When it comes to spreadsheet software, have you ever found yourself pouring an absurd amount of time into boring, monotonous tasks? With so many innovations’ in software technology, you’d think that there’d be a way to get around these time-consuming processes…

Enter spreadsheet software. Don’t worry, we’re not talking about setting up macros or formulas. We’re talking about giving you something that makes the hard things easier, like project management and data sharing.

You’ll wonder what you ever did without it. Here are 7 ways our spreadsheet software can autonomize your workflows.

1. Giving You A Flexible Database

It’s an agonizing process to collect and create data that you need to reuse for other projects, over and over again. So, imagine if the data you need, can be easily accessed and implemented, all from the same place?

That’s what we’ve gone ahead and done with SeaTable. It just makes sense. Not only can you access your data, you can access data from your team as well. No need to use FTP, cloud storage, or drag and drop, it’s all in one place and ready for you to use, immediately. All it takes is a few taps of your keyboard.

2. Keeping Everything Organized

It’s such a pain trying to find a file when it’s buried in multiple folders and named incorrectly.

But not to fret, SeaTable comes with a multitude of categorizing options. You can place past data into their own groups, filter a search based on that grouping, and even sort them based on factors like names or size.

You’ll never waste valuable time diving into 100’s of folders ever again.

3. Collaborative Working Made Easy

Collaborative working isn’t something new, but there’s still plenty of room in coming up with ways to make it easier for your team, and you.

The way SeaTable does this ties into the above section. With groups, everyone knows where to place their files and data. Managers can add or remove members to further nail down whose working where, as well as modify file permissions, so nobody makes the wrong changes to the wrong file.

There’s even more ways to keep the workflow ongoing. But knowing that everyone knows where to go, for what they need, and where to place their files, saves bundles of time in the process.

4. Integrated Web Forms For Collecting Data

It can become extremely repetitive to use external forms and somehow insert that information cleanly into your API’s and databases.

But you’ll never have to worry about that again. SeaTable houses the feature of creating web forms for external parties.

What this means is that you can create a form from within SeaTable, give access to your control groups or survey members, and the data they enter into that form gets automatically sent back to SeaTable. It’s clean and presentable with zero fuss.

It’s arguable that this is the best feature of SeaTable. If you’re looking to save time on forms, this could be the one reason you should try it out.

5. Available For Cloud, Dedicated Servers, And Local Servers

If security is something you hold dear, there’s nothing to worry about.

Whilst SeaTable keeps everything secure, you may still want that extra piece of mind. There’s a version called SeaTable on-premises, which allows you to install the software on your own servers, so the data stays completely within your company, and follows GDPR guidelines for European companies.

Simply install wherever you please, and point your team in the right direction. All the same features, just with none of the worry.

There’s also a dedicated server option that runs separately from SeaTable’s own servers, if you don’t have the means to install on your own server. All bases are covered.

6. One-And-Done Templates

You may encounter times when you’d have to start from scratch within SeaTable. This is normal for data collection, but that didn’t stop them.

SeaTable comes with a collection of ready to use templates that are aimed for use with project management, marketing, sales, HR, and software development. Use straight out of the box or modify to your tastes. It’s up to you.

If the pre-made templates don’t cover what you want, you can create your own. Save a lot of time and keep data consistent. Once it’s made, you’ll never have to make it again.

7. Comments

It’s important to keep your team in the loop. Every so often, a little human intervention is necessary for what software can’t communicate.

So of course, SeaTable includes a comment function. You can attach a comment thread to each table entry, meaning the comments made are specific to the correct data in question.

Direct, manage, and talk to your team without confusing everyone. Leaving a little note of appreciation for your team’s hard work also never hurt anyone!

Summary

Spreadsheets are integral to any complicated project. But so are people and their workflow.

Combining project management tools, collaborative working, and plenty of amazing tools into spreadsheets, not only saves time, but can keep a team happy and informed.

If you’d like to try it out, visit the website here. A free version is always available, for an unlimited time, to anyone who wishes to explore the benefits of the platform.

Supercharge your workflow and efficacy with spreadsheet software that aims to make everything just a little bit easier.

7 Ways Spreadsheet Software Can Wipe Out Time Wasting Processes was originally published in Geek Culture on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Even with companies all around the world developing plans to bring their employees back into the office, most of them plan on utilizing a hybrid model which will allow their employees to work both from the office and from home. Some are calling this model the “future of work,” which means that the tools and tactics workers have been utilizing whole working from home aren’t going to go anywhere. In fact, they’re going to become more necessary.

One of the most important tools for teams (especially those that aren’t always in the same room with one another) is one that can help everyone communicate, collaborate, and stay organized.

That’s where SeaTable comes in.

SeaTable is a flexible, collaborative spreadsheet that allows teams to manage all their tasks and information in one place. There is even a chat feature so team members can comment or ask a question about a certain entry, so you don’t have to integrate an app or copy and paste comments — everything is already in one place (which makes it a great AirTable alternative).

I want to go over 5 areas of work that SeaTable can be very useful. But first, let’s talk about some of the features the collaborative spreadsheet has to offer.

SeaTable Features

Grouping, Filtering, and Sorting

SeaTable works just like the spreadsheets that you’re most familiar with — only better. You can customize the rows and columns in your spreadsheet, group data, and filter it however you’d like. You have the option to color-code information according to priority, where it stands on the timeline, who is assigned to work on it, or whatever criteria makes the most sense to your team.

Plug-ins

SeaTable has a variety of flexible plug-ins that can be used however works best for your team. For example, there is a gallery plug-in that allows your team to store and share photos for presentations, projects, and more. There is an interactive world map plug-in, which is a great tool for teams that are spread out all over the world and for business with clients in different countries. SeaTable’s timeline plug-in is a great way to ensure your team and each of its member are on track with projects and deadlines.

You can choose from existing plug-ins that have been developed by SeaTable or the SeaTable community or develop your own plug-in, so you can add exactly what fits your team’s specific needs.

Forms

Online forms are a great way to collect data about your employees, clients, and audience. Google Forms is a very popular online form creator, but there’s no way to transfer the data into a spreadsheet, which means you would have to manually input the information.

