J
John Holmes
I have been asked to devise a mechanism to display disparate metrics
that relate to departmental performance.
The data will be collected monthly and much of it is subjective. I am
being encouraged to use Excel (2000) to administer the facility but I
have reservations.
As I see it, there are two aspects to the facility. The data entry
which will be performed via appropriate forms. These will enable us to
compile the current mont's dashboard with RAG status for each service
as well as the rolling 12 month charts. Initially, this will be
performed by a designated person who will collate and input data
received by email.
The second part is the reporting part. The audience will be senior
managers and members of the company's Executive.
My concerns are:
1 The workbook will contain VBA to manage the forms and the reports.
Excel's ability to run VBA depends on the user's security settings.
High - it will not run. Medium - they receive a message asking if it
is ok to run the VBA for that xls or; Low - no protection. If they
invoke Low, they will be vulnerable to malicious code.
2 How elegant would it be for several members of the company's most
senior employees to access a common xls file?
I considered saving the graphics from Excel as gif files and then they
could be automatically loaded into Powerpoint to keep the Exec away
from the VBA.
My preferred approach would be to use Access, VB, Graphics Server and
ASP/HTML but the initial indication is that Excel is solution.
Are my concerns valid?
Do you have any observations on this?
that relate to departmental performance.
The data will be collected monthly and much of it is subjective. I am
being encouraged to use Excel (2000) to administer the facility but I
have reservations.
As I see it, there are two aspects to the facility. The data entry
which will be performed via appropriate forms. These will enable us to
compile the current mont's dashboard with RAG status for each service
as well as the rolling 12 month charts. Initially, this will be
performed by a designated person who will collate and input data
received by email.
The second part is the reporting part. The audience will be senior
managers and members of the company's Executive.
My concerns are:
1 The workbook will contain VBA to manage the forms and the reports.
Excel's ability to run VBA depends on the user's security settings.
High - it will not run. Medium - they receive a message asking if it
is ok to run the VBA for that xls or; Low - no protection. If they
invoke Low, they will be vulnerable to malicious code.
2 How elegant would it be for several members of the company's most
senior employees to access a common xls file?
I considered saving the graphics from Excel as gif files and then they
could be automatically loaded into Powerpoint to keep the Exec away
from the VBA.
My preferred approach would be to use Access, VB, Graphics Server and
ASP/HTML but the initial indication is that Excel is solution.
Are my concerns valid?
Do you have any observations on this?