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However, many organisations still rely on spreadsheets to manage these teams, and it’s slowing them down. While spreadsheets have been a go-to tool for years, they fall short when it comes to managing modern, dynamic enterprises.
The Problems with Spreadsheets for Managing Cross-Functional Teams
At first glance, spreadsheets seem like a simple way to track team members and projects. Many organisations use them to give leaders a quick view of team structures. But in reality, they create more problems than they solve. Here’s why:
1. Spreadsheets Are Time-Consuming and Hard to Maintain
Keeping a spreadsheet updated is a manual and tedious task. Cross-functional teams are constantly evolving—new hires, role changes, or shifting project assignments. Each update requires someone to manually adjust the spreadsheet.
The result? Wasted time, effort and money invested. Market Watch reports that close to 90% of spreadsheets contain errors, and Gartner's research shows organisations lose an average of $13.3 million yearly due to bad data. Therefore it is evident that even one outdated entry can cause confusion, miscommunication, and poor decision-making across the organisation.
2. Lack of Transparency and Access
Spreadsheets are often accessible only to a select few. This restricts visibility for the rest of the organisation. Transparency is critical for high-performing teams, and when employees don’t have access to relevant information, it leads to disengagement.
According to IDC “the knowledge worker spends about 2.5 hours per day, or roughly 30% of the workday, searching for information”. Imagine multiplying this number to an organisation with over 10,000 employees, the cost of inaccessible data stacks up, resulting in poor collaboration and hindered delivery performance.
3. No Integration with Other Tools
In today's interconnected world, your team data should integrate seamlessly with work management and strategy tools. Spreadsheets can’t do that. This lack of integration means your teams operate in silos, disconnected from real-time project tracking systems like Jira or tools that manage company goals.
Without this connection, teams may be working on projects without knowing how they tie into the organisation's bigger picture. As stated by Cascade more than 47% of companies load data into their platform don't have a clear alignment impacting opportunity cost of effort to work on things that are needed.
The Solution: Move Beyond Spreadsheets
It’s time to ditch the manual spreadsheets and opt for tools that truly support your teams. Here's how TeamForm solves these challenges:
- Real-Time Updates: TeamForm enable users to update people and team changes as they happen in real-time, removing key man risks and manual data entry.
- Company-Wide Transparency: With TeamForm, everyone in the organisation has access to the same real-time view of team structures. This transparency improves collaboration, reduces miscommunication, and accelerates decision-making.
- Seamless Integration: TeamForm integrates with work management tools like Jira and OKR platforms. It connects team data with ongoing projects and company objectives, ensuring alignment across the board.
You don’t have to believe us but take it from our customer who’s been in your position of struggling with spreadsheets to now thriving on our platform. “We can now decommission the Confluence page and replace with the richer information in TeamForm … it doesn’t take long for people to go into TeamForm and say ‘this is exactly what I’ve been waiting for” - Head of Agile Capability & Workforce Planning, Retail Industry
Unleash the Power of Your Teams
Your cross-functional teams have the potential to drive innovation and growth. But relying on outdated spreadsheets holds them back. Transition to a dynamic, integrated platform like TeamForm, and you’ll unlock the full potential of your teams — empowering them with transparency, alignment, and agility.