SeaTable has an online form creator already built into it. With this feature, you can create custom surveys, distribute them, collect necessary data, and crunch the numbers all in one place. Each time a recipient fills out your online form, the data is automatically transferred to SeaTable so your team can seamlessly analyze information and take action.

Data linking

They say that working smart, not hard, is the best way to work. SeaTable works smarter by allowing you to link multiple tables together to create a collaborative spreadsheet that has all the information your team needs in one place. This eliminates the need for double data entry so your team can spend more time focusing on your task list.

Data visualization

Let’s be honest: a spreadsheet filled with numbers is often hard to read. It’s usually much easier to see values represented in a chart or graph, which is exactly what SeaTable can help you do. All you have to do is input the data that you want represented, choose how you would like it to be represented, and SeaTable will generate a clear visual for you.

Mobile support

You don’t have to be tied to your desk when you use SeaTable. The program has been optimized for mobile phones and tablets so you can work or manage your team while you’re on the go. This feature is awesome for those digital nomads out there who like to work and travel at the same time. You can now get just as much done with your smartphone as you can with your laptop.

Integrations

SeaTable is flexible and has tons of features that are designed to help your team work more efficiently, but no one program can do it ALL. You can link almost any other tool or app that’s available on the internet so you can see everything your team needs all in one place. Twitter, Google Drive, Dropbox, WordPress — you name it, you can likely connect it with SeaTable.

5 SeaTable Use Cases

Now that we’ve covered the features that SeaTable has to offer and how they can help your team, let’s dive into specific cases where all those features can greatly benefit your team.

1. Project Management

When dealing with project management, there’s so much to deal with other than just the project itself. There’s the timeline, task list, the people who are assigned to the project, the people who are assigned to different aspects of the project, deliverables, presentations… the list really goes on and on.

SeaTable and all its features make it easier than ever to keep track of a project and all its moving parts and see it through to completion. SeaTable offers more customization options than most other spreadsheets, so your team can manage your projects exactly the way you need to. It’s the easiest way to keep everyone on the same page and get those deadlines met.

2. Human Resources

Just like you need a way to manage projects, you need a way to manage the people in your team. SeaTable can help you organize applications, interviews and their outcomes, expenditures, employee information, schedules, timesheets, and more. You never have to scramble for timesheets at the end of a pay period or wonder when someone will be away for vacation because all that information will be in a collaborative spreadsheet and shared with the necessary people.

3. Software Development

Software development requires a lot of planning, mapping, testing, and retesting. SeaTable can help you keep track of your software’s roadmap, what’s been tested, what needs to be fixed, and where your team is at with bug fixes.

The spreadsheet’s many features make it easy to define what work needs to be done and assign tasks and responsibilities to the appropriate team member. SeaTable effectively acts as a central meeting point for all your team member so you can effectively and efficiently solve problems and get your new software launched as soon as possible.

4. Marketing

No matter what type of marketing your team does, SeaTable was built to help. You can plan campaigns and chat about the different things you want to include, gather and organize customer feedback so you can adjust campaigns accordingly, analyze the competition to figure out how you can out-perform them, plan events and release dates, and more.

You could even use SeaTable as a social media planner. Lay out photos and captions, blog topics and publish dates, collaborations with influencers and brands, and determine which post will be published on which platform.

5. Distribution

Need a place to store your customer’s contact information? SeaTable can be your address book. Want to keep track of who is ordering what and how often? SeaTable can be your sales log (and even generate charts). Need to convert more leads into sales? Yes, SeaTable can even help with that, too.

Once you gather a customer’s information from your lead generator, you can immediately begin inputting their information into a spreadsheet, get them connected with a sales rep (or you), and drive them toward a sale. Once they become a customer, you can actively work on developing a relationship with them by analyzing their activity and satisfaction levels and taking action based on the information you’ve collected on them.

SeaTable can also keep track of your expenses, invoices, and payroll so all your financial information is easy to access and interpret.

Final Thoughts

There’s not much that SeaTable can’t do. It’s a great alternative to other spreadsheet solutions because it’s flexible enough to fit your team’s specific needs and you can keep in contact with everyone in real time. Get questions answered immediately, keep your team organized, and take action!

You can get started with using SeaTable right now by clicking here. The longer you wait, the more time your team wastes being inefficient. Try it today — you won’t be disappointed.

5 Ways SeaTable Can Transform the Way Your Team Works Together was originally published in The Startup on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

80% of your company sales come from 20% of your customers.

Did you every wondered if the 80/20 rule is a law of nature? Why should that be the case for everyone? Imagine how successful you could be if you only had this 20% of customers?

This article is about a marketing automation that allows you to automatically filter out for follow-up only those promising customers that really promise great potential. This automation can be set up in a few minutes and then runs in the background without any manual intervention. Since you don’t have the possibility to intervene, you don’t run the risk to fall back into old habits and to process too many small customers.

Automatic lead classification with Integromat

This automation unfolds its power through the sensible combination of several software components. At its core is the Integromat automation platform, which combines three other cloud services to deliver the desired contacts. Integromat requires only an email address as a starting point for automation. This can come from a website registration form, for example, or be fed in some other way. In this example I assume a Gravity Forms of a WordPress website. Alternatively, however, JotForm or Google Forms would also be possible as input.

Validate the input

The first step is to pass the email address to the MailboxValidator service. This service checks for example if this is a valid email address, if the email address is from a typical free provider like Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook.com and determines a mailboxvalidator_score which indicates which quality the email address has. The purpose of this validation is simple. The more emails you have, the more rigorously you can pre-select at this step. If you have hundreds of registrations, you should focus here only on emails with a high score. Email addresses from Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo should be sorted out directly.

Enrich the email address to get to know your customers

The next step is to pass the email address to Clearbit. This service tries to identify a person or a company based on the email address. If Clearbit can identify a company based on the email domain, it returns information such as company name, address, date founded, number of employees, revenue, Alexa siterank and all social media channels. For example, the following graphic shows the result from info@medium.com. No person can be determined, but clearbit immediately recognizes the company.

You can now use a filter in Integromat to determine which companies are relevant for a follow. You should design the filters in such a way that you really only identify the relevant companies and do not get bogged down with too many follow-ups at the same time. For example, you can filter by the number of employees. Alternatively, you can specify that only people in a management position are returned. Another approach would be annual sales volume. You decide which metric is relevant to you and how many follow-ups you want to do.

