Distributed Spreadsheets

Some 30 years ago Dan Bricklin co-developed the first spreadsheet program for personal computers, VisiCalc, the "killer app" that launched the personal computing revolution. Socialtext partnered with Dan to develop SocialCalc, the distributed spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets are not only the most common application for calculations, but also for laying out information in lists, tables and databases. Unfortunately, when it comes to working with others, it is difficult to share and collaborate on spreadsheets without either e-mailing them as file attachments or publishing them to everyone. Most difficult is working with spreadsheet models that link across tabs or pages without inflicting the entire complex model on everyone.

Pull in key information from distributed spreadsheets, automatically

With the ability to easily link to information in other spreadsheets, your spreadsheets stay up-to-date as a simple byproduct of people keeping their own information current. If a marketing director is responsible for keeping his metrics up-to-date, the marketing VP’s spreadsheet that links to those numbers will always reflect the latest values.

Get a powerful new roll-up capability

Since you can define the contents of a cell to use a value from another spreadsheet, you get a powerful roll-up capability. Imagine a scenario where every sales rep keeps track of his or her own numbers on their own spreadsheet, each sales manager then rolls up their reps’ numbers into a regional spreadsheet, and the VP of sales then rolls up the regional numbers into a top-level spreadsheet. Each time one of the individual spreadsheets is updated, all the roll-up spreadsheets can reflect the update. If someone wants further detail, they simply click through to view the spreadsheet behind the spreadsheet. This roll-up capability eliminates the redundant and error prone effort of updating numbers in multiple places, and ensures all views of the information stay fresh.

Co-locate responsibility and control

Often, multiple people are responsible for the information reflected in any given spreadsheet. For example, a sales manager may have a spreadsheet that tracks demos for sales engineers, customer meetings for account reps and appointments for inside sales reps. In order to get the information from these various parties into one spreadsheet, the sales manager solves this problem one of two ways. Her first option is to send a file by e-mail, kicking off a flurry of emails and a slow, error-prone process. Her other option is to publish her entire spreadsheet model and all its contents to every contributor, which is especially problematic if it contains sensitive information.

With SocialCalc, these problems disappear. You still have the option of publishing a single spreadsheet that everyone updates on a workspace page, each person updating a different segment. The SocialCalc audit trail shows who made what changes and gives you the ability to roll back to an earlier revision.

Or, alternatively, you can interlink spreadsheets. In this way each taps into relevant information in other spreadsheets, with each value kept up-to-date by the person responsible for the information. SocialCalc maintains the security infrastructure you have in place, so each person sees only the information they are authorized to see.

Get a robust security infrastructure for spreadsheet information

Since SocialCalc works within the security structure of the Socialtext collaboration platform, your information stays secure even when rolled up across workspaces. Let’s use an example of a top-level roll-up spreadsheet that resides on a workspace only open to the executive management team. This spreadsheet pulls information from department spreadsheets that reside on other authorized workspaces. Each individual department manages the model and data inputs for their respective spreadsheets. Since the workspace where the top-level roll-up spreadsheet resides is only open to the executive management team, they are the only ones who will see the top-level roll-up spreadsheet. It will not be seen by unauthorized users – even others whose spreadsheets contributed to it.

Make your spreadsheets social

SocialCalc spreadsheets have all the capabilities people love about social software – easy authoring, linking, tagging, searching, revision history and discovery. Integrated notifications alert others when spreadsheets are added or updated. This allows the spreadsheet to be discovered by a broader group and serve as a more leveraged resource for your organization. SocialCalc spreadsheets are also integrated into the larger information structure of your Socialtext collaboration platform. You can define the contents of a cell to use a value from another spreadsheet, or a range of cells from another spreadsheet. You can link from within a cell to another >wiki page or spreadsheet – on the same workspace or across workspaces. The contents of a cell can show an entire wiki page, a blog, an image or even a video. Profile links – a person’s picture, name, and the date and time – can be included in spreadsheets so everyone gets a picture of the people behind the work.

And on any workspace page, you can also pull in parts of a spreadsheet – a cell or an entire range of cells.

Surround your numbers with context

The values in spreadsheets are often used to drive important business decisions. But those values only serve you well when the assumptions behind them are understood and the logic that calculates them is correct. You need them to be interpreted in a consistent way by all who use them. Within a workspace, a spreadsheet can be surrounded with context about its structure, logic, and assumptions. You can also surround it with related resources that help make sure everyone gets the most out of it. You surround it with descriptive text, hyperlinks to related resources, embedded images, video, and attachments. With the spreadsheet as part of the workspace structure, everyone can ask questions and give input openly, in a way that serves to further clarify understanding for all.

See SocialCalc in action in just 3 minutes

Product Demo, 3:00 minutes

See how SocialCalc lets you easily pull information into your spreadsheet from other spreadsheets. You can now directly leverage information from other sources instead of having to send spreadsheet files around via e-mail. Team members only have to update information one time, in one place.

This video shows how data can be rolled up from multiple different spreadsheets into a master spreadsheet. The master spreadsheet is updated automatically every time any of the linked spreadsheets get updated. Executives get a real-time view of their business at all times, across all departments.