Chris Garrett writes on the businesses of blogging and new media. Today he wrote about how the WordPress content management system (used for administering this site) is “infiltrating business” because “companies are looking for a lower cost tactical solution… they want something quick, nimble, efficient and effective”.

Clearly, I must agree. When I first began to learn about HTML and web development in the ‘90s, the prospect of developing and maintaining a large site was quite daunting. The decision to run this site with WordPress was really made in alignment with my core beliefs about solutions for business problems in general: reliable, often ideal solutions need not be expensive.

As Chris said himself:

Yes, they are looking for tactical “right now” solutions, but as most of us have seen, tactical quick fixes tend to stick around, especially when the solution is found to be proven and beats other more complicated ones. I have seen departments running 20-year old COBOL reports, stealthily cobbled together Access databases, and even one company who seemed to run the whole business off Excel!

I’m thinking that Chris’ comments won’t be big news to at least some readers of this site.

Using Monarch and Excel together, often in conjunction with other systems, lets organizations make the most of their existing systems without further investment. And while it’s always a good idea to make the most of what you already have, it’s even better to behave this way when times are tough.

What Goes Down Must Come Up

Who knows, when you use Monarch and Excel to get through the difficult times, you may well discover that you won’t really need anything else when the economy improves. Between now and then, how many ways can you find to excel with Monarch?