Save all lead information and start your follow up

The last thing you need to do is save the contacts you have now identified so you can start and track your follow up process. The easiest way to save all contacts is to use the online spreadsheet SeaTable. In SeaTable you create a table and store there all the information you get from Clearbit. You can then expand this table as you wish to record your follow-up activities such as phone calls, e-mails or personal meetings. This way, you and your team will always keep track of your follow-ups.

Expand your marketing automation

Of course, this is not the end of the possibilities. For example, you could additionally hand over the email address to Sendinblue or ActiveCampaign to start an email automation directly. Alternatively, you could consider sending your new contact a personal video message via Dubb. This depends entirely on how you want to engage or contact your customers.

This automated lead classification using Integromat can be set up in less than an hour. But even if you need extra time to design the exact filters that fit, this workflow will be of great help to you in no time. Automation will make your life easier and save you a lot of time, helping you identify only relevant people or companies where you should really invest further time.

If you need some more inspiration, Integromat can also help with preparing your weekly team meetings or monitoring the news about every publication about your company.

The 80/20 rule is not a law of nature was originally published in Geek Culture on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SeaTable appears to be an excel sheet at first glance. Yet, SeaTable seems to be more of a database and a nice place to start for no-code or low-code development upon closer examination. It enables the development of new processes. It can improve a variety of minor procedures, particularly in the business world.

Read on to know more about the newest tech for organizing marketing departments!

A Deeper look at SeaTable

SeaTable is a new online spreadsheet program that works similarly to airtable.com and Microsoft lists. SeaTable is a practical method to collaborate: it aids with the organization and structure of any data type.

SeaTable may appear similar to Excel at first glance, but a closer examination reveals that SeaTable has much more to give. There is more to SeaTable than just text and numbers. Particularly, SeaTable contains over 30 column types to help you organize your data. It provides numerous ways to visualize your data, such as kanban, gallery, timeline, and more, from building web forms to capturing new data entries.

In essence, SeaTable enables the creation of workflows and the automation of processes without the need for developing knowledge and experience.

Airtable vs. SeaTable

Airtable, founded in 2012, is currently the most popular online spreadsheet application. SeaTable, on the other hand, is a relatively new offering, debuting in the market in just July of 2020. They may appear and feel similar, yet there are significant variances, such that:

• SeaTable is more than just a cloud-based service. It is possible to put it on any server you like.
• SeaTable is already accessible in five languages: English, German, French, Russian, and Chinese.

Integrating SeaTable into your Marketing Efforts

By streamlining your processes, minimizing coordination rounds, and using the strengths of SeaTable, you and your team can focus on your goals and other higher-value work.

Why invest in a Campaign Management System?

The short answer is you can build and apply repeatable processes to conduct effective marketing campaigns with the help of a solid campaign management system.

Campaign management necessitates meticulous planning, timely execution, and a wealth of knowledge and insight into the target audience. Depending on the size of the campaign, marketing campaign management usually requires a team of marketers.

More specifically, the job of a campaign manager is to combine data on the target market with existing customer data to create efficient marketing campaigns. These responsibilities include writing and revising campaign copy, coordinating implementation, maintaining consistent brand messaging, and reporting outcomes and statistics when the campaign finishes.

It can be overwhelming to manage ad campaigns, email campaigns, trade show campaigns, print campaigns, so on and so forth, and it can be tough to figure out why you are doing them in the first place due to their regularity.

However, with SeaTable, everything is possible.

Increase your Customer Satisfaction

SeaTable, a campaign management software that includes lead management, allows you to assess your prospects based on their purchase readiness. This option frees up the sales team to concentrate on the most promising opportunities.

SeaTable enables you to collect consumer feedback and keep track of it all. With SeaTable, you can gain many valuable insights into your products or services. Ultimately, by responding promptly and flexibly to individual feedback, SeaTable can improve your customer happiness.

Perform Competition Analysis

Without measurement and analysis, all of the other features are meaningless. It is critical to assess the effectiveness of your efforts and learn more about your target audience. Using analytics shows you which messages are effective by recording your customers’ reactions. This information is critical, especially for the sales staff, who must collaborate with Marketing to ensure that all messages are consistent and on-brand.

As a result, you must understand where your company stands concerning the competitors. For this matter, SeaTable can be used to establish and analyze key criteria. Stand out from the crowd and develop your unique selling points in no time with SeaTable!

Blogger Release Planning

Bloggers and vloggers understand the need to collect and share content, especially when working in a group; everyone needs to know what others are developing. Through greater organization and communication, you will be even more successful in your blogs and vlogs using SeaTable.

Companies require resources to provide appealing content that will attract visitors to their websites via various media. On that note, SeaTable is campaign management software that allows you to reuse material across many campaigns and repurpose it across multiple channels.

Uses of SeaTable

Businesses may use SeaTable for various purposes, thanks to its capabilities and features that make it efficient and effective.

• For collaboration: Collaboration and project management are two of SeaTable’s most essential applications. To promote accountability, project managers can assign tasks and let everyone know what needs to get done. Users can also leave comments on SeaTable to keep track of precise details about their duties. The software also enables users to customize their views to fit their work styles and priorities. It can also provide real-time updates to stakeholders, reducing the need for repetitive effort.
• For organizing social media: SeaTable is a project management tool that you may also use to manage social media activities. Notably, many app users have found success in using it to create monthly content calendars. Before the material is published, teams can use such calendars to go through several levels of approval. SeaTable is especially helpful in this regard because you can share the spreadsheet with multiple people, and you may plan material weeks ahead of time.
• For use as a blog guest database: SeaTable’s value to bloggers is what sets it apart. You can use the spreadsheet to keep track of themes and ideas. Users can use these spreadsheets to keep track of the topics that have already gotten addressed on the blogs.

SeaTable Features

SeaTable provides you with all of the tools you will need to remain in control of your data at all times, give them structure, keep an eye on the big picture, and collaborate effectively with them.

