Abhishek Roka
Abhishek Roka

Why Spreadsheets Fail for College Placement Data Management

Spreadsheet is good data management tool, but for placement data management? It will me a nightmare, because we have to handle student information such as personal details, academic records, achievements, Job information, application date, current placement phase and so on. It is a lot of information in one file. So, even if we want to change it, the outdated copies are there. If we handle this data redundancy issue, then what about leaks. A file leaked means, it’s all information is leaked. And, correction of information for multiple students involves a lot of manual work, because it is just a row, not a form or some automation which can correct information at once.

Even writing spreadsheet can be good for one or two attempts, but what if, we have to maintain next 10 to 20 years information in a spreadsheet? It means a lot of copy, which will end up with data redundancy.

Now, I want to show some core issues with spreadsheet from a user point of view, who wants to understand college placement status from a quick glance.

1. Manual follow up of student records

When we have to maintain student information in spreadsheet, we have to manually adjust student information such as:

  1. Student Academic and achievement records
  2. Job related information to which student has applied
  3. Placement process related follow ups

We can hire someone or give extra salary to a normal staff to manage this information. It will be prone to human error.

2. Excel skills to manipulate and combine information

Suppose we are maintaining complete placement information of different departments, it will be done as separate sheets in same workbook, and name it as Placement_Record_2026.xlsx. Now, we want to filter, how many students have applied to placement opportunities and got placed?

To do this in excel, we need to combine sheets and filter out the information, which requires more than average Excel skills and few ChatGPT Prompts to find the solution.

3. Multiple outdated copies of same information

If we share this Placement_Record_2026.xlsx file, latest update of 25 June 2026, and tomorrow a student named, Abhishek get his Phone number changed in records, the best option is, we will maintain this file as Google Sheets, now we have to:-

  1. Share transfer our Placement records from file to Google Sheets
  2. Then, change the information, and download the file and share it.
  3. Or, give access to the file.

4. Placement history maintenance

Now, if we want to maintain a placement record of last 10 years, we need to compile multiple workbooks at one place, and to generate the record, we have to get combine those workbooks, and do required information.

5. Backup Placement information

Since we are maintaining multiple workbooks, we have to do backups, because if one file gets corrupted, we have to preserve the files too. So we have to take care of backups.

6. Placement Report Generation

It is the drawback that we do not have direct report generation service in Excel, which will combine last 10 years raw placement information, and generate report to make managerial decisions about how to better KPIs for preparing a student for placement.

7. Correcting wrong information

If we gather information of students in spreadsheet, and at one attempt multiple students fill wrong information or now they want to change their information, either we can give them the sheet to change it, where students can steal other students information too or do it manually for each student.

8. Combine other information

Now we have placement information of the student, and we want to combine information such as academic information of a student with this data, is it feasible? Only when we add more columns.

Solution to our SpreadSheet problem

See, when we chose spreadsheet to maintain our placement information, our primary goal is to:

  1. Organise the data at one place
  2. It must be easy to access and manipulate

But, when we saw this management in long run, we found a lot of problems which I have listed above.

In short, we are not die hearted fan of excel, we just want to manage our data in better way, rather than pen and papers.

We need a system, because placement is not once in a 5 year requirement, but every year requirement.

Solution: Placement Portal System

A system, which will provide real time information about students, job offerings and placement journey of the student, where at just one dashboard, we have a complete performance report of college placement process and comparison with previous years performance.

Why Placement Portal above SpreadSheet?

1. It automates the follow up process

Now, during placement process of a student, we take:-

  1. Academic information from University database
  2. Student Personal information from Profile which student will create in Placement Portal
  3. Job Posting from the company
  4. Placement Journey from Placement officer

Instead of one person managing all records, the responsibility is now divided and manageable.

2. Basic filters

Instead of Advanced excel concepts, if we provide simple filter options like we have in an E-Commerce website, will it not be user friendly? Because, now the user do not have to be skilled in Excel, but better good to filter the information.

3. Single Source of Truth

Unlike, multiple copies in SpreadSheet, we have all information from Database, which will be single source of truth, now whenever we access the information on the portal or generate a report, we have a latest timestamped record from the Database, rather than inconsistent information stored in multiple excel files.

4. Access Historical data

Since we are backed by database now, we have features such as:-

  1. Transaction security (i.e. Read Write protection during multiple author of same record)
  2. Backup enabled to take automatic backup in night
  3. Archival database, to store archived data, and reduces load on main system
  4. Indexes in database, helps to query data faster than searching for same record in multiple workbooks.

5. Regular Backups

Like we have backups set in WhatsApp, a Placement Portal, provides backup of Placement information, so if our data gets messed up like power outrage etc. any how, we have a backup from where we can restart our work.

6. Placement Reports in your hands

Unlike Spreadsheets, where we have to draw charts and get our report generated using Word file, a Placement Portal, provides current performance report from a single dashboard with our KPIs already set.

Now, if we want to compare the KPIs of this and previous year, it is very convenient from a single click.

7. Correcting wrong information

Since we have divided the data gathering into multiple stakeholders, who can view only limited information which we are intended them to see. They can change information as per their convenience, like we change our information LinkedIn.

8. Combining information is easy

Now from a student placement record, a university level user can access student level information from just one screen, and not only students, they can access company information, current placement journey etc.