
The Path To Commutation Is Just A Click Away.
Life is hard enough without needlessly committing to systems that make what we do for a living hard also. Planning behind the grid lines of a tabular existence is one of those unnecessary experiences that we can opt out of. Even with the comfort of formulas. Even with the sophistication of VLOOKUP, it is still drudgery.
Planning and scheduling is far too elegant for the confines of Excel. How can one paint a picture of a plan with numbers? How can dependencies and timescales be articulated in a world of A1 to C3?
The world was set free by VisaCalc, the world’s first computerized spreadsheet. Imagine, for the first time in history, being able to build a virtual world of numbers that interacted together to form a cohesive and responsive model. True freedom to perform ‘what if’ scenarios and build complex interdependent expressions of potential outcomes manifested itself in an explosion of new understanding.
That was 1979, this is 2016, technology has moved on, but many people find themselves still trapped in Excel Jail. The need to: type, tweak, and twitch the data to produce an answer that both feels and looks familiar. Hours spent laboriously entering data and checking totals. This isn’t a process fit for the profession. It’s an Syndrome derived from years of planning and scheduling in a limited tool.
The most alarming manifestations can be found in the world of planning. Planning is by nature dynamic, time-scaled, and logic tied. These are not exactly Excel’s strengths. What if one could merge the comfort and flexibility of Excel with a time scaled graphical tool? With NetPoint you can.
It seems to me that if people are still using Excel despite the advancements in technology in the field, then they must be change adverse. The great news is that NetPoint allows users to import Excel spreadsheets and create a dynamic graphical time scaled diagram. NetPoint also allows users to export their plan, including resource loading and calendars, to Excel for editing or report production.
Check out the functionality in our free trial. And learn more about the possibilities of pairing Excel with Netpoint.