Prodiance and spreadsheet control

Spreadsheet risk is one of those things that the GRC industry has been talking about for years. The gist of the industry's marketing tack has often boiled down to the hazards of "manual, spreadsheet-based" processes that were ripe for all kinds of abuse and mistakes. 

Shocking mistakes were trotted out. Such as Fannie Mae's $1 billion botch of total stockholder equity in 2003, the result of spreadsheet errors linked to a new accounting standard. The point of this for many vendors was that companies need to buy automated solutions to replace this spreadsheet risk.

But we've also seen the slow rise of another movement: Companies embracing better spreadsheet controls. This market, despite some support from analysts, is still in the embryonic stages. But one leader seems to be faring okay. Prodiance has reported strong global demand--it's now in 15 countries--and some consider it the leader in the field. Demand is apparently strong in banking, pharma and other industries. We'll see if growth and the GRC brain trust at companies realize that spreadsheets are here to stay in some departments.

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