CollateBox Blog

Walk-through the spreadsheet evolution!

Human evolution has taken giant leaps, and to a large extent we are thankful to technology. We owe a lot to it, don’t we? In simple words, technology has made life easy. Meanwhile, it has developed irreverence and impiety within us.

The jargon “Respect your competitors” has a profound value to it, and what we would like to add to it is “Appreciate their work and contributions in the past & present”.

Let me walk you through a journey of our ancestors.

The Spreadsheet Evolution!

The word "spreadsheet" came from "spread" in its sense of a newspaper or magazine item that covers two facing pages, extending across the center fold and treating the two pages as one large one. The compound word "spread-sheet" came to mean the format used to present book-keeping ledgers.

It all started like this:

VisiCalc

Brainchild of Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Developed for Apple II in 1979 and later for IBM PC in 1981. In initial two years it turned the tables around for
Apple from being a hobbyist's toy to a useful tool for business. Apple owes a lot to them.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet that combined all essential features of modern spreadsheet applications, such as WYSIWYG interactive user interface, automatic recalculation, status and formula lines, range copying with relative and absolute references, formula building by selecting referenced cells. 

 

Lotus 1-2-3

This killer application was by Lotus Software (which is a part of IBM now). Lotus 1-2-3 drove sales of the PC due to the improvements in speed and graphics compared to VisiCalc on the Apple II.

 

Released in 1983, it displaced VisiCalc the very same year, and for a number of years was the leading spreadsheet for DOS. 

 

Multiplan

Microsoft came up with Multiplan in 1982, as a competitor to VisiCalc. Despite the release of Microsoft Chart, graphics companion software, Multiplan continued to be outsold by Lotus 1-2-3.

 

 

AppleWorks

In the meanwhile Apple worked hard for getting its market share, AppleWorks was one of the first integrated office suite for personal computers, featuring a word processor, spreadsheet, and database merged into a single program. It was written by Rupert Lissner and released in 1984.

 

 

Microsoft Excel

Later, Microsoft developed Excel on the Macintosh platform for several years, and then ported it to Windows 2.0. The Windows 3.x platforms of the early 1990s made it possible for Excel to take market share from Lotus.

 

 

Web based spreadsheets

Thanks to web technologies like Ajax circa 2005, a new generation of online spreadsheets has emerged.  Some even have strong multi-user collaboration features and / or offer real time updates.

Some legendary players in this list

• Google Docs
• Office Web Apps
• Zoho Office Suite

And, CollateBox is very proud to join the league.

 

Respect and honor to all who have contributed in spreadsheet evolution!!

 

Disclaimer: Data collated from Wikipedia. You can also add information (as a comment) about the firms whose mention has not been done on the post. 

 

-Athar

 

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Night is darkest before the dawn and I promise the dawn is coming!

Good and going forward...

Could Microsoft Office's enterprise dominance be challenged?

Lotus 1-2-3, Three Decades On

The night is darkest before the dawn and I promise the dawn is coming!

I must say the entire world is not so delighted with the way tools such as MS Excel or Google Docs function.

This isn’t something which we are shouting. There is a whole community of users which is hit by this storm. Today, let’s take you through one such small community, which is on Twitter.

Let me share some of the tweets: 

*This number is increasing each day

 

It’s not just about Google Docs there are a series of tweets about MS Excel. Have a look,

 

Some have issues with data validation.

 

This one’s a major underlying pain for many, at least small businesses.

 

There are some, who really ain’t that happy with both Excel and Google Docs,

*We can seriously understand your pain on this one

Maaaaaaaaan!! This one might just blow you away & yes completely.

Barclays excel spreadsheet error was a costly affair. Not just for Lehman brothers, but, it did have a major impact on the recession. Click here to read more 

Well, CollateBox can turn tables around for most of you. With CollateBox, you won’t have issues like making graphs, having multiple windows, data validation etc.

I must say this, though we aren’t feature rich as MS Excel, Google Docs (sooner or later we’ll be there :-)) but we can solve your collation, sharing & collaboration needs way better than others.

Here, I say it again.

Night is darkest before the dawn and I promise the dawn is coming!

