Tolko is a private, Canadian-owned forest products company based in Vernon, British Columbia that manufactures and markets specialty forest products to world markets. With manufacturing operations across Western Canada, Tolko is a major producer and marketer of lumber, plywood, veneer, oriented strand board, and kraft papers. The company’s Woodlands operations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have received third-party certification of their sustainable forest management systems.

The Challenge

Tolko’s sales department needed to keep track of available lumber for sale from various manufacturing facilities throughout Canada. The sales team was using several whiteboards to share information and track sales. An impending office move required the sales team to look for an alternative solution that would be able to store the sales tracking information.

The Solution

After trying another solution unsuccessfully, the sales team came across EditGrid and determined it met their collaboration needs. By using EditGrid, each member of the sales team now easily updates an online spreadsheet that all members of the team can access.

The Result

By utilizing a collaborative tool such as EditGrid, Tolko’s sales team no longer wastes time trying to keep a whiteboard updated. Each team member can easily access the online spreadsheet directly from their desktop, and all have access to the same information in real time.

With our recent partnership with Atlassian, we have made the EditGrid Confluence plugin available to all Confluence Hosted and Enterprise Hosting customers.

Now, we are excited to announce that in the first quarter of 2008 (yes, that’s right around the corner), Confluence licensing customers will too be able to enjoy real-time collaboration and share virtually everything within their Confluence enterprise wiki. We will be offering two versions of the EditGrid Confluence plugin, a Standalone and a Hosted version. The Standalone version will be shipped with a trimmed down version of the EditGrid server tailored for Confluence customers while the Hosted version will connect to EditGrid’s own infrastruction at editgrid.com.

Complete details of the plugin and pricing are now available on our website.

By the way, if you like what you see, register and pre-order on or before February 18th, 2008 and we’ll be sure to give you a discount. Contact our sales team for more details on the plugin and our discount.

EditGrid was awarded the Gold Award in the Best Business Award category (formerly known as “IT Excellence Awards”) at the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2007. The Awards was organised by the Hong Kong Computer Society and supported by OGCIO, HKSAR Government.

About HKICTA:

The HKICTA is a collaborative effort among industry support organizations, ICT professional bodies, academia and the Government to establish a large scale and internationally recognised branding of ICT awards of Hong Kong.

The Awards aim to recognise, promote and commend the excellent achievements to which Hong Kong ICT professionals and organisations contribute. The Awards also encourage local practitioners to develop innovative and creative ICT solutions, which will uplift the image of Hong Kong ICT sectors, both locally and internationally.

EditGrid was recently reviewed by PC Magazine and was chosen as an Editors’ Choice for the ability to handle not only the simple spreadsheets, but the more complex spreadsheets.

I was impressed to find that EditGrid could perform feats that many of its rivals couldn’t.

It stands out for its elegant and efficient interface, and for collaboration and real-time-data tools that Excel can’t match.

We are very excited about the review but know there are areas where we can improve on. What’s more important is we want our users to find EditGrid as powerful and lucid as the review did. So, do let us know by leaving a comment or by email.

For those who are still looking for an online spreadsheet to collaborate in real-time, sign up and see the service for yourself.

Here is what we have to kick start 2008. We name this the Crunchies Special release to celebrate EditGrid being nominated as one of the finalist of the Crunchies Best Enterprise Startup Award.

We’ve 2 new features in this release.

Mashup Function: Image(). Online spreadsheet is interesting because it has more flexibilities to interact with the world of web services. The “Image()” function fetches live images/charts from other web services into a spreadsheet cell. The function can be used to fetch charts dynamically based on values stored in cells, I’ve made a template for you to try it now!

Charts from Alexa, Compete, Yahoo! Finance, Bloomberg, etc. etc. can be fetched dynamically into cells, providing an easy way for user to aggegrate and interact with these content. With this function, users can also create in-cell charts with Google Chart’s API.

Merge Cells! That’s right! It’s finally here. In our first release of 2008, the long awaited Merge Cell feature is out the development doors and into our users’ hands. It’s been a long time coming and we are estatic that we are able to offer this feature as we know this what you all have been looking for. So, why did it take so long? We already have a text overflow feature that serves 80% of the purpose, also we are committed to quality and do our very best to separate ourselves from others.