With that, here are the features that SeaTable boasts:

Diverse field types for your content

SeaTable is capable of handling a wide range of data, including the following:

• Text fields
• Figures
• Pictures
• People
• Time and date
• Formulas
• Single- and multi-select

All information at one glance

You can always maintain all information at a glance using SeaTable, no matter how large your data develops.

• Grouping, filtering and sorting: The more data you enter into the SeaTable system, the more powerful the features for organizing your data become. SeaTable allows you to group your data, filter it based on any criterion, and sort it by multiple columns. Each of these views can be easily saved as a template or even freeze them.
• Gallery, timeline, and world map: Individual plugins can be added to SeaTable as needed. Do you want to present your facts uniquely? Or do you want the values you input to be handled automatically? Try the developers’ official plugins, browse the community’s plugins, or create your custom functions. SeaTable provides you with the independence that you need!

Forms

Allow people to enter their data.

Do you need to collect data from your employees or business partners regularly? Save yourself the time and effort by allowing them to enter the data themselves. SeaTable will enable you to quickly construct online forms to email to the appropriate recipients via link. You will submit the information you provide directly to SeaTable. Easy, right?

Link your data Intelligently

Double data entering is a thing of the past. To construct intelligent associations, all it takes is a few clicks to join SeaTable entries between tables.

Statistics and Visualizations

With only a few clicks, you can create useful and professional graphics to visualize your data.

SeaTable, as previously established, allows for collaboration.

• Working in a team: SeaTable brings together different sets of team members to collaborate on tables. Each member of the group can immediately enter their thoughts after a new table gets formed.
• Share content with other users: SeaTable users may easily share their tables and data. You have complete control over who can read or edit which material.
• Release links for guests: You can still provide your business partners access to your data even if they do not have a SeaTable account. Create a unique link for any section of your tables. Your business partner will be able to see anything you wish to show them.

Mobile Support

Mobile phones and tablets are well-suited to SeaTable.

Mobile devices allow you to access your data on the go. No matter what device you use to access SeaTable, it has the same powerful features. Moreover, the UI scales down to fit smaller screens without affecting functionality.

Integrations

SeaTable allows you to link anything.

SeaTable is compatible with practically all of the tools you already have. With its extensive API, you can connect to hundreds of your favorite apps and services or access your content programmatically.

In today’s competitive world, organizations must do everything to keep a competitive stance. The significance of data in this aspect cannot get overstated. SeaTable provides you with all of the tools you will need to stay in charge of your data, organize it, keep track of it, and ultimately work with it. SeaTable will drive you and your company to new, greater heights.

● SeaTable is already accessible in five languages: English, German, French, Russian, and Chinese.

SeaTable: Revolutionizing Marketing Departments in All Industries was originally published in The Startup on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Its undeniable that the ability to code is an incredibly powerful skill. As the world has shifted towards software in the past few decades, we’ve seen that the capabilities that you can unlock by understanding the inner workings of software development are vast. Those who can use these skills to build products, systems, and solve problems are held in very high regard across all industries.

For a time, some were worried that this would create a gap between those that could code and those that couldn’t. There was a concern that it would be a significant barrier to entry to play a role in any form of modern entrepreneurship. Some purists still believe that.

Those who happen to be technical tend to fall prey a little to the confirmation bias that suggests that the way that they’ve gone about their career is the only way. So, when you hear from them, you’ll likely come away thinking that coding skills are the only way to truly develop your own things.

But if you take a slightly more open-minded look at the situation as it stands, we’re seeing a range of new technologies that are commoditizing a lot of these skills and making them more approachable for non-technical people. Instead of slogging through years of coding training before you can build something, companies are working to allow rapid prototyping and sophisticated software to be built without that prior knowledge. This is incredibly exciting for the future of the industry, and it means that building digital businesses is much more inclusive than it ever was before.

This general movement has been characterized as the ‘No Code Movement’.

What is No Code?

As alluded to above, the No Code movement¹ believes that coding should not represent a barrier to entry when someone wants to build something. Those that have been inspired by that mission have gone above and beyond to build tools that can be applied in a simple, non-technical way — but can get at some of the powerful capabilities that is possible through coding.

The term itself has only become part of the zeitgeist over the past couple of years as we’ve seen more and more companies enter the space. It was undoubtedly kickstarted by website platforms which began to offer DIY website development through intuitive interfaces² — on a foundation of templates and modular functionality. But now, we’ve moved beyond HTML development and expanded into every range of development that you might imagine.

The most canonical example of this might be Microsoft Excel³. As a spreadsheet program, it has modularized a lot of its core functionality so that it can be leveraged through a graphical user interface (GUI) in a simple and efficient way. When you use the formulas in Excel, you don’t have to understand how they were built, you only have to know how to apply them. A lot of the hard work has been done for you and you can stand on the shoulders of giants as a result.

That being said, Excel is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve seen a number of companies take that philosophy and expand on it in very interesting ways. These innovators are helping everyone to use programming mindsets and applications without having to understand the technicalities behind the scenes.

One of these companies that is walking this fine line is SeaTable.

Combining Spreadsheets with Databases

SeaTable comes into the picture because Excel can be quite static in how it works with data. As companies have invested more and more into spreadsheet-based information, they’ve begun to realize that there are certain inefficiencies that you really can’t get away from when you’re working with a static spreadsheet. Most specifically, it’s the database-related functionality that has been missing.

When you’re working with a database, there is a focus on keeping information well organized, structured, and up-to-date, as things change in the organization. They are typically quite complex and difficult to work with because the focus has been purely on developers. What SeaTable strives to do is to combine the user-interface of a spreadsheet with the functionality of a database.

On first glance, this might not seem that revolutionary. It’s all just data at the end of the day. But it only takes a little bit of time working with SeaTable and you start to understand the possibilities that open up in front of you.

When you add database functionality on top of your spreadsheet, you can enable a range of different automations, processes, and systems to be built that remain dynamic across your entire organization. In other words, you can replicate complicated software engineering without having to write a line of code. Instead, you leverage SeaTable’s functionality to create the sorts of internal processes that can supercharge your efficiency.

All of a sudden, your spreadsheet starts to work for you, rather than you having to do all the heavy lifting. It’s magical once you can appreciate the use case.

