eference data retrieved from corporate data
warehouses (DW). On the other hand, spreadsheets make it far too easy for
users to ignore or flout the MDM controls governing DW operations. Users
can and often do populate Excel spreadsheets with information that is outdated,
inconsistent, and full of errors, and with formulas that deviate significantly from
company-approved analytical models.
Current Perspective
Master data management (MDM) is more than just keeping tabs on corporate
reference data. It also requires tight life-cycle governance controls over the
official analytical models in which reference data is presented to users for display,
manipulation, and reporting.
Spreadsheets are among the most prevalent analytical models in circulation in
most organizations. Consequently, spreadsheet governance should be a core
component of every organizations MDM, regulatory compliance, and business
intelligence (BI) strategies. To ensure that all users are working from a common set
of master data and analytical models, a company should place all its spreadsheets
under strict MDM version, change, and access controls. And for compliance
purposes, organizations must be able to determine precisely which spreadsheet
version a given user relied on at a particular time when taking a specific action.
Ideally, desktop spreadsheets should be populated with current, sanctioned data � 2007 Current Analysis Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information, please call +1 703 404 9200, toll-free +1 877 787 8947,
Europe +33 (0) 1 41 14 83 14. Or visit our Web site: www.currentanalysis.com
2
Advisory Report
from corporate-sanctioned DWs and other official repositories.
In the past few years, the range of commercial spreadsheet governance tools has
grown steadily, though the niche is still far from mature. Vendors in this emerging
market include established BI vendors such as Actuate, as well as compliance-focused
vendors such as Compassoft, ClusterSeven, Prodiance, and Mobius Management
Systems. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has driven much of this growth, especially where
financial master data governance is concerned. In addition, Microsoft inadvertently
has fueled growth of the spreadsheet governance software market due to the fact that
Excel, as a standalone application, currently lacks such features (though Microsoft
is addressing this deficiency in the server-based Excel Services feature of the
forthcoming Office 2007 suite).
Unfortunately, spreadsheet governance tools still are far from the enterprise
mainstream. For one thing, todays spreadsheet governance products are point
solutions rather than integral components of comprehensive enterprise MDM/DW
product sets. Though most BI and MDM vendors have tight integration with
Microsoft Excel, none of the dominant MDM vendorssuch as IBM, Oracle, NCR/
Teradata, SAS Institute, Hyperion, Business Objects, and TIBCOhas yet added
spreadsheet governance features to its suites. Furthermore, Microsoft, whose SQL
Server DBMS is the platform for many DWs, has not presented a clear-cut MDM
roadmap into which Excel Services someday might figure.
Yet another deficiency in todays spreadsheet governance solutions is lack of
integration with tools that enable life-cycle management of predictive analytics and
data-mining models. Some vendors of predictive analytics softwaremost notably,
SPSS, SAS and NCR/Teradataprovide tools for policy-driven, server-controlled
governance of complex statistical models. In fact, both SPSS and SAS recently
released significant new model-governance feature enhancements to support life-
cycle stewardship of these business-critical analytical models, which tap into deep
operational data maintained in enterprise MDM/DW environments. But none of
these vendors has expressed any interest in extending its server-centric governance
environments to encompass desktop spreadsheets, which often contain the most
mission-critical analytical models in use in any organization.
However, its a safe bet that unified analytical-model governanceencompassing
desktop spreadsheets and more sophisticated statistical models--will become a
standard feature of most MDM/DW environments over the next two to three years.
For one thing, most MDM/DW vendors already integrate tightly with Microsoft
Excel clients, allowing them to push official master data and updates continuously in
the correct formats to corporate desktops. Also, enterprise MDM/DW administrators
increasingly are consolidating analytical models in special-purpose server
repositoriessometimes known as spreadmartsfrom which corporate desktop
spreadsheets are set up to retrieve official records automatically. In addition, vendors
increasingly are adopting open XML-based standards such as Predictive Model
Markup Language (PMML), facilitating integrated management of analytical models
created in multiple vendors tools.
