Indiana - The Report Archaeologist

An Excel Add-In which allowed users to create bespoke reports and drill down on data. 

Client

Investment Bank

Business Problem

The Risk Department of a major investment bank needed flexible, parameter-driven reports from corporate databases that analysts could interrogate, modify, and extend in Excel — without raising IT requests for each variation.

Solution Delivered

We developed an Excel Add-In that gave analysts direct control over report design. Rather than relying on pre-built queries, each analyst could configure their own report layout using Excel cell values as dynamic parameters.

  • A library of standardised parameterised queries, each mapped to Excel cell references via comment-based instructions
  • Full flexibility to combine query outputs, adjust parameters, and layer multiple data views within a single workbook
  • No IT involvement required for report creation or modification — analysts worked entirely within Excel

The solution gave business users control over report creation without having to defer to their IT department for each request.

Results

  • Reduced custom report creation from days or weeks to minutes or hours
  • Eliminated the IT bottleneck for ad-hoc analysis requests across the Fixed Income Risk team
  • Enabled analysts to respond to portfolio managers and senior leadership with same-day data views
  • Reduced reliance on key individuals who previously owned the report-building process

Technology

Excel | Visual Studio | VB.Net | SQL Server | VSTO

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