Collaboration

Another key piece of the value proposition here is that a product like SeaTable allows for much more efficient collaboration between colleagues. If you’ve ever worked before on a large Excel spreadsheet in a team environment, you’ll know of the pain that comes with version control and maintaining the integrity of the information. The moment you have more hands on the same data, things can get messy quick.

Applying a database mindset on top of these projects delivers incredible value because it takes away all of that. Immediately, your data can live and breathe — regardless of how many people are working on it. You have a single source of truth⁴ that you can rely on, and everyone can pull in the same direction.

This allows for a much greater scale of collaboration than was ever possible before. And that’s a key value that comes from No Code. It’s this idea that everyone should be able to contribute to these processes, not just those who have been given the keys to the kingdom. When you can build in parallel, combining the best pieces of data from each team, you can craft your very own company-wide operating system that manages everything that matters.

SeaTable recognizes this and has spent a lot of time crafting the user experience for this very use case. Companies who embrace this form of internal collaboration can unlock synergies and opportunities that they never thought were there. And that’s because you can work with the data, regardless of your technical expertise. You’ve got more minds to throw at the problem.

Modularization

It’s worth talking briefly about how modularization can transform the way your company operates. Let’s focus on data analysis for a second, one of the most important pieces of any modern company. The ability to scrape, clean, filter, and structure data is often left to the Business Intelligence team, or even to highly-trained data scientists who are tasked with answering queries from the rest for the organization. It’s done this way because working with data is finicky, and you need to have a good idea of what you’re doing so that you don’t break things.

SeaTable has found a way to commoditize⁵ these technical tasks and make them feel as easy as you could ever imagine. By understanding the sorts of things that companies need to function, they’ve built components and modules into their software that can be applied to any dataset that you throw at it. These modules act as plug-and-play software components that can be turned on and off at will, by anyone who wants to slice and dice that data.

It’s difficult to understate just how transformational that is. Instead of having to rely on a bottleneck like a data analysis team, your average employee is empowered to work with that data themselves. They can access more powerful functionality than is possible with Excel, all while not being overwhelmed with the complexities behind those modules.

That’s what No Code is all about. By abstracting those functions one level higher, you can focus more of your time on what really matters — which is the interpretation. The data processing is all but automated, and your sole focus can be what you do with those insights.

This has significant economic benefits, as you might expect, but it also creates intangible improvements in the work environment in which you operate. No one likes fighting with data and the easier you can make it, the more they’ll be encouraged to dig in. When you use a product like SeaTable, you encourage the sort of data-driven decision making that you always wanted but were unable to get because of the technical challenges associated with doing it well.

Plugging into the Community

The final piece of the No Code philosophy that plays a role here is how you can leverage the resources of the community. As the movement has grown, there has been this open-source inspired mindset where its actually encouraged that you build on the work of others. Instead of trying to figure out everything on your own, from scratch, its encouraged that you leverage the best of what other people have already figured out. The key criteria for success changes from ‘Can you build this?’ to ‘Can you find this?’. It’s the resourcefulness that is celebrated⁶.

You can see that in the way that SeaTable deals with plug-ins. Right from the start, they’ve been focused on building the platform infrastructure and then letting developers create a wide range of plugins that expand what is possible. When you start to look into the community, you’ll find an incredibly diversity in tools and applications that can radically transform the data that you’re working with. Regardless of what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s likely that there are others who have tried it before and have created a plugin that can fast-track your success.

In this way, SeaTable functions as the hub through which your internal processes can be built, while you leverage other external models for specific use cases that are relevant for your specific organization. The company could have easily held their cards close to their chest in the hope that they would build out all these various features, but that goes against the philosophy of what they’re trying to do here. The idea is that we succeed together and that we can create much more when we combine our efforts, rather than competing.

This mindset is rare in the business world, but it’s what sets SeaTable apart and makes it such a special product to use. In just a few years, they’ve managed to build a culture and community that is focused on creating value in every sphere that they can. And they’re just getting started.

Conclusion

While we’ve focused heavily on SeaTable itself in this piece, we hope that you’ve got a better sense of what the No Code movement is trying to accomplish. It’s often through these sorts of practical examples that you can begin to understand the possibilities that this paradigm shift can create.

The future of development and company building should not be held to ransom by those with technical skills. Data processing, analysis, prototyping, and development should be something that everyone can work with — because that’s what’s going to push industries forward. It’s your application of the insights that matter, and not the technical complexities you wade through to get there.

SeaTable is but one example of software that is breaking down those barriers and helping regular people to contribute meaningfully to their organizations from their unique perspectives. When you get this right, your entire company can transform.

1 ‘The Rise of the No Code Movement’ by Kate Kendall. https://www.sitepoint.com/the-rise-of-the-no-code-movement/

2 A Brief History of No Code’ by Arpit Choudhury. https://icanautomate.medium.com/a-brief-history-of-no-code-59c532d90b7f#

3 ‘Microsoft’s low-code tools: Now everyone can be a developer’ by Simon Bisson. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsofts-low-code-tools-now-everyone-can-be-a-developer/

4 Single Source of Truth — What It Is and Why You Want It Yesterday’ from Talend. https://www.talend.com/resources/single-source-truth/

5 ‘The No Code Approach: Running a business without coding’ by Can Ozuysal. https://userguiding.com/blog/no-code/

6 ‘Be Resourceful — One of the Most Important Skills to Succeed in Data Science’ by Admond Lee. https://towardsdatascience.com/be-resourceful-one-of-the-most-important-skills-to-succeed-in-data-science-6ed5f33c2939

How the No-Code Philosophy Can Transform How You Think About Data was originally published in Geek Culture on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Online workflows are quickly evolving with technology and need. This is especially true after the pandemic when businesses the world over needed a way to streamline spreadsheets and data entry amongst organizations. SeaTable made its entrance in the online world in July of 2020, making it a year old this month. While Airtable has been around since 2012, SeaTable offers new innovations and advantages for databases.

1. SeaTable is NOT a Cloud-Only Service

Airtable is only offered on the cloud. SeaTable is offered on the cloud but can also be installed and accessed locally giving you more options for privacy and access. In addition this opens up customizing options such as your own logo and url. You can also pre-determine who has access to your database, be it one person, large groups, or both.

