A 2020 study (source) revealed that a whopping 1 in 8 people on this planet use Microsoft Excel.
One in eight people.Â
If you have ever worked in an office environment, there’s a more than decent chance that you’ve at least interfaced with the software. Excel is about as commonplace in the modern workplace as a desk or a computer. A different research group conducted a study on a representative sample that revealed all office employees spend approximately 38% of their time working within Excel – despite only half of that population ever receiving formal training in the software! (source).
That’s a lot of room for error.Â
To quote a great Canadian businessman (who will remain nameless due to the veracity of his statement):Â
‘Excel is a lot like an old calculator. And the problem with old calculators is that they’re prone to accidents. Let’s say you mistakenly press the wrong number, and the equation you’ve worked so hard to solve over the past twenty minutes is completely incorrect. And you never realized there was a mistake to begin with! Now imagine working with sensitive information on that same calculator, like the finances for a person or an entire company. One mistake could be catastrophic. That’s essentially what Excel is.’
In recent years, the software’s popularity has been called into question – especially following Public Health England (PHE)’s “shambolic” loss of nearly 16,000 positive Covid test cases due to a single Excel error.
At the height of England’s Covid-19 pandemic (Sept-Oct 2020) the labs that tested Covid swabs were amassing millions of results to be reported to the government. When one lab sent their results as a CSV file to PHE, nearly 16,000 positive test results were lost due to Excel’s million row limit. When the file was imported, this critical information was simply cut off and did not display with the rest of the data. Unaware of the mistake and unable to recover the data, the results were lost.
This mismanagement of 16,000 positive cases put nearly 50,000 people at high risk of danger, because the government didn’t know to tell them that they should take anti-exposure measures! (source). When confronted about this catastrophic Excel failure, Matt Hancock (the national Health Minister at the time) explained that it was a “combination of human error and IT.”
Because of this simple human and IT error, “the infection rate soared in several areas of England after the missing 16,000 cases were added to official figures” (The Guardian, source, 2020). Because of this common Excel error, families and loving relatives were placed in the immediate path of danger. Shouldn’t an incident like this prompt a discussion to assess whether our most common tools are still effective, in an ever growing and technologically advancing world?
This is an even more pressing conversation when it comes to the tools available to public servants. In Canada, the sheer quantity of sensitive information that the average government employee handles warrants six levels of security clearance!Â
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Should we still be trusting the valued information of Canadian citizens to infamously unreliable software, like Excel? A program that was first created in 1985. For reference, the internet was created in 1983. The internet. Shouldn’t the tools that are available to our public sector employees be current, safe, and secure from human or technological error?Â
That’s why, at Rain Technologies, we are committed to the creation of cutting-edge programs and applications that directly benefit our public sector peers – and the Canadian population at large. We’re working diligently, day and night, to disrupt the monopoly that outdated software like Excel has created.Â
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Rain Technologies is a finance technology company based in Ottawa, Ontario. They are dedicated to improving public sector systems in Canada and across the world. https://raintechnologiesinc.com.Â
111 Albert Street -Suite 300, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 1A5
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Co-founder
Business Development Manager
Chief Technology Officer
Alex is a dedicated entrepreneur and business professional, studying Finance and Commerce at the University of Ottawa. As CEO of Rain Technologies, Alex is focused on leading the company into new ventures, making major corporate decisions, and remaining hands-on so that every team member has the resources necessary to thrive.
In addition to being co-founder of Rain Technologies, Mikael Conde is an actor known for Midway (2019), Fatman (2020), and The Expanse (2015). As Business Development Manager of Rain, he pioneers efforts into new markets and territories, while communicating effectively with stakeholders.
Andrew is a talented and versatile software engineer, who graduated from the University of Ottawa. As CTO, Andrew is responsible for implementing and testing changes to our software offerings, as well as communicating with clients to discuss their technical and nontechnical requirements. He is also the product owner of our technological solutions.
Chief Operations Officer
Chief Finance Officer
Head Developer
Sebastian is an enthusiastic biomedical-mechanical engineering graduate with a passion for creative applications of STEM technologies. As Chief Operations Officer, Sebastian is focused on leading research, creating profitable roadmaps, and building frameworks to allow our team to reach our goals. He also works to help secure funding and pursue new opportunities all while making sure that day-to-day operations run smoothly.
Vanessa is a talented and driven finance professional, studying Finance at the University of Laval. As CFO, Vanessa will focus her efforts on ensuring the financial stability of the company while also providing essential consultation on our budget management software.
