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It's a common question - especially among seasoned Excel users. We think that there are a number of reasons that make a lot of sense for designers and managers alike.
If you do not have an in-house quality control system for checking and protecting your spreadsheets, unexpected things can happen - usually at the worst time. Unfortunately, once a reliable person creates a spreadsheet and proclaims that it is a wonderful thing, someone else in your firm can come along and muck it up. When "The Guy" or "The Gal" says it is good, everyone else tends to believe the results - quite often with little or no checking of the actual formulas. As in the case of all levels of design, a quality control system should be in place for in-house spreadsheet development. A significant amount of time goes into testing and bullet-proofing every TSA TOOLS spreadsheet to ensure that the results are what they should be and to make sure it is suitably protected. We test the spreadsheets on real-life projects. We perform hand-check calculations to verify results. We compare results to other methods. We document limitations or other considerations in the online Help. Protection techniques are used from some folks around the country that live and breath Excel. These folks are not civil engineers, but top-notch Excel and VBA programmers. So as a responsible professional, you should ask yourself a few important questions:
Excel and VBA are wonderful tools, inasmuch as there are so many ways to make things more efficient, inter-linked, and GUI-like. So an in-house person can spend a lot of time jazzing things up and making them better. Unfortunately, unless you are selling your spreadsheets to a very wide audience, the time it takes to apply the neat stuff that truly increases efficiency is better spent working on a project. Even if you know it will be used in the future. In some cases, great employees fall into the spreadsheet abyss, emerging hours or days later with little actually accomplished on their project. It is very easy to spend way more time than is worthwhile to develop spreadsheets that may only have incidental usage. So even though it appears that you - or your spreadsheet guru - is developing something that is in the name of efficiency, by the time you get to the end of the tunnel it probably has not - and will not - save you any time. All the good stuff that can save you time - the sheet linking, buttons, pull-downs, and pop-ups are already in TSA TOOLS - and you know how much it costs. If you want to create your own spreadsheets - either as non-billable overhead or on the client's nickel - go to it. You don't need TSA TOOLS. But considering your billable rate, doesn't it make sense to consider the alternative?
Many civil professionals don't worry too much about the quality of presentation. After all, it's not a pretty picture that gets a project out the door and built, right? And the reviewers know what they are doing and can figure it out, right? Alternatively, if a reviewer is presented with a report or computations that are clear, concise, consistent, and well-referenced, it will likely take the reviewer less time to sort it all out. Which can lead to reviews that are quicker, smoother, and with less "give me the reference" or "how did you do that" comments. It is tough enough for a reviewer to sort out WHAT you did without having to spend a lot of time figuring out HOW you did it. If there are blanks or question marks in the comps and if the reviewer is doing their job, the review WILL take longer and there WILL be more comments. In many cases, appropriate time is not spent on making in-house spreadsheets clear and comprehensively referenced. A lot of effort goes into data organization in TSA TOOLS spreadsheets to make sure they are clear, complete, and well referenced. We do it so you do not have to...
If you develop your own spreadsheets, you probably enjoy the flexibility to change them to suit unique circumstances. That may be the top reason some people are resistant to purchasing spreadsheets that are protected from tampering - and changing. TSA TOOLS is the result of 18 years of experience in this field, so they are based on quite a bit of first-hand design problems and methodologies. But there are always different situations and better ideas. We know that. So if you purchase a TSA TOOLS product and wish it could do a little more, a bit less, or in a different way - TELL US! If we like what you say and if it is within our means - we'll change it! And email you when it is up to be uploaded. You download and re-install the Trial version and - if you have already Registered - it continues to work like the original. We don't charge for upgrades that are refinements.
Some TSA TOOLS products can save you hours or even days. Some can save you just a few minutes each time you use them. They can save you research time, as the methodologies and equations are already there and referenced. Learning curves are nearly non-existent with pop-up Help and clear cell input. Your time is your most valuable resource, and TSA TOOLS saves you time. TSA TOOLS products are priced to give you a very quick return on your investment. So think about your billing rate - $60/hr? $75/hr? $100/hr? And think about how much TSA TOOLS products cost. When you consider the money, it's a no-brainer. |
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T.E. Scott & Associates, is the design partner of Applied Stormwater
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