 

-Athar

(On behalf  of Harvey Dent, DA, Gotham City)

 

 

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Sharing crumbs of data easier than sharing crumbs of bread!!!

Good and going forward...

Sharing crumbs of data easier than sharing crumbs of bread!!!

Here’s the solution, its CollateBox!

For what?

Have you ever tried sharing portion of data with team members? Let me clear things.

I have a sheet with 100 records, gotta share first 40 records with a team member sitting in Bristol, next 30 records with cute Asian lady, another 20 records with a workaholic team member from SF & the last set of 10 with my newly recruited sales guy at New York.

How do I do it??

MS Ecxel? Naaaaaaa.  Can some1 decide on one of the tools from the big list (Share-a-Point, SkyAdrive)?  And, yeah Cost is also a criteria, in fact a big one.

Gooble Doxx? I am sure they are still defining their own rules for Collaboration.
BTW, is there a way where I can hide data from Mr. Workaholic given that he has access to edit? No I guess.
Darn, what do I do if Mr. New Recruit doesn’t have a GeMail id??
No wonder some call them evil.

Simplest solution is http://www.collatebox.com/

Here’s how CollateBox works,

I am the owner of the list of 100 records, I’ll apply filters & create separate views n save them for my “Fantastic 4”.

100 records of ALL DATA, “Bristol View” of 40 records, “Cute Asian View” of 30 records, “Workaholic SF View” of 20 records, “New Recruit NY View” of 10 records by applying a filter.

Now, it’s simple. Just share each view with each one separately (not necessarily a GeMail id).

I get to sit with my coffee & enjoy looking at my data getting collated, organized n managed with authority.
And yeah, it’s a validated one! 

 

-Athar

Who says data has to be all business?

Thanks Michael, I will always be indebted to you for giving me this one. More I interact with customers; more I am beginning to believe that we have possibly two key segments of users and their data when it comes to CollateBox.

One is clearly all about managing and organizing growing lists of data around their own business (possibly a restaurant chain owner managing his customer food preference list and daily take away orders using CollateBox) and the other one is about individuals and professionals who are dedicatedly managing their gaming lists, community service and professional activity oriented programs and the associated data. 

Here, I am actually referring to your sailing club members & their contest schedule. Or, the weekend volunteering activity that you do for a not-for-profit organization that is trying to organize their existing projects and keep current donors updated while collaborating with others. 

 

Organize your lists of data using CollateBox

 

Both of the cases mentioned above are dealing with critical data, none can be discounted. But, the nature of the used case brings a different user who is keen to perform certain actions on their data.  

Catering to different users and addressing their common used cases (spreadsheet junkies, citizen developers, SOHO users) is super critical for us. This is why our UX, current features in offering and other things come to play.

But, you will be surprised that the needs for organizing and acting on data tends to be similar in nature – irrespective of the fact whether its pure business or community or just your personal list of “online game servers”. So totally, “Data does not have to be business” :-)

We care for your used case and extremely happy to have you with us. 

 

Best,

Sunny Ghosh
Founder, CollateBox Inc

Feel paralysed when it comes to managing your product price lists?

Have you ever managed a product price list for different regions or countries? I have; as a product manager for several years. It's horrible. Why?

Mostly because of how we have to work with lists today!

We cannot collaborate on region specific data unless we filter the data on region basis and save it as different sheets or files all together in Notepad, Excel or Google Docs. That’s not all - you have to work & update those multiple copies of price lists yourself if you are selling in multiple regions. It is next to impossible to get the information collated in a single master price list automatically.

To add to this don’t forget that sharing those files/sheets in Notepad & Excel in desktop mode is out of question simply because you really cannot share data in Excel without emailing the sheet multiple times and Google Docs does not offer a cell level share & collaboration capability for your price master sheet. Something these guys never thought about.

Collaborate with your team members

Look - all we need is a basic app level capability of finite share here. We have price data in rows and columns and the need is to share specific data items with specific users for them to (a) view (b) edit and (c) trigger work allocation based upon certain conditions.

