By Hiran de Silva
Most people use spreadsheets in the same simple way: to store data.
You open a file, type in what you want to record, maybe add a formula, and keep it for later use. Sometimes you send it by email, perhaps as a report, perhaps just to share the raw data.
For personal or small-team purposes, this is enough. It works. Spreadsheets are familiar, easy to understand, and quick to use.
But in an enterprise environment, the picture is very different.
A spreadsheet is no longer just a personal notepad. It becomes part of a much larger process. The numbers entered into one workbook are needed by colleagues across the organisation, sometimes by other systems entirely. Decisions depend on them. Deadlines depend on them. And often the flow of data involves manual steps—emailing attachments, saving files in shared folders, or relying on someone to act at the right moment.
When those steps fail, the whole business process stalls.
The Missed Opportunity
This situation is so common that many assume it’s inevitable. But it isn’t.
Excel already has the capability to act differently. Your spreadsheet can store its data in a central location, structured so that other business processes can use it immediately. Changes made in one place can be reflected everywhere. Enterprise processes can even be triggered automatically.
This is what I call the Digital Librarian.
Instead of every user keeping their own private notebook, the Digital Librarian manages the data centrally, keeps it structured, and makes sure everyone is working from the same hymn sheet.
A Simple Example: Cascading Dropdowns
In 2023, I demonstrated this idea using an everyday Excel technique that has been made popular by influencers on social media: cascading dropdown lists.
The most widely seen example was presented by Wyn Hopkins, a respected trainer who explained how to populate dropdowns with hierarchical data stored directly inside the workbook. This works well in a personal setting.
But I showed something different.
I demonstrated how the same dropdowns could be populated by data stored outside the workbook—centrally managed, shared by all, and updated in one place.
The contrast could not be clearer:
- Local spreadsheet: only that file knows when data changes. Collaboration means emailing versions back and forth. I illustrated this in my “Tim, Ted, Todd Workflow” sketch: chaos, duplication, and no one ever quite sure which copy is current.
- Digital Librarian (hub-and-spoke): the dropdowns draw from a single central source. Every user sees the same live data. Updates cascade instantly across the system. Collaboration becomes order instead of mess.
Why So Few Know This
Surprisingly, most Excel users—even influencers and trainers—do not realise that the Digital Librarian is possible with the Excel they already own. Why?
Because the largest population of users lives inside their own box. Their needs are personal, their workbooks are local, and the bigger picture of enterprise process is invisible to them. Social media content caters to this reality, teaching tricks that help one user at a time—but rarely addressing the wider business flow.
The Great Opportunity
And yet, this is precisely where the opportunity lies.
When we re-imagine spreadsheets not as isolated notepads but as enterprise-connected hubs, we unlock something transformative:
- Data that flows directly into wider business processes.
- Systems that trigger actions when numbers change.
- Collaboration without chaos.
- A foundation for analytics, dashboards, and decisions based on data that is truly current.
The Digital Librarian is not science fiction. It is a capability sitting quietly inside Excel today, waiting to be used. The tragedy is that most training and most discourse never goes beyond the local view.
But for those who do make the leap, the rewards are immense—not just cleaner spreadsheets, but better business outcomes, faster decisions, and careers transformed by delivering solutions that matter to management.
It’s time to step beyond the personal notepad view of spreadsheets.
It’s time to meet the Digital Librarian.
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