Aquent/AMA Webcast featuring Dan Neff from Aquent\'s IT Solutions Group

1. Theseslidesarefrom
the5/29/08webcast:
ManagingYour
ExcelAddiction.

2. Aquent is the only global staffing company dedicated to
marketing and creative services organizations
20 years of helping marketing and creative organizations find the right Talent
Our customers are industry leaders
90 of the Fortune 100
2/3 of the Fortune 500
Other Services
Consulting
Training
Outsourcing
Translation
IT Solutions
Offices to help you across the globe
Nearly 70 offices in 17 countries
40 offices in major metros across North America
Contact us
aquent.com
877 227 8368

3. Or…when it comes to marketing
analytics projects, is your
department running around with
their hair on fire?
Managing your
Excel Addiction

4. Agenda
• Name the problem
• Recognize the symptoms
• Typical scenario
• Understand the addiction
• How to fix the problem
• Take aways
• Survey
• Q&A
• Roundtable invitation

5. Name the problem
EXCEL ADDICTION or EXCEL HELL

6. Recognize the symptoms
Rapidly increasing
demand for
measurement
Difficulty in getting
support from IT
Excel picked because
of skill set not best
technology fit
Just do it in Excel –
Quickly!
You lack confidence in
the results

7. Understand the addiction
Excel is a powerful, user-friendly tool but . . .
Not a data management tool
Version control
Often too manual
The analytics group is swamped
Good analysts are in short supply
New analyses are requested all the time with short notice
Everything is top priority
There is insufficient time to fully explore the problem
No time is left to help interpret the meaning
Once an “Excel solution” is found, there is no time to
evolve the analysis to a more sustainable platform

8. Why you need to fix the problem
Provide the highest level of value that you can
Eliminate confusion
One version of the truth
Better understanding of the value being delivered to the
business
Repeatable results
Deliver actionable information
Better use of resources & assets
Less frustration and turnover in the team

9. How to fix the problem
• Understand your organization’s maturity
• Get control of your workload
• Documentation is key
• Analyses have a lifecycle
• Use your resources in the most powerful way
• Make sure you have the right mix of skills
• Change the way data is managed & perceived
• Increase communications
• Manage your assets

10. Understand your organization’s maturity
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INITIAL
REPEATABLE
DEFINED
MANAGED
OPTIMIZED

11. Get control of your workload
Sensible intake process
What is the business problem?
What business strategy is it supporting?
What is your current capacity?
What priority is this new work relative to the current
work?
Turn off low-value work
What is the current value of producing each report?
Does the original requestor still need it?
Use “subscription” method
No one “owns” turning off an on-going analysis

12. Documentation is key
What to document
Data sources
Cleansing methods
Filtering methods
Calculations
Validations
Repeating issues
Why to document
Better understanding of the work
Repeatability
Resource portability
Basis for automation – if justified

13. Analyses have a lifecycle
FEEDBACK
(Improvement
or retirement)
InitiationInitiation
RequirementsRequirements
DesignDesign
DevelopmentDevelopment
ExecutionExecution
Automation (if justified)
}

14. Use your resources in the most powerful way
Senior analysts need to be focused on what they do best –
requirements, design and development
Too many senior analysts are caught in the execution of on-
going analyses
If well documented, on-going execution can be passed to junior
analysts with oversight from the senior analyst
Make your senior people leaders
Develop your junior people into future leaders
Job enrichment across the board
If justified, the analysis should be automated
Use multi-disciplinary teams

15. Make sure you have the right mix of skills
Marketing is getting progressively more technical
Often there is too much focus on marketing expertise and not
enough on technical skills
Include some technical people in your team
Data management
Data warehousing
Developers
Project managers

16. Change the way data is managed &
perceived
Data sources are used in many
analyses
Define a lead analyst to be the
expert for each source
Understand it intimately
Understand how it is changing
and what the change means to
your business
Stop blind-siding analysts with
changes
Who owns the data?

17. Increase communications
External
Understanding the business problems
What do the results mean to the business?
Involvement and feedback from the business
Internal
Common language
Improve standardization
Talk about repeating issues – share lessons learned
Why is a given method used . . . not just how to do it

18. Manage your assets
If you spend a lot of time locating assets or the versions of
assets, it is valuable manage them better
If an analyst disappears on you, can you find the assets they
were using and producing?
Can you quickly locate the reports from last month or last
quarter? Can your customer find them on their own?
Recommendation: develop a Sharepoint portal
You probably already have it
Manage and share files
Implement an intake process
Track feedback
Capture standards

19. Take aways for Analytics & Department Managers
Understand your department’s maturity
Ensure your team is producing the greatest possible value to the
organization
Move steadily forward building accuracy, repeatability and efficiency –
this is mostly about process
Use your senior analysts in the most powerful way
Build new senior analysts over time by providing a clear career path
Reuse your lessons learned
Analysis lifecycle
Provide your internal customers more insight into what the data is
telling you – rather than just producing a report

20. Take Aways for Senior Analysts
Understand your department’s maturity
Pass repetitive work to junior talent
Always understand the business objectives behind any
request for analysis
Documentation of requirements and analysis method
Enable tiering
Increase quality and repeatability
Change the way you think about technology
Spend more time on the exciting work

21. Best practices group forming
Aquent’s IT Solutions group is conducting a series of no-cost best
practice round-tables and interactive conference calls for companies
seeking to escape their Excel Addiction.
To participate, please complete the survey located at…
http://public.aquent-it-solutions.com/Pages/mayama.aspx
Or contact Dan Neff via email (dneff@aquent-it-solutions.com) for an
invitation.