Aidan is a clever and resourceful computer guru, who studied Software Engineering at University of Ottawa. As head developer, Aidan works closely with the development team to construct and test our novel software solutions and ensures that all operational objectives are met throughout the development process.
Developer
Content Writer
As an engineering student at the University of Ottawa, Valentina has a passion for sustainability and humanitarianism- spending summers in northern Quebec teaching science and math in indigenous communities. As a developer at Rain she is focused on continuously building, testing, and improving our proprietary technologies to provide the best possible user experience.
John is an ambitious creative thinker, who studied Communications and Sociology at the University of Ottawa. As Content Writer, John will focus his efforts on publishing internal and external communications while ensuring that every piece of proprietary technology will be accompanied by an intuitive skilling process and knowledge base.
Mentor
Mentor, Vice-Chairperson
Jay is a passionate leader who loves to evangelize Customer Experience capabilities and believes in aligning solutions with evolving market conditions, technologies, and competitors. He has actively engaged and negotiated with strategic partners and technology vendors. He has scaled organizations by building a diverse global talent mix to evolve empowered, high-performing teams. Passionate about the process of creation, he shares that with his daughter in the form of art, electronics (Arduino or Raspberry Pi), 3D printing and woodworking. He spends his summers with his family mountain biking and exploring, and the winters downhill skiing. Jay will continue to provide professional oversight on our corporate operations and serve as a content matter expert to the entire team.
Carlos is an expert in PaaS & SaaS sales, marketing, and leadership- with over 20 years of experience as an executive in large
enterprises. He will provide professional guidance for the lead generation team; assisting in the navigation of high-level public sector
contract negotiation.
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Alex is a dedicated entrepreneur and business professional, studying Finance and Commerce at the University of Ottawa. As CEO of Rain Technologies, Alex is focused on leading the company into new ventures, making major corporate decisions, and remaining hands-on so that every team member has the resources necessary to thrive.
Co-founder
Business Development Manager
In addition to being co-founder of Rain Technologies, Mikael Conde is an actor known for Midway (2019), Fatman (2020), and The Expanse (2015). As Business Development Manager of Rain, he pioneers efforts into new markets and territories, while communicating effectively with stakeholders.
Chief Technology Officer
Andrew is a talented and versatile software engineer, who graduated from the University of Ottawa. As CTO, Andrew is responsible for implementing and testing changes to our software offerings, as well as communicating with clients to discuss their technical and nontechnical requirements. He is also the product owner of our technological solutions.
Chief Operations Officer
Sebastian is an enthusiastic biomedical-mechanical engineering graduate with a passion for creative applications of STEM technologies. As Chief Operations Officer, Sebastian is focused on leading research, creating profitable roadmaps, and building frameworks to allow our team to reach our goals. He also works to help secure funding and pursue new opportunities all while making sure that day-to-day operations run smoothly.
Chief Finance Officer
Vanessa is a talented and driven finance professional, studying Finance at the University of Laval. As CFO, Vanessa will focus her efforts on ensuring the financial stability of the company while also providing essential consultation on our budget management software.
Head Developer
Aidan is a clever and resourceful computer guru, who studied Software Engineering at University of Ottawa. As head developer, Aidan works closely with the development team to construct and test our novel software solutions and ensures that all operational objectives are met throughout the development process.
Developer
As an engineering student at the University of Ottawa, Valentina has a passion for sustainability and humanitarianism- spending summers in northern Quebec teaching science and math in indigenous communities. As a developer at Rain she is focused on continuously building, testing, and improving our proprietary technologies to provide the best possible user experience.
Content Writer
John is an ambitious creative thinker, who studied Communications and Sociology at the University of Ottawa. As Content Writer, John will focus his efforts on publishing internal and external communications while ensuring that every piece of proprietary technology will be accompanied by an intuitive skilling process and knowledge base.
Mentor
Jay is a passionate leader who loves to evangelize Customer Experience capabilities and believes in aligning solutions with evolving market conditions, technologies, and competitors. He has actively engaged and negotiated with strategic partners and technology vendors. He has scaled organizations by building a diverse global talent mix to evolve empowered, high-performing teams. Passionate about the process of creation, he shares that with his daughter in the form of art, electronics (Arduino or Raspberry Pi), 3D printing and woodworking. He spends his summers with his family mountain biking and exploring, and the winters downhill skiing. Jay will continue to provide professional oversight on our corporate operations and serve as a content matter expert to the entire team.
Mentor, Vice-Chairperson
Carlos is an expert in PaaS & SaaS sales, marketing, and leadership- with over 20 years of experience as an executive in large
enterprises. He will provide professional guidance for the lead generation team; assisting in the navigation of high-level public sector
contract negotiation.
