Break free from Excel: 5 reasons why you should no longer use spreadsheets for managing your workflows

For many years organizations have relied on Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and other spreadsheet software to support critical business processes. Smaller businesses often use spreadsheets for significant portions of their financial accounting, while even large enterprises with sophisticated ERP systems regularly turn to spreadsheets for data organization and number crunching.

However, as organizations accelerate their digitization and automation, the limitations of spreadsheets become increasingly apparent. While they are user-friendly for less technical employees, spreadsheets are not designed to handle the complexity of modern business and workflows. Excel, which was supposed to make your employees’ life easier, ends up eating away at your employees’ time, leaving them frustrated and behind on what really matters.

But imagine if there was a simpler, more efficient way.

A lot of businesses don’t yet realize how simple and affordable it is to automate this everyday stuff like expense approvals with no-code business apps and worfklows.
Now is the time for businesses to recognize the potential of breaking free from Excel spreadsheets, particularly when it comes to managing workflows. Fortunately, a solution exists: no-code application development.

No-code platforms empower businesses to quickly and easily create customized applications that optimize workflows, automate processes, and increase employee productivity in ways that spreadsheets simply cannot deliver.

Addressing spreadsheet pitfalls

No-code tools enable developers and business users to build software without writing code. By dragging and dropping objects with a virtual interface, users can create web & mobile apps, and workflows. The no-code platform automatically assembles these elements into stable, secure software, digitizing and automating forms and workflows.

No-code excels in areas where Excel spreadsheets fall short:

• Error prevention: Spreadsheets’ repetitive manual data entry often leads to human error. No-code software standardizes and enforces consistent processes through digitized forms and workflows, minimizing errors.
• Integration: spreadsheets don’t natively integrate with any of your business software or data sources. Right now, you’re manually importing key data, which is time-consuming and error-prone, and changes to source data don’t automatically reflect anywhere else
• Enhanced control: Spreadsheets are inherently siloed, making it difficult to view and manage workflows across systems or business units. No-code applications are designed to span departments and link processes. Internal teams and even external users can benefit from no-code apps that centralize data storage and workflow management.
• Improved insights and compliance: Spreadsheets offer limited visibility into workflow performance and status updates. No-code tools not only digitize workflows but also track their effectiveness, aiding in compliance with both internal processes and external regulations. Not to mention security benefits, as spreadsheets with restrictions can be vulnerable to unauthorized access and data breaches. No-code platforms prioritize security and offer robust data governance features.
• Increased agility: Spreadsheets struggle to adapt to evolving business demands. No-code tools enable customization of workflows to meet unique requirements. Their ease of use allows business users to quickly adjust workflows to address new and evolving business needs.

No-code workflows deliver a competitive advantage

No-code empowers users to digitize workflows. The resulting workflows can incorporate data capture, notifications, escalations, and even integration with existing systems to support broader processes and ensure efficiency.

The speed at which you can build and deploy workflows and apps on no-code platforms is a key enabler for staying competitive. You can be up and running in as little as half a day, depending on the complexity of your workflow.

Organizations across diverse industries, including retail, transportation & logistics and manufacturing, are already utilizing no-code to optimize workflows, improve the employee experience and boost productivity. Every business function, including finance, sales and marketing, HR, customer support, and operations, can benefit from no-code. For example:

• HR can design workflows to onboard employees, approve travel expenses, and enable time-off requests.
• Operations can provide workflows, manage improvement proposals, approve timesheets, and manage incidents.
• Sales can create workflows to add leads to the CRM system, approve quotes, and process orders.

Industry statistics prove it

A survey by TechRepublic found that the top no-code benefits organizations cited include higher productivity (15%), faster application development (14%), automation of manual processes (12%), and easier workflows (10%).

The potential to unlock productivity is huge. According to McKinsey research (“A future that works: automation, employment and productivity”) 50% of all work can be automated. McKinsey further estimates that 31% of businesses have taken the step to automate at least one function. While 60% of employees could save 30% of their time with workflow automation. Managers say, on average, that they spend at least eight hours per week (or an entire workday) on manual data tasks. Further, 25% of managers devote 20 or more weekly hours to these tasks.

Today’s employees are already involved in making their jobs more productive with no-code. Gartner’s 2024 “Digital Worker Survey” found that 51% of digital workers have customized and built their own workflows, apps and automations.

Fast forward your spreadsheets to the future

It’s time to evolve your business processes, and no-code platforms hold the key to the future. By embracing no-code, you’re not just optimizing your operations and enabling your employees to become more productive, you’re future-readying your business in an ever-changing landscape.

With Rappit Composer no-code apps & workflows platform getting started is as simple as importing a spreadsheet and using the visual interfaces to quickly build and configure advanced workflows. Spreadsheets become fully functional workflow applications in a matter of hours.

Are you ready to break free from Excel?