End-User Computing Everywhere All At Once

EUC, or end user computing, has been around for decades, but is now currently a hot topic amongst heavily audited and regulated institutions like financial services and insurers. However, it’s an area that has been plagued by risk and challenges since the rise of IT. But what is it? Why is it a challenge to companies? How can companies mitigate enterprise risks around the increased usage and reliance of such applications and, indeed, what is out there to help resolve such issues?

What is EUC?

EUC is the term given to any applications or solutions which are created or installed on someone’s local machines or desktops. These tools are usually installed by local IT depts at the request of the end user or part of an approved suite of standard desktop applications given to all employees. Such applications, such as Excel, can be used by end users for modeling, computations and testing scenarios.

These tools often improve an individual’s efficiency; they can be supported by anyone with no technical knowledge or low-code knowledge and without resource limitation imposed by official development resources or the procurement process. However, they come with their own set of challenges. In the case of power users of spreadsheets within financial institutions, for example, this could involve high frequency data decisions, complex analysis, or scenario testing, and it has been increasingly apparent such areas have been ungoverned, unmanaged, and often have little to no official auditing.

Why is EUC such a challenge?

Low/No code has brought around a boom in the world of citizen development, a trend which allows people who may not have traditionally been able to create an application, build a simple app, or create a series of complex instructions using basic “low” code that can actively transform the way they work.

This means that anyone in an organization can have access to tools that allow them to build their own applications or off-the-shelf solutions, streamlining their work process without needing to make requests to overstretched IT departments and often at a price point that will circumvent the procurement process. Even with tools such as Excel and Access, end users have been empowered to create their own solutions to problems.

Such desktop platforms/solutions, while effective, are exposed to decision-making that is not governed in terms of the IP built, created and deployed. The lack of data auditability, governance, and transparency may prove to be a costly long-term security risk. By cutting corners and not going through official channels and using approved design methods, the applications can lack security, auditing, and may, in some cases, not even be tested properly to ensure they’re working as intended. Additionally, problems of lag and human errors made due to pressure of deadlines, reporting, or time to market exacerbate the EUC pain.

Why is Excel so involved in EUC?

Microsoft Excel is perhaps the most versatile data modeling tool ever created. It’s stood the test of time and since its creation in 1985, it’s been a staple of almost every company on the planet.

Excel’s low complexity entry point leads smoothly to the higher complexity models you can create, allowing users to do anything from budgeting their monthly outgoings to creating hugely complicated underwriting models, back-testing data scenarios, complex valuations or regulatory reporting analysis.

The other side of this is that every user has access to a solution that will allow them to build their own mini applications or program within a program that come with no built-in version control, auditing, or robust testing options to ensure data output integrity. They’re also often not encrypted and then shared across groups in an open-ended manner, hence no version control management which ensures security or data integrity is intact.

How can we resolve EUC issues?

Some EUC issues can only be solved through process monitoring, control, and governance. It is essential to provide clear guidance on how users adopt and use desktop EUCs and how they create the logic around their process of producing a data set of outputs, as well as offering a clear, transparent method for requesting custom developments.

When it comes to low/no code development, there’s an interesting white paper by Noel Carroll that covers Shell’s approach to “DIY Development” and how they handled the inclusion of citizen development in their company. Read it here.

The critical question is– knowing all of the above–how does one go about resolving the complexity that surrounds EUC? Spreadsheets are used across all firms and are a stealth enterprise risk, if left unchecked. Excel underpins so many processes across businesses and is such a versatile tool, both a bane and a darling of the financial services industry. People have been trying to tackle EUC Excel problems for years. Some success has been achieved using version control tools and centralized distribution, but even that only addresses part of the problem.

 Spark by Coherent, the answer to EUC challenges

Coherent Spark is the world’s leading response to such common problems facing financial institutions in both banking and insurance. It is a new take on how you can still use Excel as a core tool for your business, but with full auditability of the logic applied to the IP contained within your spreadsheets. Spark offers auditability in data capture and data changes, as well as exposes analytical/calculation changes. It also solves data persistency, manages data pipeline interoperability, and solves the need for hyper automation relating to lag, time to market or reporting.

Overall, it gives companies the data governance protocols around spreadsheets, attached to their legacy technology stack systems, that are driven by EUC. Some of the tools that help you achieve this are presented below.

Version control

When you upload your Excel file to Coherent Spark, the first thing you’ll notice is that you are provided with version control; you’ve just created version one of your services. This means you now have a central repository where you can update your files with release notes and, if there’s an issue, retrieve a previous version.

Centralized functionality

The next thing you’ll find is that you’ve just created an “API endpoint”. What does that mean? That means your Excel logic is now accessible through input and output tags in your file over a secured HTTP connection. It utilizes a universal connection method known as REST which enables you to now consume this logic in other applications, such as Salesforce CRM or another low-code application. With a few clicks and some copy & paste, you can create a service call to empower your applications with complex, Excel-driven logic.

This service is backed by a special compiled version of your spreadsheet that we call a Neuron. It will execute your logic up to one thousand times faster than it can be executed in Excel. So, this means that your logic is now also quickly executable against large datasets. Furthermore, it can also scale to accommodate extremely high volumes of data.

Testing

Now that you have this compiled version of your logic on which you can execute high volumes of data quickly, you can utilize the next feature–our Test Center. This feature can be used to execute large test beds of data which you can either upload manually, with a template or, better yet, can be generated for you by the system for given ranges of data. These tests will be executed lightning-fast in the background, are easily repeatable across versions for regression testing, and they’re fully audited.

Auditing

The final string to Spark’s bow is its audit logs. Every time the API is used, a log is stored within Spark. This means you can track all activities to the exact time they were executed and see all the data that was passed in and out with the call. Even better than this, you can also download a copy of the spreadsheet that would have been executed if the call had been manually run. From an audit perspective, this shows a potential auditor the exact figures that were used for that particular transaction.

EUC is a hot topic across all industries and comes with a multitude of challenges, the largest among them being the widespread use of Microsoft Excel. Coherent Spark is the world’s leading solution to solves the financial industry’s EUC woes. It is the world market leader in remediation of EUC risks associated with the traditional use of Excel.

If you’d like to find out more reach out to us via our website or connect with me on LinkedIn.