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Enterprise Spreadsheet Manager® Access Database Manager Our Services Is ClusterSeven Right for You?
Overview The Steps
The Steps
Step One - Analysis
Policy and Practice
Corporate policies governing the use of spreadsheets and MS Access

® databases used to gather dust on shelves, if they existed at all. Now they are the focus of audit and regulatory concern. Best practice has been established and audit committees expect to know about deficiencies. If you are writing a policy we can help. Our services community regularly works at Board level and can ensure that your governance framework sets the right balance between assurance and flexibility for different parts of the business. We can also accelerate your own research by providing information on relevant regulatory and auditor requirements.

Spreadsheet Usage and Reliance
A bottom-up approach to discovery utilizes technology tools, such as the ClusterSeven Spreadsheet Scanner to scan file servers for spreadsheet files and determine key spreadsheet properties. A top-down approach is more focused, using questionnaires and business interviews to expose business-critical activity in user-developed applications. Our services community routinely conducts such discovery and can ensure that their impact on the business is efficient and value-adding. In our experience a combination of both bottom-up and top-down analysis is the most effective.
Spreadsheet and MS Access ® Quality
ClusterSeven software does not require any changes to user-based experience to enable us to watch their activity. At the same time our very presence exposes activity and design issues that contribute directly to operational risk or inefficiency. Our services community can help you assess current quality level to determine where repair or restructuring will be valuable.
 
Step Two - Action
Address Change Requirements
The practices around end-user applications inside organizations is a melting pot of different skills, experience and cultural expectations. Consistency is rare. Our services community can provide guidance or training on better design methodologies for you to get the most out of these applications, your employees and ClusterSeven. If needed, we can also provide resources to implement these changes.
Address Process Implications
The  integrity of end-user applications is dependent on both the content and usage. Embedding explicit – rather than just implicit – business processes in the use, maintenance and approval of changes is a key step achieving and demonstrating control. The ClusterSeven services community is fully experienced in helping businesses establish these methodologies to deliver business and data assurance.
Implement Controls
Early efforts at spreadsheet management have sought to utilize manual controls, only for these to fall into disuse or be overwhelmed by activity. As a result technology solutions have taken over. Our services community will work with you to determine what level of control is appropriate for different levels of spreadsheet criticality.
 
Step Three - Realize Value
Monitor Use to Reduce Operational Risk
Our confidence that we will deliver exceptional value to your business comes from our ability to distinguish abnormal user activity. Detecting and reporting these critical changes (or lack of them) from millions of normal changes is the key difference between a historic audit trail and a solution that can truly reduce risk. But how do you know what to look for? This is where our services step in. We work with you to decide what you want to know and show you how easily it can be done. Before long you’ll be doing it yourself.
Access the Data to Make Decisions More Easily
Successive spreadsheet versions document the evolution of your business and hold a wealth of time-based information about positive and negative trends – if only you could access it. Existing functionality within our solution enables you to query this data on an ad hoc basis or to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Our services team can extend this capability to meet more specific requirements – either through our flexible reporting center or by direct integration into other systems.
Identify and Replicate Efficiencies
User-developed applications are pervasive across your business. Whatever department leads the initial ClusterSeven engagement we have found that there is an enthusiasm to share and repeat the benefits further across the business. Our services community has worked with clients to document the Return On Investment (ROI) to support further rollout. More unusually, where else has a compliance solution become enthusiastically adopted by end-users? The same philosophy has seen our spreadsheet control solution become complemented by our additional capability to manage MS Access ® databases.





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