Build or buy
Excel, Power Apps or software for your tier meetings?
Every plant starts with a whiteboard and a spreadsheet. Then somebody builds a better spreadsheet, and somebody else proposes a Power App. Each step is reasonable. The question is who keeps it running a year later, when the person who built it has moved on.
Below: what each option does well, a side-by-side for the things a tier meeting needs, and when dedicated software pays off. We make TeamGuru, and we still tell many plants to start on paper.
Side by side
| Excel or whiteboard | Power App built in-house | TeamGuru | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | Nothing new: the licence and the board are already there. | Usually covered by your Microsoft licences, plus the time of whoever builds it. | Group from $350 a month, billed annually, starting with a package for up to 10 people. |
| Who keeps it running | The person who built the file. When they move on, so does the logic. | Your developer or citizen developer, for every change request. | TeamGuru, with consultants who set it up with you and stay for support. |
| Actions between meetings | A list someone copies forward each day, or not. | Whatever you build; reminders and overdue views are extra work. | Each meeting has its own action list. Owners get a reminder before the due date and a weekly email of what is late. |
| Escalation to the next tier | A phone call or an email, outside the file. | Possible with Power Automate flows you design and maintain. | An action goes to named people or groups, or along timed levels by email or SMS, with who closed it and when. |
| KPIs on the board | Typed in each morning; colors by conditional formatting. | From your data sources, if you connect them. | SQDIP board with your own letters, color coding against target with a tolerance, trends, and data by API, CSV import or pasted from Excel. |
| Roll-up from team to plant | Someone merges the files before the review. | Built per report. | Summary metrics roll team values up to the area and the site by themselves. |
| Attendance and history | Rarely kept. | If you build it. | Present, excused or absent per person, the yearly rate, and every meeting's agenda, minutes and actions on record. |
| Link to strategy | A separate file, if any. | A separate app, if any. | KPIs and projects tie to objectives on the X-Matrix in the same system. |
| On the shop floor | The board is on the floor; the file is in the office. | Power Apps mobile app or browser. | Browser on PC, tablet, phone and TV. No native app and no offline mode. |
When each one is the right call
Excel or a whiteboard
- One team, one board, and the people who use it also keep it.
- You are still working out the meeting itself: tiers, agenda, KPIs. Paper is the fastest way to change it daily.
- Nobody above the team needs the data.
A Power App you build
- You have developers with time for it, and a process so specific that no product fits.
- Everything has to stay inside your Microsoft tenant, and that outweighs time to run.
- You are prepared to own the app for years: fixes, changes, new sites.
TeamGuru
- Tier 2 and Tier 3 need what Tier 1 found, without retyping it.
- Actions get lost between meetings, and nobody can say which ones are late.
- You want the same meeting in every area and every site, and the numbers to roll up.
- The person who built the spreadsheet or the app is the bottleneck.
Still on paper? Start with the method in the tier meetings guide and the SQDIP board guide. Ready to compare products? See tier meeting software, compared or TeamGuru as an iObeya alternative.
Frequently asked questions
Can we run tier meetings in Excel?
Yes, and many plants should start there. A simple sheet or a whiteboard is the fastest way to agree the tiers, the agenda and the KPIs. It starts to break when several teams feed one review, when actions get lost between meetings, or when the person who keeps the file is away.
Should we build our own app in Power Apps instead of buying software?
Build if you have the people to maintain it for years and a process no product fits. Buy if you want the method to run in weeks and someone else to keep the tool working. The cost of a home-built app is rarely the licence; it is every change request after go-live.
Can TeamGuru take our numbers from Excel?
Yes. KPI values can be pasted from Excel into the dashboard, imported as a CSV file or sent through the API. Many plants keep their source spreadsheets and let TeamGuru do the board, the actions and the escalation.
How long does it take to move from Excel to TeamGuru?
Most plants run their first team within a few weeks. Our consultants set up the meeting structure, KPIs and escalation path with you, based on what already works on your board.