 

Consider this scenario: Your product is marketed in US, China and UK and the VAT rates and prices of your product differ on a quarterly basis. You want to have a single master list and create partial data views from this list as shared views with specific users. Once they change their data, your master sheet or master list automatically gets updated. Vice versa, when you change they have their shared view automatically changed.

Isn’t it simple? Now if the guy from China adds a sudden spike in VAT rates in his shared view, would you like to setup an email notification to the country head and CFO? I would want to for sure. Isn't this scenario typical for working and collaborating on most lists today?

Well, good news is that we are making all this happen @ CollateBox.

I am, as always, interested to know how you achieve these today. What tools and possibly, which simple ways can I manage my price lists today...?

 

Best,

 

Sunny Ghosh
Founder, CollateBox

Is there a way to collect validated data using spreadsheets without significant efforts?

If you add an invalid date in a cell, spreadsheets let you move forward. In an email column if you enter an invalid email ID - it does not warn you and you live with this error forever. Add a special character before your number and you might get a warning with suggestions to convert the cell value to numbers or text. But you are free to ignore the warning and move forward.

Now imagine a bit more. You are working on a sheet that has age, date and country columns. If I share this sheet with 3 different team members and ask them to add their data based on existing date range, age range and country list – how would I achieve this without setting validation criteria?

If some of these points were addressed in spreadsheets without efforts, I doubt online forms would be in any demand for collecting validated data.

We are rethinking the best way to work and manage our data lists with a spreadsheet-like experience. Will love to have your thoughts on how you do all of these today. Spreadsheets or online forms….?

 

Best,

Sunny Ghosh
Founder, CollateBox Inc. 

 

Microsoft Excel, Project Management, SharePoint, Microsoft Office 365 – Are these too many tools for one single job?

I am reading this very interesting article on “Leveraging Office 365 for Project Collaboration” from Microsoft Office 365 community. Realizing Microsoft offers way too many tools to do one job – online collaboration.

While Google Docs also offer online collaboration to all its Gmail users for free, Microsoft charges $6 for Office 365. Any idea why? Sandwiched between these providers, customers are still looking for a single solution for online data collaboration. By that I am referring to a tool that lets me get going with online project management, inventory, customer and employee data management, or just a movie database to manage. I am assuming learning so many different tools requires a whole lot of efforts and managing data become a lot more complex for light business users.

 

Too many tools for one single job

What do you think? Can a single tool solve the issues of data collection, sharing and online collaboration in one or two simple clicks? Eager to get some perspectives here…

 

- Santa

 

Making spreadsheet data sharing better than Google Docs

Google ought to get the de-facto credit for moving the larger world “online”. Just think about the word “search” and you will see why. Seemingly limited to only the world of techies, the word “search” is now one of the most searched keywords in the world. You get 25 billion + results for “search” as compared to what you would get for the same keyword10 years back. Now imagine the number of people that have benefited from Google and its simple-to-use search.

So… when Google says online, they really mean “online”.

But I fail to understand why Google is taking this huge detour from its standard course when it comes to Google Docs & spreadsheets? Why is data sharing and collaboration so painful with Google Docs?

While productivity software has never been Google’s biggest strength, why do they continue to spend years on adding Microsoft Excel-like business tool functionality in Doc’s structure? Isn’t it true that the users who opted to go online continue to seek better ways to collaborate and share online.  

 

# Start fast without sweating

# Add a bunch of data in rows and columns with minimum clicks & in maximum ways

# Share data without maintaining multiple copies

# Keep control of your data while you collaborate with your team and friends

# Allow users to work real time, edit and share more (if need be…)

# Stay informed as things progress or with zero progress

# Access from anywhere using any device

# Throw up a few suggestions as my data grows to optimize the way I work

 

Pain of using Google Docs

 

These “asks” are very simple. Its not like we would like to work offline with Google Docs. But in our minds these little points have a host of issues in Google Docs. Let me explain…

 

# You cannot start using Google Docs without a Gmail ID. I should be able to start without creating a new email ID. Maybe I can leave this task for later.