2. SeaTable Offers Premium Functions and Higher Limits

SeaTable offers self-hosting that works in tandem with the SeaTable Cloud Offering. This means users can either start with SeaTable Cloud Free, which has quite generous limitations. SeaTable can store up to 2,000 rows and 1GB of data, which is unparalleled by the competition. The self-hosted Developer and Enterprise edition have no storage or row limit and allow to get SeaTable easily and without any limitations.

3. Efficiency

While Airtable has been around for awhile, there are some noticeable technological weaknesses when it comes to the application and its performance capabilities. For example:

• SeaTable allows more than 100,000 lines of data whereas Airtable can just offer up to 50.000 lines per base. SeaTable does not have hard data limits and therefore can be used more easily, especially in self-hosted systems.
• Multiple users can work in the same database easily with SeaTable and see one another’s real-time changes. In Airtable, this capability is possible but the real-time changes are not which allots for more room for error and data loss when it comes to collaboration.

4. Flexible API

When it comes to using a database for a large organization, having a flexible API is a huge benefit. When you use a flexible API, you are better able to manage your entire system, users, and databases by sharing a link or adding new members. With Airtable, you cannot create or share links in the same easy manner.

5. The Most Secure Data

You can’t afford not to have secure data when it comes to your business. SeaTable promises that you will have full control over where you data is stored and who does (and does not) have access to it. While using a cloud-based system like Airtable is convenient, it also puts all of your sensitive data at risk of a breach. With SeaTable, you set up your own server and have full control over the flow of your data as well as where it’s stored. This makes it the better option for sensitive and personal data that needs extra protection.

Conclusion

If you’re presently using Airtable and are interested in switching over to SeaTable, we make the process easy via export and import options. Both of these data bases have similar structures which means you and your team can learn to transition to SeaTable with ease. You’re also able to import an Excel sheet into SeaTable to get started. In addition, SeaTable works with Zapier, Integromat and n8n to included any automation tools you’d like to add to the database to help streamline workflows and automation.

For all your database needs and more, SeaTable offers more premium features and at a more affordable price. Check out the full details and sign up today at SeaTable.

5 Reasons SeaTable is Better Than Airtable was originally published in Geek Culture on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Every once in a while, you will encounter situations in which SeaTable’s standard features do not provide an easy solution. Don’t worry — SeaTable’s got you covered! For example, you may want to randomly pick some rows, automatically send an e-mail or generate a file. To meet these special demands, SeaTable Scripts, a scripting engine, has been integrated in SeaTable 1.3. If you want to realize a special data manipulation, just write your own little programm!

In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of a.) setting up a customer survey with SeaTable Forms and b.) running a random prize draw from these survey’s participants using SeaTable Scripts. By the end of this article, we’ll have developed a mini custom application in SeaTable.

There’s only one requirement for following this example: You need to login to SeaTable. If you haven’t registered, you can sign up for a free account on SeaTable.io.

Collect answers with SeaTable Forms

SeaTable integrates online forms as a standard feature. So when the table layout has been defined, the corresponding web form is already ready to use. You can fine-tune the form by excluding fields and by choosing whether or not the included ones are mandatory. SeaTable also provides the possibility to set up conditional questions. Assume the question ‘Would you recommend our product to your friends?’ is set to have three possible answers: Yes, no, maybe. Wouldn’t it be interesting to learn more from the unhappy customers? Here is what you can do: You create two additional columns ‘Why wouldn’t you recommend us?’ and ‘You are not sure. What can we improve?’ and then, in the form settings, you set these two questions to only appear, when the previous answer was no or maybe, respectively. Of course, the happy participants won’t see either question.

Enough theory, let’s get into practice.

Create your base and word the questions

Create a base ‘Customer Survey’ and start to add columns to the table. The names of the columns you create are the questions your customers will see on the web form.

When creating the columns, remember to choose the right column types. When you ask the name, use the text type; for Industry and Career, use the single select type. You may want to hear more from your participants about their ideas, so use the long text type for the ‘Suggestions’ column. This way, they can include text, images, links, and even tables in their answers.

Put up the form with several mouse clicks

In the top right corner of the table view, click on the ‘Forms’ button and give your new form a descriptive name. In the form editor, which will pop up next, you can decide which questions to show on the form, if notifications should be sent upon new entries, and what access permissions apply. Also, remember to set up the conditional questions. You can also add a note to appear on the form for either instructions, a “thank you” to the participants, or data privacy rules.

When you are done, click on the ‘Form Page’ button in the top right corner to show a preview of your survey. Test it and see how an answer will be automatically added to your table. If you are happy with the output, the form is ready to be shared.

Share your form with a link or a QR-Code

Click on the ‘Share Form’ button and a link as well as a QR-code are presented to you. You can either send the link via email or put up the QR-code that can be scanned with one’s mobile device.

And yes — of course — a SeaTable form is mobile friendly!

When the participants then open the link and fill in the form, their submissions will automatically be filled into your table ‘Customer Survey’ in real-time. Each answer is represented by one row in your table.

Survey is over? Choose the winners with SeaTable Scripts

To sweeten the deal, you have promised to your customers that five participants will be rewarded with a prize. Now that the survey is over, it is time to keep good on your word!

In order for the choice of the winners to be truly random, and thus fair, we’ll delegate the draw to a SeaTable script.

Add a new script

To prepare for the script, add a new table named ‘Winners’ within the base ‘Customer Survey’. This table will later list off the randomly chosen winning participants. There is no need to create any column in this table manually. The script will do that for us. In this table, click on the ‘Scripts’ icon in the top right corner and add a new script. Let’s call it ‘Random prize draw’. The following script will just do that:

const winningTableName = 'Winners';
const winningColumnName = 'Name';
const alternativeTableName = 'Customer Survey';
const alternativeViewName = 'Default view';
const alternativeColumnName = 'Your name?';
const winningCount = 5;
const table = base.getTableByName(alternativeTableName);
const view = base.getViewByName(table, alternativeViewName);
const rows = base.getRows(table, view);
const winningTable = base.getTableByName(winningTableName);

for (let i = 0; i < winningCount; i++) {
    let index = Math.floor(Math.random() * rows.length);
    selectedRow = rows[index];
    const selectedUser = selectedRow[alternativeColumnName];
    rows.splice(index, 1);
    base.addRow(winningTable, {[winningColumnName]: selectedUser});
}

And the winners are…

In the lower right corner, click on the ‘Run script’ button to run the script. And voilà — five participants have been randomly chosen from the table ‘Customer Survey’ and listed in the ‘Winners’ table. Note: When you rerun the code by hitting ‘Execute’, the script will choose five new winners and replace the previous ones.

