Incisive

Fig 1 - Test results in Incisive Software Xcellerator

Incisive Software Spreadsheet Management works distinctly differently from many other spreadsheet management solutions. For example, Figure 1 shows a screenshot from Xcellerator in which you have run a series of tests. The results, and the spreadsheet, are displayed using patented overlay technology to highlight the location and severity of the risk associated with each test, and the user has clicked on a result causing a speech bubble to appear showing details of the potential risks.

There are 60+ tests delivered out of the box with Xcellerator, including both structural and link testing, and you can either customise these or build your own. Locator is used for risk scanning and reporting and Concourse for collaboration, version control, and workflows. There are also notification capabilities to alert users when a new version is introduced.

Fig 2 - Incisive Software Spreadsheet Management product architecture

Concourse Gateway works in conjunction with the Concourse server/repository and the Concourse Control Center, as illustrated in Figure 2. Typically, this involves either loading your spreadsheets into a SQL Server or Express database for the tightest control, or letting them remain where they are for ease of use. However, unlike other vendors that either decompose spreadsheets into rows and columns or treat them as pure XML, Incisive Software works on the basis of the entire spreadsheet, its argument being that some things in a spreadsheet don’t get rendered until they are actually opened in Excel.

However, it is pertinent to point out that users have a choice: you can store spreadsheets in a central repository for tighter management, collaboration and so forth, or you can monitor spreadsheets and other EUC assets where they are currently stored. In either case, all revisions are controlled, all can be alerted, and all are configurable without code. The end result is that Concourse can act as a central monitoring platform for your spreadsheets.

Finally, Locator will discover your spreadsheets and assess the risk associated with them. This risk assessment may be based on financial or other business criteria – defined by you – or based on the complexity of the spreadsheet and its links (and therefore its propensity for errors). In any case, you can configure the risk assessment to suit your company needs. A useful further feature is to monitor and report on trends in risk measures, so you can see whether a particular spreadsheet is becoming more or less risky over time. In terms of discovery, you can either search through your spreadsheets and other EUC assets using a selection of criteria or use an existing spreadsheet as a search template and attempt to discover similar assets. You can also use Locator to identify changes to your spreadsheet inventory. In addition, Locator has built-in scheduling and can be configured to constantly poll for changes, providing near real-time visibility into your EUC assets.

Incisive Software distinguishes itself in the way it incorporates its user-facing functionality into Excel directly while maintaining Excel’s original look and feel. This is possible due to its lightweight nature and makes it exceptionally convenient and approachable for its target audience of business users, including all levels of senior risk and finance leaders (who will often be very familiar with Excel to begin with). That it is easy to use in general, that it is highly configurable without requiring any coding ability (it is ‘configurable, not customisable’, in the company’s language), and that it has a small footprint further facilitate its ability to sit with your business users, the upshot of which is that your spreadsheets can be managed by the people who use them the most, and with minimal IT involvement at that.

Further, Incisive Software makes a point of working with your actual spreadsheets. It is therefore able to capture the history of, and provide visibility into, how those spreadsheets have evolved and changed over time. This is more than simple change management in that it is able to provide the historical context for each change. This allows you to get a much clearer picture of the intent behind those changes, and thus the business decisions that were made and the impacts they had. This is especially useful when knowledgeable employees resign, as it allows you to ensure that their knowledge of your spreadsheet history is retained even without their physical presence.

The Bottom Line

Incisive Software offers risk mitigation and improved data quality – and thus greater trust in your data – through the medium of spreadsheet and EUC asset management. Moreover, its emphasis on self-service and ease of use is felt throughout its products.

Figure 1 – Xcellerator screenshot

Incisive primarily differentiates itself in its focus and in the way that it works. For example, Figure 1 shows a screenshot from Xcellerator. What has happened here is that you have run a series of tests (shown in the box on the right) and the results in the spreadsheet have been colour coded to indicate the severity of the risk associated with the error that has been discovered. The user has then clicked on the red error to the left of the spreadsheet and a drill-down has appeared showing details about the problem. Overall, this provides significant ease of use benefits. It is further worth commenting that the navigation underlying this has been patented and the coloured overlays are patent pending. Moreover, the colour coding does not impact on the spreadsheet at all, they are merely overlays.

In practice there are some 40 out of the box tests delivered with Xcellerator, including both structural and link testing, and there is also the ability to customise these or build your own. More generally, Xcellerator works with Locator for risk scanning and reporting (which is done via Excel) and there is a Concourse Gateway for collaboration and check-in/out (version control) and workflow processes that support approval processes prior to the publication of a spreadsheet for wider use. Version control means that you will always be working with the latest version of a spreadsheet. There are also notification capabilities, via either email or RSS feed, to alert users when a new version is introduced.

Figure 2 – The Concourse Gateway

The Concourse Gateway works in conjunction with the Concourse server/repository and the Concourse Control Center, as illustrated in Figure 2. Typically, this involves loading the spreadsheets that you want to put under management control, into a SQL Server or Express database. However, unlike other vendors that either decompose spreadsheets into rows and columns or treat them as pure XML, Incisive works on the basis of the entire spreadsheet, its argument being that some things in a spreadsheet don’t get rendered until they are actually opened in Excel.

However, it is pertinent to point out that users have a choice: you can store spreadsheets in a central repository for tighter management, collaboration and so forth and/or you can monitor spreadsheets where they are currently stored. In either case, all revisions are controlled, all can be alerted, and all are configurable without requiring customised development.

Finally, Locator will discover your spreadsheets for you and allow you to assess the risks (high, medium or low) associated with these risks. This risk assessment may be based on financial or other business criteria – defined by you – or based on the complexity of the spreadsheet and its links (and, therefore, its propensity to have errors). In any case, you can configure the risk assessment to suit your company needs. A useful further feature is to monitor and report on trends in risk measures, so you can see whether a particular spreadsheet is becoming more or less risky over time.

As illustrated, most finance departments don’t know where all their spreadsheets are, that the use of spreadsheets is widespread, that errors within them cost an average of $7Bn annually. Moreover, the advent of new compliance regimes such as GDPR (general data protection regulation) mean that you need to able to discover spreadsheets that contain sensitive personal information. For all these reasons, spreadsheets should be treated as corporate assets in much the same way as any other form of data. And they need to be managed accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Incisive, unlike some other vendors, is focused on mitigating risk and exposure through a focus on the accuracy of data, which will lead to better business decisions. Further, its emphasis is on providing a product suite that you configure rather than customise. A subtle distinction perhaps but one that end users should appreciate, because it all about supporting self-service and ease of use.