Years ago, customers used to visit the Banks and financial institutions frequently. That created the need to have large and comfortable offices for them to be served. Today, they are making significant efforts to bring the premium customers back to the Bank’s office because they got used to highly efficient communication resources that make it unnecessary to visit the Bank’s office.
Continuously updating the communications channels, using the most current technology, has become an urgent need for Financial Institutions because their customers’ requests are evolving dramatically and there is no chance to stay behind. Excel type spreadsheets are a common tool these days to present and handle financial information and some organizations are feeling a high pressure to present their report by using this format.
Using the correct tools
In past years PDF based documents have become the standard way to present information and lately HTML5 is taking their place because it eliminates the needs for using software installed in the user’s display device.
There is no doubt that HTML5 will continue to grow its presence because it provides also the capability to take advantage of the powerful browsers available today and it is expected that the trend will go further ahead.
Premium customers today, and in the years to come requirements will most likely continue growing, expect to get information in a way that it is not only nicely and clearly presented, but also providing the capability for further use.
Let’s imagine a report for a customer that has important investments in different markets and demanding expectations. That customer will be willing to try different alternatives, and this is when dynamically generated spreadsheet reports will take the lead. Spreadsheet reports can include graphic charts, tables, etc. that can be the base for all sort of projections by modifying the base data source in the sheet.
To provide high quality spreadsheet reports that can be printed or presented on an electronic device and cover all of your customer’s expectations, a high-quality design tool is required and, that tool must be backed up by the corresponding dynamic spreadsheet report generation engine that, using the previously designed templates, can produce, construct and distribute those dynamically generated spreadsheet reports.
The importance of dynamic spreadsheet reports
End-users today are already familiar with powerful tools available in the market, and they continue to demand the use of the state-of-the-art technologies to handle their information. Far behind are the days of the computer printed documents created with pre-printed forms. The technology evolved to allow the use of electronically created documents using APA (All Point Addressable) technology that makes it possible to create very nice-looking documents that included photos, logos, etc., as well as data driven graphics presented as pies, bars, line charts, etc.
When the internet technology was added, documents became electronic and these days we can receive full color, well design documents via email or directly through the web browser.
Nobody would believe that we have already arrived at the end of the road. Evolution is expected to continue providing even more efficient mechanisms for information access and distribution. This technology, all together, created a set of tools that no user would ignore. Dynamically generated spreadsheets are part of this new world that has arrived already and will remain with us.
A bit of spreadsheet history
Certainly spreadsheets are not a recent technology. Already in 1961, a primitive spreadsheet software was outlined by Richard Mattessich in his “Budgeting Models and System Simulation”. However, the IBM 1130 was the first computer to run a spreadsheet software as early as 1962, called back then BCL (Business Computer Language). BCL was ported to the IBM 360/370 in 1968 when it became used to teach finance to business students at the Washington State University. Those software were batch processes, far away from the real-time, fully interactive software that we know these days.
Rene K. Pardo and Remy Landau filed in 1970 the U.S. Patent 4,398,249 on a spreadsheet automatic natural order calculation algorithm. Unfortunately for them, after struggling for more than 25 years with different approvals, rejections and appeals, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declared the patent unenforceable ending the already long battle. However, their software called LANPAR (LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random), developed and implemented in 1969, proved to be very efficient and became widely used by Bell Canada, ATT and many other telephone companies when dealing with their financial planning.
In 1970 one of the IBM Canada’s engineers, Brian Ingham, developed the IBM Financial Planning and Control System which was implemented by IBM in at least 30 countries. Running on IBM mainframes, it was one of the first applications used for financial planning. The power of that software was that, although developed on APL, it had the capability to completely hide the programming language from the end-user.
VisiCalc, implemented by Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin on the Apple II (1979) and the IBM PC (1981) became the first so called “killer application”, meaning that it was so important for the users that they would buy a machine to run it. VisiCalc made the spreadsheet a standard financial tool in the 70’s and 80’s.
Later on Lotus 1-2-3 (1963) appeared with a strong foot in the market, displacing VisiCalc as the standard spreadsheet product. The history repeated, replacing Lotus 1-2-3 with the launch of Microsoft Excel (1985) that incorporated the complete WYSIWYG concept on the spreadsheet software.
Through these years the spreadsheet concept has become a THE standard tool for any user requiring manipulation of data that could require calculations of any kind.
A step beyond
Users already accustomed to the use of spreadsheets from the college days are already ahead of the problem of introducing data into a spreadsheet for manipulation: They want to receive the data in a dynamically generated spreadsheet. They want to avoid the hassle of dealing with the creation of complex tables, powerful graphics, etc. They want to receive the spreadsheet already well designed.
A good software tool for designing and creating powerful dynamic spreadsheet-based reports is becoming a clear need for financial organizations.
Features required for a spreadsheet design and generation software
The basic capabilities for a dynamic spreadsheet software, to be used for complex dynamically generated spreadsheets are the following:
- A good and powerful WYSIWYG tool to create spreadsheets with complex tables, all sort of data-drive graphics.
- Avoid scripting programming.
- Accept multiple data input formats.
- A production engine with a good performance, a wide range of integration options and multiple channel output.
Conclusion
Organizations that have realized the need for producing spreadsheet reports must take into account the need for the appropriated tools and the importance of selecting the correct ones to avoid future limitations. That said, the future evolution of the selected spreadsheet report generation product is also a matter to take into account.
Selecting the correct tool will ensure that the customers will receive the correct reports now and in the years to come.
References
- Programming the IBM 1130 (Prentice-Hall series in automatic computation)
- Serious Play (Book from Michael Schrage)
- Spreadsheet Programming (Publication) (Robin Abraham, Margaret Burnett and Martin Erwin)
- Wikipedia
J.C. Olivares
Business Development Mgr at DocPath Corp.
Disclaimer: DocPath is a Registered Trademarks property of DocPath Corp. DocPath ExcelDynamics is a trademark of DocPath Corp. IBM trademarks are the property of IBM Corporation. Apple is a Registered Trademark of Apple Inc. Microsoft Excel is a Trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.