Excel programming of an annual meeting evaluation tool
Development of an Excel tool with Microsoft Excel and VBA
Medela AG (Baar, Switzerland) has two divisions: "Human Milk", with globally recognized basic research and a leader in the development and manufacture of breastfeeding products and complete solutions, and "Healthcare", specializing in the development and manufacture of high-quality medical vacuum technology solutions. The company, which has been in business for over 50 years, conducts employee appraisals every six months, the results of which are recorded in Excel workbooks in German or English. eWorks also developed a customized Excel solution that reads these Excel workbooks and automatically compiles them into clear reports. Medela wanted to have Excel macros created in order to be able to evaluate annual meetings in an automated, error-free and time-saving manner.
The developed application consists of a Microsoft Excel workbook with an individually created Excel ribbon, via which all functions can be called up: in particular the import of a directory with one or more annual meeting files in one go, but also the deletion of all data already entered if desired. The Office ribbon also contains frequently used functions such as "Save", "Save as" and "Print" as well as a button for displaying support information about the application: version, date, contact options etc.
Incorrect input data proved to be a particular challenge during development, as users sometimes renamed, deleted or creatively redesigned worksheets. By retrofitting an extremely large error tolerance, the Excel application was ultimately able to identify and automatically correct all of these intentional or unintentional manipulations.
eWorks provided its client with comprehensive support in the professional implementation of the Excel tool: from consulting and software design to Excel programming of the VBA macros and the handover and commissioning of the developed Microsoft Excel solution. Following the installation, eWorks was reliably available to its client for operating questions, any error reports (warranty) and expansion requests. The client used the Excel solution developed to save time and money when evaluating the semi-annual meetings, while at the same time reducing evaluation errors thanks to almost complete process automation.