# Yes, I do have an option to import an Excel file or just copy-paste data in the rows and columns or directly add data via some forms that‘s been created. But, I should also be able to add a web-link or a RSS feed for data to be fetched automatically and arranged in my Google spreadsheet. Why not Facebook stat export straight into Google Spreadsheets?

# While Google Spreadsheets is online, why doesn’t it go beyond versioning and creating multiple copies of the same data? What if I want to share different filters of the same spreadsheet for others to update and make my life easier?

# Collaboration in Google Docs allows multiple edits in a spreadsheet and also the ability to chat with other viewers and collaborators. Though this sounds impressive, it takes away all the control from my hands. I want to have complete control of the data that I own. How about a partial view? And btw, why doesn’t this feature work always…

# Have you tried sharing a portion of a Google spreadsheet with your team members. There is no way I can do it without copying the data and pasting it on a new sheet. This increases redundancy. There should be an option where I can just share a part of my spreadsheet – isn’t it?

# Google Docs gives email notifications when the shared spreadsheet is accessed and updated but it does not alert me if data is deleted and other volumes of data changes based on a specific time frame. We really need that…

# Multiple apps have come out on the Android and iPhone market to access Google Docs data. It is all very impressive. Have you ever been comfortable managing a huge spreadsheet from a 3.5inch screen?

# Finally, I always need to plan and figure out everything I want to do with my data in Google Docs. The tool is not intelligent enough to throw up a few suggestions to make data work harder for me. What can Google - “my next brain” do for me?

 

Sorry, we hate being the crying type. Hence CollateBox…

We are here (almost…) with something “Better than Google Docs” to share data online.

 

Sunny Ghosh
Founder, CollateBox Inc

 

Are you using Google Docs to share and collaborate on your data online?

Interesting huh!

 

- Santa

Import data from Excel and enable online collaboration

Excel is a gift for a single user who wants to manage personal or regular data with a minimum learning curve. But what happens when everything around that data changes more frequently than the data itself? The value of the original data and information gets lost. It’s almost like having a contact list that’s not updated and hence is of no importance.

To access, update and keep data alive, we need to collaborate on our data lists or spreadsheets with other team members and sadly, making data work for us isn’t that easy without programming. One might be able to import data from Excel into Microsoft Office 365, Google Docs or Zoho Spreadsheets to have the data accessible anytime, but that isn’t really the collaboration we need today?

Here’s where working with data efficiently and collaboratively kicks-in. The way I see things, collaboration is a lot like how we like to work together on a piece of data or an event. Having the data available anytime-anywhere being the most basic need and “anyhow” being the magic piece that we intend to bring about with Collatebox.com once you import your data from Excel, Google Docs or where maybe…

 

Online collaboration with CollateBox

 

 

Consider this simple “ask” from the below mentioned use case and you will see what I really mean by that “anyhow” working with data concept.

A group of us jointly organize the 31^st of December get together every year in my country house. We call upon our friends, relatives, and their friends and invite some local music bands to play thru the evening. We also organize for delicious food and drinks, children play area and some magic shows to keep it exciting. Behind the scene, all of these are stripped down into a bunch of Excel data lists: food menu / No. of invitees / vendors / organizing volunteers to manage different activities / funds collected, and so on and then emailed back and forth or shared via Google Docs shares to stay updated between all of us. 

Now the way I like to stay on top of things is to allocate these different pieces of data lists to different users (somewhat like a partial share) so that different users continue to access these files from anywhere using any device and these users can update their relevant data anytime.

Secondly, I want to make sure that whenever someone is entering data inside their list of activities – he or she has limited room for typo errors. Data validation via an online form structure is a must!

Thirdly, can I setup a few update parameters and get intimated via an email or a TEXT message? Like Simon just marked “Magic Show Order Status” as confirmed.

Can I track who is viewing or updating these data files? How about alerts when data volume changes? Like a mistake that deleted all my records from a certain list?

And I can go on with my need of real online collaboration….

Let’s put this together as simple as possible. We too need a tool that allows us to add, collaborate and stay on top of plans & business. For everything else, we have Excel, Google Docs and Zoho spreadsheets …

 

Sunny Ghosh
Founder, CollateBox