To better understand and possibly adjust the script, consult the SeaTable Scripts Programming Manual. The manual is just one click away by clicking on the “i” icon in the lower left corner of the script editor.

Everyone wins with SeaTable

So that’s how you build a custom application with SeaTable! The survey was carried out efficiently and automatically through a web form and a script then randomly chose the winners. Granted, this custom application is miniature, but it highlights the capabilities of SeaTable and, with little effort, can be expanded and customized. By exporting, you can reuse the script and share it with others.

For reference, we have created a template base for you. It contains the column definitions, the form and the script. The single select columns “In which industry do you work?” and “What is your occupation?” are already equipped with SIC and SOC 2-digit codes. Feel free to tweak and use it as you see fit.

Feel inspired? Try it for yourself! Questions, comments, suggestions, or feature requests — let us know by starting a discussion on the SeaTable Forum.

Realizing Custom Applications With SeaTable Scripts was originally published in The Startup on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are thrilled to announce the official release of SeaTable Version 1.2. SeaTable 1.2 has some major updates in functionality and user experience in store for you. For the full list of changes, check the changelog. In this release note, we present some of the most exciting new features to you.

More colors and symbols in the base library

The base library looked a bit boring in the past? Not anymore! You can now change the icon and color of every base. At your disposal: 12 colors and more than 25 icons to choose from. Just click on the pencil icon to the right of the base name and design your style.

Customizing base icons and colors will help you organize and find your bases, especially when you have a lot of bases there. In a soon-to-be-released version, the base header color inside the grid editor will be synced with the icon color.

Batch export of files or images

At some point, you may want to download all files and pictures attached to your table. When archiving a base, for example, the new batch export function may come in handy. When batch-exporting, all files or images in one column get wrapped in a ZIP-file and you can download the package to disk.

In the context menu of columns with file and image types, you’ll find the ‘Download all’ function. By clicking the menu item, SeaTable will present you the resulting ZIP-file and show the number of elements to download. One more click and you have all the files in one compact archive.

Journey into the past — Snapshots

In SeaTable, you are always on top of what is going on in your bases. The log lists off all the modifications, additions, deletions of records as well as all the other operations in a base such as comments and column modifications. Additionally, SeaTable automatically “snapshots” bases in active daily use every 24 hours.

A snapshot captures the state of a base at the time of its creation. Put differently, snapshots are basically machines to travel back in time. You want to see what a base looked like three days ago? Forget the log, use the snapshot!

You can call the available snapshots of a base from the spreadsheet view or the advanced options in the base library. (Keep in mind, your subscription determines the time span for which SeaTable stores snapshots!) When restoring a snapshot from a base, a new base is created. So, no worries about overwriting your current base.

Duplication of views

View customization is one of the greatest features that SeaTable provides. You can sort, group and filter records, hide columns and lock views. Then you can save these combinations as an individual view. When you need this one view again, your data in the right shape and form is just one click away.

This feature has now become even stronger. In the past, it has taken a bit of busy work when creating a new view similar to an existing one. All the sort, group and filter conditions had to be set up from scratch again. Now this frustration is gone. With SeaTable 1.2, views can be duplicated.

In the view menu, you will find the menu item ‘Duplicate view’. Just one click and a new view is created based on the existing one and all adjustments to the sort, group and filter conditions are quickly done.

Fine-grained sharing permissions (Enterprise subscribers only)

A SeaTable base can be easily shared with other users. Thanks to sharing permissions, the sharing user also has full control over who can modify the data in a shared base or who has read-only access. Enterprise subscribers now get even more control over shared bases with view sharing, row locking and column permissions.

View sharing

Rather than sharing an entire base, Entreprise subscribers now have the possibility to share a particular view of a base. Filter the data, hide columns, sort and group the records so that the message is loud and clear and make only this available to other users. This is what view sharing is for.

When sharing a base — even when read-only — you expose the entire data in the base. With shared views, the recipients only have access to the data you want them to see.

Row locking

You need to share a base with other team members, but you want to keep them from changing the content of one or several rows? Then SeaTable 1.2 has exactly what you need: the new row locking function.

Right click on a cell, and you’ll find ‘Lock row’. Once a row is locked, a red triangle appears in the top right corner of the row number on the far left. To unlock, repeat the operation. Base administrators (base owners as well as group administrators) can unlock any row, while others can only unlock rows that are locked by themselves.

Column permissions

Besides row locking, base administrators can also limit access to particular columns. Specifically, they can decide who can edit values in a particular column: nobody, administrators only or specific users. Needless to mention: Column permissions can of course be combined with row permissions.

Column permissions are available for all column types. Open the column context menu and choose ‘Edit column permissions’. The little wizard that pops up will guide you through the rest.

General improvements

Apart from the new functions, the SeaTable developers have also worked hard to polish existing functions and improve the user experience. One particular focus was SeaTable’s usage on different screens and especially mobile devices. As a result, the various views should now work just as well on mobile devices as on desktop screens.

Do you wanna try SeaTable? Please give it a try and register at https://seatable.io/en/registrierung/.

Originally published at https://seatable.io on August 12, 2020.

What excites your customers and what are you not at all satisfied with? Are you looking for the lowest price or is an exciting shopping experience more important to you? Customer feedback not only offers you insights into the characteristics of your target group, it also gives you a completely new perspective on your own product. Once the feedback has been collected, it needs to be properly evaluated.

Customer feedback can be collected in many different ways, but if you want to conduct a classic online survey, our SeaTable template is a simple and efficient tool that will take your customer support to the next level. Using a web form, your customers can give direct feedback. The answers are immediately saved in their table and are available to your team for evaluation. With the help of statistics, particularly positive aspects, but also weak points can be recognised immediately. The central advantage of SeaTable is therefore that both data collection and data evaluation take place in the same tool. There is no need for cumbersome data preparation.

