of multiple systems should be taken into account.

Finally, there’s the cost of a custom system, which varies based on numerous factors. Similar to building a house, the price is influenced by specific requirements. Despite concerns, the cost of obtaining the necessary system may be less daunting than expected.

Security

I will assume you want whatever you end up using to be secure. That includes your spreadsheet, too—I hope! A spreadsheet on a network drive at the office? Ransomware (imagine some scary noises when I said that). A spreadsheet on 365 or Google Workspace? Credential theft or account takeover (crash of thunder). An online system? Hacktivists with a wiper.

Back to reality, whatever you decide to do to replace the spreadsheet needs to be secure and well-architected to be as resilient as possible. To this end, we have our own in-house security consultant who makes sure everyone is well-informed and suitably cautious.

If you talk to a potential development partner and start asking about security but don’t get a good feeling, or they can’t talk specifics with you, it’s worth a deeper look. A second opinion never hurts, and we do a surprising amount of “peace of mind” consulting in this area.

Is a custom software solution the right thing for me?

That’s a great question. Each option (doing nothing, going bespoke, or using off-the-shelf solutions) has pros and cons. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and choosing the option that best suits your situation is important.

Opting for a bespoke solution can be beneficial for several reasons. One common reason is that existing solutions need to meet your unique needs. A bespoke solution may be the best fit if you have a specific spreadsheet that works perfectly for you. Another advantage is that it can give you a competitive edge regarding operational efficiency and customer experience. Additionally, you may prefer investing in a custom solution rather than relying on various Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings.

However, bespoke solutions may only be suitable for some situations. If your needs align with existing solutions and there are no other compelling reasons for a custom solution, an off-the-shelf CRM system might be the right choice. Combining two SaaS solutions could also be acceptable if they align closely with your work processes and are not customer-facing.

Alternatively, you can maintain the status quo or make minor adjustments to your current processes to enable continuity. This could involve using multiple copies of a spreadsheet for different regions or teams or involving more people.

Owning a custom software system

This is all about ensuring that your web application and mobile app are properly hosted and maintained. It’s not necessarily free, but it mustn’t be overly expensive. You might have options with your IT department or with a partner company. Regardless of how you set things up, you’ll need to make ongoing efforts to keep everything running smoothly. This could involve updating dependencies and platforms, testing to ensure updates haven’t caused issues, and making small tweaks or additions. You might eventually want to have your own team take over maintenance and make minor changes.

As your business grows, you should expand the capabilities of your systems. Sometimes, simple systems work so well that they can be used for years without problems.

That was a long introduction.

Yes, it was! I plan to write a series of blog posts that address some of the issues covered above in more detail, with examples. We enjoy working with clients of all shapes and sizes, and one of our founding aims was to bring these types of systems and transformations to everyone, including smaller organisations that have often been overlooked by suppliers who are always after the next big catch.

So, with the (long) introduction over, let’s look at a real example. I’ve chosen a system we built to solve a spreadsheet problem for a smaller organisation, without breaking the bank, that promised to transform them fundamentally.

Trucking hell

Let’s start with some background information. It’s about a small business that specialises in providing HGV drivers to a growing number of logistics/haulage firms. They have contracts with their customers, who request drivers for certain shifts. Some of the work is regular, while some is ad-hoc. The operations team keeps track of upcoming work in a spreadsheet and then uses their knowledge of their drivers to match them with the available shifts.

This process involves a lot of phone calls, text messages, and WhatsApp messages to the drivers to confirm their availability for bookings. As not all drivers work regular hours, and there are also language barriers, this manual process becomes extremely time-consuming and is difficult to scale efficiently.

The primary goal of this project is to eliminate the pain points for the operations team when organising drivers for jobs. There are also other reasons to move away from the current spreadsheet-based system. Not only will it improve efficiency, but it will also lead to better data consistency, security, scalability, and integration with other services.

The system

Fast forward a bit – imagine a movie where you get some nifty music and a montage of people getting things done… discussions with the firm, proposal, documentation, writing code, testing, and voila!

We built a system with two components: a web application for the firm’s operations team to use instead of the spreadsheet and a mobile application for the drivers to have on their phones.

It’s worth noting why we chose to create a mobile application. Typically, a mobile-friendly web application would suffice and be more manageable and cost-effective. However, our decision to make a mobile app was driven by the following reasons:

1. Push notifications for drivers were advantageous.
2. In the future, we could potentially add functionality for drivers to work offline, which is not possible with a web app.
3. Having a mobile app for our drivers added a certain level of prestige.

The system allows the operations team to manage customers and their sites, drivers, and, of course, jobs and scheduling. The crux of this is a calendar-based schedule view that connects the operations team directly with drivers. When a new job is added to the schedule, they nominate a driver who immediately gets a push notification on his phone. The driver then opens the app and sees the job details before accepting or declining it. As soon as this has happened, the schedule automatically updates for the operations team. The system keeps track of customer sites and which areas the drivers are able to cover, ensuring that there’s no chance of mix-ups when matching drivers to jobs.

As an extra benefit, drivers could enter their unavailability into the mobile app (holidays, time off, etc.), which simplified keeping track of availability for the operations team. By digitising the system, the operations team also had access to a searchable customer database complete with customer sites and contacts. The data captured in the system is also guaranteed to be of consistent quality. Customers and sites are now selected from the system rather than being typed in or copy-pasted around a spreadsheet, and driver details are all centrally stored.

The system provides a massive decrease in the operations team’s overhead. No more having to keep conversation threads with drivers on the go and mentally match them up to jobs. Instead, there’s a unified (but filterable) schedule view, with visual cues as to which jobs are allocated to a driver and which aren’t. The system can be securely accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing more flexible working and scaling options for the operations team and the drivers.

Wrapping up

This relatively simple system could make a massive difference to many organisations. Small transformations that effectively target pain points like this one often have large benefits and don’t have to break the bank.

This simple system provides a clear return on investment and a solid foundation for future work. Vehicle checks using the driver’s app (photos and all!), invoice generation, more reporting, driver timesheet management – any of these could be the next pinch point to solve.