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The great legacy escape: Ditch the spreadsheets, drop the paper

Chad Bond

Spreadsheets and paper — they’re everywhere. Familiar and seemingly reliable, some government teams run their entire operations using Excel files.

Systems that should enable collaboration, data sharing, and real-time decision-making are too often a patchwork of spreadsheets, manually updated by dedicated individuals spread across multiple departments and locations. Individuals whose talent is wasted fixing formulas and trying to stitch together information that should flow freely.

This reliance on spreadsheets is often the weak link in critical systems.

There have been numerous high-profile failures. Remember during Covid when the NHS’s “Test and Trace” system crashed due to hitting a row limit on the underlying spreadsheet?

At Zaizi, we’ve worked on several projects where we helped teams avoid the pitfalls that spreadsheets and paper create. We worked with a Home Office team to get rid of their legacy spreadsheet system and implemented a modern digital solution.

We see firsthand the positive impact digitisation has on users — when their latent potential is unlocked from the drudgery of cleansing and entering data. It’s rewarding to see them apply the creativity and acumen that they were employed for; interrogating and synthesising data to make positive interventions in the real world.

The positive outcomes often extend beyond immediate process improvements to slightly less tangible (and harder to capture in a spreadsheet) factors, such as improved staff morale and more effective management interventions.

It’s no understatement to say that some of the most impactful work we’ve done has involved migrating users off a spreadsheet. It’s not the sexy side of digital transformation but there is an immense sense of pride in every spreadsheet that we archive.

Find out: How we helped government organisations get rid of their spreadsheets and paper

Artificial intelligence vs Organic intelligence 

Unsurprisingly, we hear lots about the potential of generative AI and its ability to cut through complexity and make sense of all the noise.

AI has the potential to be a game changer. And we at Zaizi are helping organisations integrate AI into their workflows.

But we also need to make the most of the Organic Intelligence available within organisations.

If you have people outside of finance and accounting roles spending large portions of their time filling in spreadsheets, you probably aren’t making the most of the talent you already have — or the tools now available to support them.

These manual systems and processes slow teams down and distract teams from more high-impact work. That’s why we have run several Transformation Days for government clients to find a clear path towards smarter, more effective ways of working.

There’s a need in government for faster decision-making, more effective policy development, and better coordination between departments. The rhetoric has always been there. But progress has been patchy.

It’s a familiar pattern that urgently needs to change if government is to keep pace with the world it’s trying to shape.

What’s next?

About the author

Chad Bond has extensive experience delivering digital services to government departments, impacting over 22 million users in the UK and achieving £2.3bn through better approaches to technology.

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