What is Egeria Spreadsheets?

Egeria Spreadsheets is a collaborative multidimensional web-based spreadsheet service. It is designed to simplify creation and maintenance of large worksheets with complex calculations. Egeria can be used to quickly implement a wide range of planning, budgeting or reporting solutions, create financial models and perform what-if simulations.

Why another spreadsheet application?

I am working as an IT contractor (software development) for almost 10 years now. It mostly involves creating custom applications for non-techies (people from controlling, marketing, finance and so on) who work for large companies. Here are some observations I did so far:

• Spreadsheet is the most used (sometimes overused) tool among the non technical people
• Some of the projects I did were literally: We have a bunch of very complex spreadsheets here and we cannot maintain them any more. Could you please make a web application with the same functionality.
• Spreadsheets are preferred over custom applications when the requirements are changing very quickly: sometimes people from controlling or marketing departments cannot wait the 4-8 weeks till their IT department implements a change request. Copy-pasting spreadsheet formulas is often faster than overcoming bureaucracy in an enterprise environment.

Here are the goals behind the Egeria system:

• allow large and complex spreadsheets to remain maintainable
• the majority of people familiar with a traditional spreadsheet application should ideally be able to use it without special training

Key differences to traditional spreadsheets

• Multidimensional data model: worksheets are organized by business entities (SKUs, departments, years, months, scenarios and so on). The data is stored in a more structured way which has many benefits like simple and robust computations across multiple worksheets.
• Robust formulas: while Egeria's formulas are very similar to the formulas from common spreadsheet applications, there are two major differences:
  • The cell reference syntax is a bit more complex to make computations along multiple dimensions possible
  • Formulas cannot be copied. Instead one defines an 'area of effect' for each formula. With a properly defined area of effect a formula will still function correctly when new dimension elements (or new dimensions) are added.
• Web application: a single document can be viewed and edited by hundreds of users simultaneously

Key differences to OLAP-based business planning software

There are several products for enterprise planning and budgeting with a multidimensional data model. Egeria is different in the following ways:

• Egeria is not specialized for a certain task (like budgeting). It is more of a spreadsheet with a multidimensional data model.
• Egeria should be easier to use for people familiar with traditional spreadsheet applications.

Roadmap

I am working on the following features (which I think are critical for an MVP) at the moment:

• User authentication and authorization: It will be possible to restrict a part of a cube a user can view or edit. Filters/rows/columns would show different items depending on privleges granted to the logged on user (e.g., a user from a certain region would only see points of sale from his region).
• Improving data import and export capabilities
• Documentation: Egeria's cell formatting and formula concepts are very versatile. Apart from computations it can also be used for input validation and definition of a workflow process (e.g., by using a hypersheet with checkboxes to submit/reject input data for a certain period). These functions should be documented and explained with examples.

Request for comments

I have started this website before the commercial release to better understand the demand for such a system and to learn the needs of the potentional users. I also hope to find some pilot users. Here are the main concerns I have right now:

• Multidimensional data model: I was fascinated by the modeling power of a multidimensional spreadsheet, when I first started working on Egeria. A wide range of problems which are now solved by custom software systems (and months of work for skilled programmers and database engineers) can be solved in a matter of hours or days with a multidimensional spreadsheet. On the other hand things can get really complicated when a spreadsheet stops being flat. While showing the project to my friends I noticed that it is really hard to imagine cells in a multidimensional space for most of the people. I have read the story of Lotus Improv, but I still hope that things are different 30 years later. What do you think about the chances of adaptation of a multidimensional spreadsheet?
• Formula language: I was asked why I do not use MDX or DAX or another already existing language. Why invent something new? I think that MDX queries are not much simpler than SQL. It is still a kind of programming language which is only used by specialists. On the other hand everybody understands spreadsheet formulas: I click on a cell here, press '+', than I click on the other cell and it does what I want. Egeria formulas work in a similar fashion. Formulas in most of the cells are simple. Complex logic can be implemented with simple steps by storing interim result in their own cells (you can have a lot of them in an n-dimensional spreadsheet). This also makes the computation logic much more transparent. So what do you think about the formula language?
• Use cases: I have collected several example models inside the demo application. There are screencasts which explain them. So far I have financial planning, real estate valuation and project management. Do you have a use case for Egeria? Can you explain it?
• Features: Do you think some important features are missing? What do you think should be included in an MVP so you could use it in your company?
• Deployment: Should it be a cloud application? Would you prefer an on-premise installation? Does a single user desktop version make sense for you?
• Marketing strategy: I am trying to develop a marketing strategy at the moment. Do you have a piece of advice for me? What is the best approach for selling business software for a startup with limited financial resources? I would also be happy to find partners who would help me on the sales side.
• Other thoughts?

Please use the anonymous feedback button inside the application or drop me a mail. You can also post you thoughts in the google group.

Please also mail me if you'd like to schedule a demo or if you'd like to intall Egeria on your own machine.