Compozz, an alternative to Excel?

I could tell you that Compozz will replace Excel.

But that would be very pretentious and totally false.
Because Excel and other spreadsheets (LibreOffice, Google Sheets) are really good products and they are very powerful.

But we sometimes use them by default because they are flexible, we have them at hand, and we are used to using them.
And for certain information that we want to maintain and exploit in the long term with several collaborators, there are more suitable solutions like Compozz.

So I propose to take a quick tour of the main differences between Compozz and Excel and explain when using a solution like Compozz makes sense compared to Excel.

N.B.: In this article, I talk to you about Excel because it is the most used spreadsheet in the world, but this comparison can apply to other similar spreadsheets (LibreOffice, Google Sheets).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Excel

Excel is a globally known and widespread solution that allows you to enter any type of information into cells and relate them through formulas.

The biggest advantage of Excel is that it is easy to get started with and to make your first data aggregations to extract relevant information. Excel also has a very comprehensive library of formulas that allows you to go very far. You can even program with Excel (in VBA 🤮).

But Excel does not know your business. You deal with cells, and Excel does not know that a particular cell corresponds to an invoice amount, for example.

And this makes establishing links between cells more complicated.

Take the example of an Excel file with a tab containing all your clients and another containing all the invoices issued.

If you want to add a column in the first tab to see the information of the sum of invoices issued for each client, you will have to set up a conditional sum formula on the first tab by selecting the cells corresponding to all the invoice amounts on the second tab and set a condition by also selecting all the company names on the second tab to verify that it matches the company name of the concerned line on the first tab.

And what if you add a new company? You have to redefine (extend) the formula.

And what if you change the name of a company on the first tab? It no longer works. You have to change the company name in the second tab as well (and everywhere it is redefined).

You cannot simply tell Excel to aggregate information (sum, average, min, max...) by speaking "business" with it, and changes to a cell are not necessarily reflected everywhere.

Similarly, if you want to set up dashboards (KPI, Charts), you will have to speak "cell" with Excel and not "business".

Another disadvantage of Excel is its use in a collaborative way.

If several people use an Excel sheet simultaneously, you will all have the same representation of the same table. If you set up a filter or grouping on the data, it will impact everyone. You cannot personalize a representation according to your profile on the same data to make it most suitable for your needs.

And lastly, there is no possibility to restrict access to certain tabs in Excel according to profiles. Everyone has access to all data, and restricting read-only access to certain cells is tedious because you have to set up password protection.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Compozz

It is for all these last points mentioned that Compozz was created.

Like Excel, Compozz will allow you to define any type of data just as easily, so you can enter all the information necessary for your business.

Compozz is not intended to replace Excel everywhere because from a calculation point of view, Compozz does not yet have all the formulas offered by Excel and will probably never have them all.

There are also formatting or representation options that Compozz does not offer (bold, italic, alignment, cell colors...) and many other features.

Where Compozz adds value is both in the strong link with your business, making configurations more logical and easier, and in the ability to define all the profiles you want and use them to personalize views or restrict access.

Administrators will be able to set up views and dedicated access rights according to profiles, while users will be able to focus only on the information they need to do their job as efficiently as possible.

Another point facilitated by this strong link with your business is the setup of dashboards. Compozz offers a dedicated space for easily configurable dashboards, allowing you to have a more visual representation of your data.

In summary, here is a recap table:

Excel	Compozz
Quick to learn	Quick to learn
Use for any business or field of activity	Use for any business or field of activity
No role management	Role management to limit access
No view. Each representation change impacts everyone.	Creation and customization of views on the same data to facilitate filling or analysis
No link, dealing with cells and columns	Strong link between data and business model
Formulas that can be very complex	No formula for now. Only data aggregations
Complex dashboards to set up	Easy to create dashboards (Graph / KPI)
Slow when editing by multiple users	Designed for collaborative work
Separate files possibly scattered	Separated information in workspace but on a single application
Cell lock and with password	Data protection simply by profile
American solution (Cloud/Patriot Act)	French solution hosted in France

When to use Excel and when to use Compozz?

To conclude, I advise you to use Excel:

If you do not work with multiple people on the same file or if a single representation of the information is sufficient for all collaborators.
If you do not need to set up access restrictions according to profiles.
If you do not have strong business complexity with many links between information.
If you need to set up complex calculations.
If you are an Excel expert.

For all other cases, take a look at Compozz 😉