Efficiency and Collaboration Proposal

Efficiency and Collaboration Proposal

Party Plates currently operates with Microsoft Excel as the key tool in tracking the company's personnel data. Excel is a very beneficial tool with many ways to sort, filter, and view data; however, as Party Plates grows, Excel becomes too micro-level for the business. Excel limits data collaboration to several spreadsheets housing similar data, but configures in multiple ways to ensure each spreadsheet has a benefit. For higher levels of data gathering and sharing, Excel often requires large amounts of data, immense formulas, and pivot tables to display basic dashboards necessary for company leadership. To address this antiquated method of data gathering and sharing, migrating to Microsoft Access is a plausible solution.

Migrating from Excel to Access has many benefits with only a few drawbacks. Please review the following table comparing Excel and Access:

Excel Access

Multiple spreadsheets to toggle between Ability to link multiple Excel spreadsheets from one Access database and search for specific criteria in a view configurable by the user

Multiple spreadsheets housing overlapping data Overlapping data can be linked while searching for key elements for the business

Large file sizes Linking files together reduces the size of the database

Requires moderate to advanced Excel knowledge to configure formulas and pivot tables to link multiple spreadsheets Basic Access knowledge allows a user to link spreadsheets together for general purposes

Several spreadsheets already exist Access can link to Excel so the current spreadsheets still have a use

Familiar to the majority of employees Similar to Excel, but requires some learning

One of the benefits of using Microsoft Access in the work environment is that it is helping Party Plates stay on top of many aspects of the business. Microsoft Access helps the business keep track of customers, employees, revenue, expenses and even market trends. In addition, Access is similar to using spreadsheets. As with Excel, Access can store data such as customer information, however; Access is different in that it creates a "unique ID, such as a Customer ID, which distinguishes one record from another within a table" (www.office.com, 2011). By having an ID number to identify multiple data, employees can track customers and make any updates necessary.

The advantage of using Microsoft Access in the work environment is the ability to manage the company's data more efficiently (www.ericsissom.com, 2011). Access is a database that can store large amounts of data, which is very beneficial to a company such as Paper Plates. Once the database has been learned by the employees,