Let’s take a closer look at the customer feedback template.

Structure of our customer feedback template

In this template, the customer feedback of a fitness app was collected and evaluated. Important information about the customer, such as name, email address, date of the feedback and the completed feedback file, can be found in the first four columns. The feedback file is stored here centrally for each user of the table and can therefore be retrieved immediately. This saves you the trouble of searching for the documents from folders on your PC.

The next columns are the basis of your web form, let’s take a look at how to create such a form.

Creating the feedback questionnaire using the web form

The basis of the web form is your table columns. Enter all the questions that should appear in the questionnaire for your customers in the table columns. Let’s take the column “FitnessApp Experience” as an example. You want to ask how the general satisfaction with your app is for the customer. You have created a column “FitnessApp Experience” with a single choice from “Very satisfied” to “Very dissatisfied”. Now you create the form:

1. Click on Forms in the top right-hand corner
2. Click on Create Web Form
3. Give the form a name, this will also be visible to your customers
4. The form now appears with all the columns you have created
5. You can now prepare the individual questions for the customer
6. Give the customer help in answering the questions
7. Select the “Required” button to make the field a “Mandatory” field
8. Select how the answer options are to be displayed, in the example here they are clearly shown in a list
9. Fields that are irrelevant for your customers, i.e. fields that are only used by your employees, can be easily hidden on the right-hand side
10. Finished? Then click on Share at the top. You will receive a link and a QR code that you can use on your website, in customer e-mails or even on print media

Statistics to evaluate the customer feedback received

All answers from your customers appear immediately in your table and are visible to all responsible employees. The SeaTable statistics function is a useful tool to get an overview of their responses and to evaluate them in general. Click on Statistics in the top right-hand corner to see the statistics we have created for this template. Here we have created two tables that clearly show which features were named as “Favorite” and “Least Favorite” features by how many customers. In addition, a pie chart shows the general satisfaction with the app. You can add more statistics by clicking on Create Statistics.

Different views on the evaluation of the customer feedback

SeaTable allows you to tailor a view exactly to your needs through different views that immediately provide you with the information you want to focus on. The view can be easily changed in the top left drop-down menu. Here you can also create new views yourself.

The “Ratings” view shows you your customer feedback, sorted by the overall satisfaction of your customers. For this purpose, the view was simply grouped according to the column “FitnessApp Experience”. With the contact data you receive, you can, for example, contact very dissatisfied customers directly to conduct more in-depth surveys and optimise your product even further with the insights gained.

Customer feedback made easy — with SeaTable

Save yourself the time-consuming task of entering data or transferring your customer feedback to a separate evaluation tool. With SeaTable you have one tool for everything and take your customer support to the next level. All your customer feedback in one place, visible to everyone, always and everywhere.

Originally published at https://seatable.io on August 4, 2020.

Especially when working together with other HR departments or several interlocutors, a collaboratively used tool is the prerequisite for efficient HR management. What advantages does our applicant SeaTable management template offer compared to a conventional Excel sheet? You will find out in this article.

Typical problems with applicant management

When planning, recording and documenting job interviews, a wealth of information is generated. The difficulty often lies in making this diverse data available quickly and clearly to everyone involved in the application process. Here are a few problems that typically occur when using other tools and thus slow down or complicate the process.

Uploading a resume file

In the “Attachments” column you can easily upload your candidate’s resume or cover letter in Word or PDF format. An Excel spreadsheet does not offer this option. Here it is only possible to upload a picture of the corresponding file. This not only distorts the Excel table, but also makes it unclear. With the file upload function, our applicant management template prevents you from having to search for the desired document from external file folders on your PC. Every employee involved in the application process has the possibility to view the applicants’ CVs and motivation letters at any time by double-clicking on the document. This reliably prevents media discontinuity.

Multiline recording of the call information

Although Excel offers the possibility to record short keyword-like notes, the table has to be extended or enlarged if the amount of information is larger. This not only makes the table unclear, but is also annoying for the HR manager, who has to enter the information. In addition, short keywords are not enough to make a sound decision afterwards as to whether the candidate is suitable.

In our applicant management template, it is possible to quickly and clearly enter multi-line notes about the corresponding applicant. The note field can be well structured with bold or italic fonts. Enumerations, links and images can also be embedded in the continuous text. Due to the single-line preview of the note column, the table does not warp and remains clear even with a large number of applicants. Only by double-clicking on the corresponding field, the multiline text opens and can be viewed and edited. Detailed notes during the interview will help you to make the right decision afterwards. These four questions [DE] should suffice to assess the suitability of an applicant.

Different views for more efficient information retrieval

Our applicant management template offers, in addition to the various options for data entry, a variety of views so that you can access the required information even faster. With just a few clicks you can switch to the desired view or group, filter or sort the data according to your requirements.

Contact details

In the predefined view “Contact Information” you can see all relevant contact information about the candidates in your pipeline. Everything at a glance!

Job view

Would you like to view all applicants for a specific advertised position? The “Marketing Manager” view, for example, which displays all applicants who have applied for the position of Marketing Manager, can help you here. A second linked “Positions” table is used to enter all advertised positions with the corresponding job description and requirements. These could then be assigned to the individual applicants in the “Main View” in the “Applying for” column, thus enabling them to be sorted by position retrospectively.

Conversation information

Do you want to compare your applicants in order to make the right decision? The notes of the responsible HR managers on the relevant job interviews will help you here. To compare them directly with each other, switch to the “Information View”. Here, all columns except the notes columns have been hidden. In addition, all applicants were grouped according to application status. Double-click on the notes to view them and compare them easily.

Efficient applicant management with our applicant management SeaTable template

In contrast to Excel, our applicant SeaTable management template offers flexible possibilities to make your application process more efficient and collaborative. It doesn’t matter if you are a small company and want to expand your team or if you have an application process with several hundred applicants. With SeaTable you are provided with a powerful HR management tool that can be easily adapted to your needs.

You have successfully recruited new employees? Please have a look at our template for a successful onboarding of your newly recruited employees!

Originally published at https://seatable.io on July 23, 2020.