Collaboration and Sharing

CollaborationSharingCo-Authoring
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Josh B A+ 6
Collaboration and Sharing

How do you deal with collaboration and sharing? For enterprise clients that need multiple people changing assumptions for different business units or even the same business units but different assumptions, how do you create an environment where multiple people can edit assumptions simultaneously and have only one version of the truth?

Michael Hutchens A+ 189

Hi Josh,

Is this a Modano-specific question or a general Excel question?

Modano doesn't currently add any functionality to Excel to assist with collaboration and sharing, but Microsoft are working hard constantly improving Excel's features in this area, with the most recent iteration being Co-Authoring - see: support.office.com/en-ie/article/document-collaboration-and-co-authoring-ee1509b4-1f6e-401e-b04a-782d26f564a4

Unfortunately you cannot use Modano automation (e.g. inserting modules, adding categories, extending time series) very well when co-authoring, because of the number of changes Modano makes to your spreadsheets when doing these things, but you can always release your modular workbooks (Modano tab, Workbook menu, Release Excel Workbook) or open them without Modano (Modano tab, Workbook menu, Open without Modano) and use co-authoring as you would without Modano.

Josh B A+ 6

Hi Michael

Thanks for responding. I guess you would look to break up the model into separate workbooks and then bring the data together in a final model?

I've just seen the move in large corporates for operational financial models move to cloud modelling platforms, partly due to the capability of model sharing. Modano is a real alternative but additional thought needs to be put in around who needs access to what by location, timezone, etc.

Thanks for the response.

Michael Hutchens A+ 189

Hi Josh,

Another consideration here is simply using SharePoint (i.e. Corporate OneDrive) and giving users in different regions access to different files (in different folders) that are linked, either as a multi-linked workbook project, or using macros.

Under this approach, users still have the power and performance of the desktop version of Excel, but be able to open and edit their relevant workbooks independently of other users. It does require some best practices and discipline but works very well - we use this approach internally at Modano.

If you're obsessed with using the browser (which I'd recommend against), you can do this via Excel Online, although you'll have to remove some things from your workbooks - like controls - which are not yet supported by Excel Online.

The shift to cloud-based solutions is heavily driven by marketing propaganda, conflicts of interest, and a lack of understanding of the implications of doing so, on both a performance and security level. So while it's widely considered cool and cutting-edge, we're yet to see a truly flexible, user-friendly, powerful, and user-friendly alternative to desktop Excel (with Modano) for robust financial modeling.

Ultimately, it just comes down to understanding how to best do these things, which is what our Implementation Team help clients do.

Josh B A+ 6

Thanks Michael. Yes I agree that security and true modelling flexibility aren't really available in the cloud yet.

Thanks again for your comments.