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Pattrick Bluhm14. April 2018

IT documentation with Excel – here's how it works!

IT documentation with Excel - here's how it works!

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Microsoft Office has long since become the standard software in many companies. Even though there are now many alternatives to the office suite from Redmond, most users choose the familiar Microsoft solution. It is therefore not unusual that Excel spreadsheets are used for many tasks. After all, the software is comparatively easy to use and useful for a wide variety of applications.

Excel is also often the application of choice in IT departments - especially in smaller companies - when it comes to creating IT documentation. The software and technology data is simply stored in an Excel spreadsheet, which is - hopefully - kept up to date by the employees involved. The Internet offers suitable templates for support. We will show you the possibility of a hybrid application consisting of Excel spreadsheets and IT documentation.

IT documentation in a team

The larger your company is, the more likely it is that several employees will be working on documenting the IT landscape. Solving this task with Microsoft Excel can quickly turn out to be inefficient. This is because simple files have several disadvantages:

Files are not suitable as databases
Several users can access a database at the same time. A simple file, even if it is stored centrally, can only ever be accessed by a single user. Even if Office from the cloud now offers collaboration functions, many issues remain unresolved. For example, the traceability of changes and the protection of sensitive information from being viewed by third parties. Should the configuration of all servers, databases and access data really be entrusted to an Office document?

These disadvantages are often offset by a further disadvantage: each user creates their own file. This can quickly lead to incompatible and incomplete partial documentation.

Files do not have the functionality of a modern CMDB
All information stored in Excel remains what it is: data organized in a table that offers little added value. In a configuration management database, on the other hand, all stored objects are related to each other . Dependencies and responsibilities can be recognized at a glance. This type of functionality is essential, especially in the areas of compliance and information security.

Excel spreadsheets do not offer a 360° view
No matter how well maintained an Excel file is, it can be an obstacle to information in the event of an IT malfunction. Is the spreadsheet really up to date and the only collection point for all important information? Information on processes, parties involved and contact persons is particularly valuable in the event of a malfunction. In a CMDB, this information is always linked to the correspondingassets and CIsand is available at the touch of a button.

Excel cannot meet all the requirements of IT documentation
The core task of Excel and other spreadsheets is to record and process data that can be entered in tabular form. This is all that such an application usually offers. Professional IT documentation can be used to perform many other tasks. You can store documents for each asset and print emergency manuals. Such a system enables risk analyses, IT lifecycle management and much more. Excel cannot offer all this.

But can't there also be good reasons to use a spreadsheet for IT documentation?

Best of both worlds: i-doit meets spreadsheet

As already mentioned, a spreadsheet is undoubtedly ideally suited to dealing with mass data. As a user of such software, you may also have become accustomed to the operation and presentation of the data. And so you may feel that managing such data in a different environment does not offer the same convenience.

However, centralized IT documentation is essential for any organization. A professional solution is always preferable, especially if the documentation is to help operate the company's IT economically and in accordance with applicable regulations.

So why not combine the advantages of both worlds?

The popular spreadsheets have been optimized in many iterations over the years. Simply replacing them with a centralized solution often requires a lot of convincing. In addition, such a significant change often arouses resistance from those involved in the project . An interim solution, using Excel as the front end and a professional database solution as the back end, could alleviate some project situations.

VBA, JSON and i-doit

To help friends of Microsoft Excel, we have developed a solution that allows you to query data from i-doit and display it in an Excel spreadsheet. All you need is a few lines of VBA code and the VBA/JSON converter, which you can download from GitHub.

After that, you just need a few small settings in i-doit and the corresponding VBA code to export data directly from i-doit to Excel.

You can find detailed instructions in our Knowledge Base.

Excel and i-doit: The future

The solution of displaying data from i-doit directly in Excel is certainly a help for many users who do not want to part with their spreadsheet. However, we are of course aware that this is not yet a fully developed method. Because the possibilities behind it go much further.

If your internal processes allow it, it is conceivable to change the data extracted from i-doit in Excel and then write it back into your i-doit in a structured way. Technically, this is not a problem.

It is also conceivable to divide up the documentation work using this technique. Each of your colleagues involved in the topic of "IT documentation" is assigned a part of the data via an export. This part can then be processed independently and then merged with the other parts in i-doit. In this way, small work packages can be put together that can be completed quickly.

A task for development partners

Finding a more far-reaching solution for the collaboration of i-doit with Excel or other spreadsheets is a challenging but exciting task. We would like to expressly encourage any of our users who would like to solve this problem to become active themselves and become an i-doit development partner. Nobody can solve a problem better than those who are affected by it themselves. And perhaps you would like to become one of the developers of "Excel4i-doit". The i-doit community is looking forward to your ideas.