This release also include the 2 new integrations:

EditGrid Plugin for Confluence. EditGrid partners with Atlassian to offer EditGrid as the default plugin for Confluence hosted customers.

EditGrid App for Facebook. If you are using both EditGrid and Facebook. I highly recommend you to use EditGrid App on facebook to enjoy the integrated sharing and collaboration experience.

These represents EditGrid’s continous effort to reach out more users through integrating with enterprise and social platforms. Details of these integrations will be covered in seperate blog posts.

As with any updates or releases, we’d love to hear what you think and if you have encountered any issues or pesky bugs with this month’s release or with our service in general, please send an email to us, with the issues you are having or report them at our support forums.

For the complete list and details of the new features, enhancements and bug fixes, head over to our Change Log or better yet, sign in and give them a try.

Look for more to come in 2008!

January 2008 Release (rev 13651)

This release is to celebrate EditGrid being nominated as one of the finalists of the inaugural 2007 Crunchies Awards - Best Enterprise Startup Award.

The most notable new features in this release are:

• Mashup Function: IMAGE(), The “Image()” function fetches live images/charts from other web services into a spreadsheet cell. See this spreadsheet to explore its possibilities:
  http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/david/Magical_Image_Functions.new
• Merge Cells, finally. Our merge cell function supports both horizontal and vertical merge cells, better than other similar services.

There are 2 new integrations coming live with this release:

• EditGrid Plugin for Confluence - EditGrid partners with Atlassian (another Crunchies finalist) to offer EditGrid as the default plugin for Confluence hosted customers.
  http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2008/01/hosted_customer.html
• EditGrid App for Facebook - EditGrid app is available on Facebook, see our elegant integration here:
  http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2407333014

Enhancements:

• Invite your friends to try EditGrid
• New EditGrid menu item “Interesting!”

And some major bug fixes:

• Fixed keyboard shortcut keys, < Ctrl + A > and < Ctrl + Z > to function correctly in edit mode(#7417)
• Fixed editing box to remain in grid view when editing large amount of text in IE (#7681)
• Fixed Formula Dialog to successfully load help (#7720)
• Fixed remote data web fetch (#7576, #5950)
• Fixed rollback function error (#7567)
• Chart location will now render correctly (#7686)
• Fixed javascript errors for drop down menus in French UI (#7624)
• Viewport is able to scroll up or left for multiple selection by keyboard (#7591)
• Viewport is able to scroll leftwards or upwards following the leftward or upward bound of the multiple selection. (#7744)
• Fixed cell permalink in third party websites to reference back to EditGrid domain (#7769)

“EditGrid was the only option… that allowed linking of live data between spreadsheets, as well as the posting of live data to websites.”
– Eric Whitney, National Systems Manager for Civic Engagement, Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools operates a national network of apprenticeship programs for middle school students, connecting adult volunteers to young people in hands-on learning projects after school. At Citizen Schools, students develop the academic and leadership skills they need to do well in school, get into college, and become leaders in their careers and in their communities.

The Challenge

Citizen Schools struggled with managing the thousands of volunteers who signed up to assist students at regional locations. Each location must report volunteer sign-ups back to the national headquarters in Boston, and the company didn’t have the time or money to create a relational database to maintain the data. They previously used Microsoft Excel but since each state recorded data differently, it was extremely difficult to tabulate. Citizen Schools was eager to find a solution to manage their data collection needs.

The Solution

EditGrid online spreadsheets. In October 2006, Citizen Schools’ systems manager was introduced to EditGrid to maintain its volunteer database. No longer does the company have multiple versions of Excel documents e-mailed around, trying to keep track of sign-ups. EditGrid automatically tabulates reported data into state and national reports (using a feature called Remote Data linking). Because of EditGrid’s intuitive interface, minimal training was necessary to get users up and running.

The Result

EditGrid online spreadsheets allowed Citizen Schools to automatically tabulate data from its 36 programs. By using EditGrid, the company was able to obtain live statistics on recruiting efforts. The data proved valuable in showing investors and other potential donors statistics on the success of the program. Citizen Schools also received higher quality data since the data were automatically tabulated and stored in EditGrid. By using EditGrid, Citizen Schools estimates its systems manager has eliminated 50% of his administrative duties associated with tabulating data manually. He now spends more time on data analysis and leveraging that data to make better strategic decisions for Citizen Schools.

