Apparity

Fig 1 - Asset inventory in the Registration module

Apparity’s Discovery module scans your system to detect the EUC applications in your system, as well as any metadata associated with those applications and any common problems within them. The criteria your applications need to meet to be classed as an EUC are configurable and are particularly expansive in the case of spreadsheets. Discovery scans can be executed on an ad hoc basis or scheduled, and incremental scanning is supported (meaning that only changed or new files will be looked at).

In addition, Apparity Fingerprint attaches a unique ID to each EUC asset in order to track it wherever it goes. This remains with all subsequent versions of that asset, which can then be tracked by the software wherever it goes. It doesn’t matter if it’s renamed, copied, moved, or whatever, the fingerprint will remain, and the asset will still be trackable.

Moreover, the Discovery module includes the ability to detect new EUC assets at the point of creation, allowing you to shift users towards IT-managed platforms instead. A dashboard for analysing the results of your scans, and for ‘flagging’ new EUC apps as they are created, is also available, as are usage/impact assessment and data lineage.

Fig 2 - Integrity check using the Active Management module

The Registration module does what it says, allowing you to register EUC applications to the platform using an assessment wizard in order to add them to an EUC inventory. They can then be managed by applying the appropriate controls (in other words, onboarded) within the Active Management module. Once an application is registered and onboarded, any configured controls (policies, for instance) will then be applied to it, as you would expect. You can also measure exposed risk and check file integrity using the Active Management module.

Various other functionality is available, including spreadsheet and database version comparisons, excess format analysis (used to detect and prune excess empty space, a particularly useful quality in the cloud), and the Model Map Explorer, which provides a real-time view of your entire EUC app population and its upstream and downstream connections with other file types (allowing for complex model impact analysis and an easier exploration of risks associated with data flows). Apparity has also integrated its solution with various third-party governance, risk and compliance (GRC) products, such as RSA Archer and IBM OpenPages, as well as with human resources systems.

Apparity’s combination of source code management and fingerprinting means that you do not need to centralize all of your spreadsheets and other EUC assets into specific folders, and you do not have the upheaval and expense of relying on relational databases. This is an attractive prospect. At the same time, these capabilities are not as a unique as they once were, and no longer provide serious differentiation. We also like that Apparity has integrated with popular GRC solutions, although again this is not unique. Likewise for the fact that it offers its platform as a SaaS.

Rather, for our money, the most meaningful differentiator offered by Apparity is its emphasis on the broader EUC landscape, and not just spreadsheets. Given the increasing use of non-spreadsheet EUC – low-code and no-code platforms come to mind, for instance – this is rather forward looking. More to the point, neglecting to manage your non-spreadsheet EUC assets is a significant risk, in much the same way (though, at least at present, to a lesser extent) as neglecting to manage your spreadsheets.

Another advantage, as already discussed, is that Apparity has been designed to meet the demands of both your regulators and your users. This has resulted in various compelling advancements to its ease of use, without (as, frankly, you would expect) compromising regulatory compliance.

The Bottom Line

Apparity remains a mature and competent, if slightly de rigueur, spreadsheet management solution. At the same time, it has successfully parlayed that solution into an equally competent – and far more exciting – platform for EUC governance.