Its also a sure bet that many of todays spreadsheet governance tool vendors will be
acquired by the leading MDM/DW solution providers. All MDM/DW vendors
tout their ability to consolidate master reference data into environments that provide
a single version of the truth for operational BI. But as long as corporate desktop
Report:
Spreadsheet
Governance Pushes
MDM to the Desktop � 2007 Current Analysis Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information, please call +1 703 404 9200, toll-free +1 877 787 8947,
Europe +33 (0) 1 41 14 83 14. Or visit our Web site: www.currentanalysis.com
3
Advisory Report
Report:
Spreadsheet
Governance Pushes
MDM to the Desktop
spreadsheets are free to display different, inconsistent versions of that truth, MDMs
promise will remain unrealized.
Recommended Actions
Vendor Actions
Microsoft should, as promised, deliver the full server-based Excel Services
functionality in its forthcoming Office 2007 suite. In so doing, it will be defining
the common-denominator spreadsheet governance functionality that all others can
leverage on the desktop. Excel Services will support server-side control, security, and
management of Excel spreadsheets shared by teams or workgroups. It will also support
server-side calculation, browser rendering, Web services interfaces, and integration with
portals and BI platforms.
To extend their existing Excel-integration features and to show market leadership,
BI, CPM, and MDM vendors should add spreadsheet governance features to their
product suites. They may wish to leverage Microsoft Excel Services when available, or
choose to explore internal development, partnerships with niche vendors, or outright
acquisition of promising start-ups in the spreadsheet governance area. Likely partners
or acquisition candidates include Actuate, Compassoft, ClusterSeven, Prodiance, and
Mobius Management Systems.
To broaden their existing CPM model governance features, predictive analytics
software vendors should add spreadsheet governance features as an enhancement
and/or complement to their existing tools for server-side management of statistical
models. In particular, SPSS, SAS, and NCR/Teradata should extend their server-centric
governance environments to encompass desktop spreadsheets, which often contain the
most mission-critical analytical models in use in any organization.
Governance, risk, and compliance management (GRC) software vendors should
incorporate spreadsheet governance features into the core of their product suites. GRC
environments depend on an MDM environment that tightly governs propagation
of official corporate data out to all BI, CPM, predictive analytics, and desktop
environments. Among other requirements, the GRC environment must maintain
a centralized audit trail with snapshots, usage information, and other details on all
spreadsheets and other models upon which business decisions are made.
All vendors should develop comprehensive model governance environments. These
environments should be tightly integrated with Microsoft Excel; provide governance of
spreadsheets and predictive analytics models; support policy-driven model verification,
publishing, sharing, access control, version control, change management, promotion,
and retirement; ensure that desktop spreadsheets are populated with current, data
from DWs and other official corporate MDM repositories; provide a complete audit
trail of all governance-related functions; and support open standards for multivendor
interoperability.
User Actions
Spreadsheet governance should be a core component of every organizations MDM,
regulatory compliance, and BI strategies. To ensure that all users are working from
a common set of master data and analytical models, a company should place all its
� 2007 Current Analysis Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information, please call +1 703 404 9200, toll-free +1 877 787 8947,
Europe +33 (0) 1 41 14 83 14. Or visit our Web site: www.currentanalysis.com
4
Advisory Report
spreadsheets under strict MDM version, change and access controls. And for compliance
purposes, organizations must be able to determine precisely which spreadsheet version
a given user relied on at a particular time when taking a specific action. Ideally, desktop
spreadsheets should be populated with current, sanctioned data from corporate-sanctioned
DWs and other official repositories.
Enterprises should explore the growing range of commercial spreadsheet governance
tools from vendors such as Actuate, Compassoft, ClusterSeven, Prodiance, and Mobius
Management Systems. Most of these are point products that dont form part of a larger
MDM, BI, CPM, predictive analytics, or GRC suite (except for Actuates tool, which is part
of a broader BI suite). Consequently, enterprises should be careful not to commit to any
spreadsheet governance vendor until the market matur