HUGHES Systique Corporation (HSC) is a leading communications consulting and software development company based in Rockville, Maryland, with a global delivery center in New Delhi, India. HSC provides consulting, systems architecture, and software engineering services to leading OEMs and ISVs.

The Challenge

HSCs sales team was evaluating fast and lightweight solutions to keep track of their sales funnel and customer leads. HSC originally used a CRM tool which was too complex and slow for the simple application they needed. The company then decided to a use an Excel spreadsheet to store all the sales data, but it became a tedious process to keep each salesperson’s individual documents updated. HSC would have to manually merge several spreadsheets into one spreadsheet to have an updated document. It was also hard to ensure that each salesperson had the most current spreadsheet. HSC sought a better way to collaborate and synchronize their sales data, in real-time.

The Solution

HSC researched online spreadsheet applications and came across EditGrid. HSCs sales team now shares one EditGrid spreadsheet allowing each sales person to input their sales figures. The data are then updated and stored in real-time. Each member of the sales team has access to the password protected document, and the data are always current. In addition, the sales team is also evaluating EditGrid Excel Plus, an off-line plug-in that allows users to make changes to a document when not connected, and then have the same merged into the master document when online.

The Result

By implementing EditGrid’s online spreadsheets, HSCs sales team has better communication and synchronization with their sales documents. HSC was happy to find a solution with the “power of Excel” online. They also benefit from the ability to allow other departments temporary access to their password protected documents.

Lone Star RS Platou has grown into one of the leading oil broker houses in the U.S.

The Challenge

Lone Star’s 15 tanker brokers based in Houston have to share sensitive information with each other. The brokers constantly update real-time trade sheets throughout the day and it’s essential they have current, accurate trade information available to their customers. The brokers created an Excel spreadsheet that was hosted on Lone Star’s server allowing each broker to have access to the document. After entering data on the spreadsheet, the brokers would have to manually save the document and refresh the screen – which didn’t always happen and would freeze up at times. This created problems because other brokers never knew when the document had been updated.

The Solution

One of Lone Star’s brokers searched for a better solution and found EditGrid. After testing the service the broker was pleased with the results. EditGrid’s automatic save feature means Lone Star’s brokers no longer have to remember to save a file. The real-time update feature also allows brokers to see when another broker is adding information on the spreadsheet.

The Result

Lone Star’s brokers can now see in real-time current trade information and make trade decisions based on accurate information. Since they don’t always have time to talk to each other when something important comes through, EditGrid allows the brokers to have access to the most current information, quickly and accurately.

Bionic Turtle offers an affordable way to prepare candidates for difficult financial certification examinations. The company provides a full-service, multimedia test aid product designed to prepare candidates for the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification. Bionic Turtle was founded in 2005 by David Harper, CFA, FRM, CIPM. In the fall of 2006, Bionic Turtle became an approved provider of professional development programs, a designation granted by the prestigious CFA Institute. Bionic Turtle is owned by Investor Alternatives, LLC

The Challenge

Bionic Turtle had been using Excel spreadsheets with learning objects such as articles and movie tutorials in helping students prepare for certification. Since Excel is a desktop application, the company experienced usability and accessibility problems. Bionic Turtle frequently had to email files back and forth to candidates. Problems were experienced when some candidates did not have Excel or when others didn’t have the latest version.

The Solution

A Bionic Turtle executive read a blog article about EditGrid and realized it solved several problems the company faced. By using EditGrid’s online spreadsheets, the company could easily share working examples of finance concepts, which complemented its use of Screencast tutorials. Bionic Turtle determined EditGrid was superior to other applications because it has a better array of options for sharing and publishing documents. The company can designate an EditGrid spreadsheet with read/write privileges and allow a user to grab their own customizable copy. Bionic Turtle also appreciates that EditGrid does not require viewers to buy subscriptions.

“One of the smartest things EditGrid has done, in my opinion, is mak(ing) the (spread)sheets seamless with Excel…”
–David Harper, CFA, FRM, CIPM, Founder, Bionic Turtle

The Result

Bionic Turtle can now easily collaborate with candidates using EditGrid’s online spreadsheets. Using traditional finance applications, .xls files are passed around the Internet. With EditGrid, the whole game has changed and there are no longer limitations related to geography. Bionic Turtle users can now collaborate interactively over a shared spreadsheet.