Spreadmart

A spreadmart (spreadsheet data mart) is a business data analysis system running on spreadsheets or other desktop databases that is created and maintained by individuals or groups to perform tasks that can be done in a more structured way by a data mart or data warehouse. Typically a spreadmart is created by individuals at different times using different data sources and rules for defining metrics in an organization, creating a decentralized, fractured view of the enterprise.

The concept was coined in 2002 by Wayne Eckerson at TDWI in his article Taming Spreadsheet Jockeys, and intended pejoratively, as an undesirable system, which should be replaced by a data mart. However, critics such as Stephen Samild argue that spreadmarts have advantages over data marts and can be a desirable system.

Problems

Usually, spreadmarts grow where standard business intelligence (BI) reporting is too inflexible and too slow. A business analyst uses the "export to Microsoft Excel" button in the BI software and creates their own report with the exported data table. By this, the number of independently generated spreadsheets dealing with a particular group of analyses grows inside the company, and the data inside each spreadsheet is uncoupled from its source. When this happens, the data reflected in the spreadsheets is no longer verifiable and is not automatically kept up to date.

Usually these spreadsheet files are distributed via email to colleagues resulting in even more copies of the data roaming through the enterprise. With Microsoft Power Pivot for Microsoft SharePoint, Excel spreadsheets can be distributed as dashboards throughout the entire company, giving even more users the tools to create spreadmarts.