2.  Excel is the most widely used business and analytics graphics tool in the world.  The majority of Balanced Scorecards and operational dashboards in the world are built using it.

3.  Excel Advantages  Analysis can be done NOW!  Excellent low cost way of proving the need and value of a Balanced Scorecard or operational dashboard

4.  Makes sense for management to want to see a working system to test the concepts before budgeting the year of development and hundreds of thousands of dollars that a full Business Intelligence (BI) system can cost

5.  Excel knowledge is pervasive  Most organizations have one person they can turn to that knows Excel well  Users can help each other

6.  Scalability Costs  True cost of scaling or expanding a BI, Balanced Scorecard or dashboard effort.  BI Systems Costs  License fees and definition of a user making the cost of BI systems more and more expensive

7.  Rarely discussed associated costs are those for retraining and redeveloping existing business systems.  Converting users to a large BI system requires a couple of days of training at a thousand dollars or more per day  Users forced to use BI system need to create new solutions that replace the Excel solutions that have taken them years to create.

8.  Excel is flexible  Excel’s Chart Engine is a Powerful Standard  You can customize almost any part of a chart you want  Excel is the preferred choice for initial development of Balanced Scorecard

9.  Using Excel for the first year gives companies the chance to  Evaluate their objectives and casual links  Refine their Metrics  Gather data without spending a lot of time and resources on a large IT project  Excel allows you to build a “functioning prototype”

10.  Excel helps small to mid sized business units or departments within large organizations that need “agile” systems that:  Are easy to support  Cost little to develop and maintain  Can handle flexible analysis

11.  Dashboards developed in Excel have the advantages of:  Less time to development  Low or non-existent licensing fees  Accessible developers  An established, knowledgeable user base  Easily accessible user training  Quick and inexpensive testing of user requirements  Excellent analytical capability with over 300 functions  Extensibility that allows additional features  Arguably one of the best charting engines around

18. Contact Us  Phone: 888-818-5120 Ext. 101  E-Mail: rick.anderson@agilisgrp.comrick.anderson@agilisgrp.com  Web Site: http://www.agilisgrp.comhttp://www.agilisgrp.com