Key Features
The Boardwalk Collaboration Platform (BCP) is a technology breakthrough that does for tabular data what relational databases did for file systems.BCP creates an enterprise-class, collaborative data management environment for positional data created and edited in Excel or any other tabular data environment which is stored and managed in the BCP Server in the cloud or behind the firewall. Process data, formulas, and layouts, whether originating in a spreadsheet or from an existing enterprise application, are used to create and drive BCP’s positional data management system. This means you don't have to "migrate" your data or change your existing processes-- BCP can literally be molded to your existing process. BCP bridges the gap between collaborative user workflows on the desktop and traditional enterprise systems.
Multi-user, Cell-level Collaboration
Multiple users can work on the same range (or multiple ranges) of tabular-based data at the same time on their desktop while working within Excel or a browser. There’s no checking out & checking in the shared data nor locking out input from other users. Much like with email, users can refresh their local data at any time to bring in changes made by others. And, when these changes are brought in, only the cells that have been updated are changed--- all your current data that has not changed is not overwritten. Users can then make their own updates and, when ready, submit their changes to the BCP Server which captures and validates the updates to data and business logic (formulas) automatically. All other users participating in the collaboration can then refresh their local desktop environment and see the changes made by other users show up right in the cells of their spreadsheet or browser. By enabling multiple users to work at the same time on the same positional data without leaving their desktop-based environment, you can realize significant time savings and reduce errors by eliminating the traditional “save-as, cut & paste, update, email, and repeat” manual collaborative process.
Users make changes within Excel or other tabular data environment just like they do today. For example, the user above is changing the value in Jun 07 FCT from 75 to a formula which points back to the May forecast and increases that amount by 20%. When the user submits their changes, the changes update the BCP Server with just the cells that have been changed (as opposed to the entire worksheet).
When other users click on Refresh Plan on their desktop, BCP compares their local data with what's on the server. In this case, the change by the VP sales
is shown. This makes it easy for all collaboration participants to see changes made by others.
When other users Refresh their local copy, the cell-level changes are brought into their
local environment and it's only the cells that have been changed. As shown above, the new column shows up as does the change to the Jun 07 FCT cell.
Within Excel, BCP leverages the comment feature to highlight the changes.
Automatic Multi-level Consolidation
BCP lets you set up consolidation hierarchies based on your specific process like sales reps & distributors reporting up to a sales manager. BCP automatically rolls updates made by users through multiple hierarchies giving you a consolidated, up-to-date view of your data on-demand. If a user adds a new row into the positional data they are working with on their desktop, when they submit their changes to the BCP Server, other users in the process will automatically see the rows show up in their local environment when they refresh. Of course, since BCP supports two-way, cell-level collaboration, if any changes are made to the consolidated data and submitted, those changes would show up in the local environment of all the collaboration participants.
BCP automatically consolidates input from multiple users in including new rows and columns. You can see above that a new row has been added by Bill Franks which automatically shows up in the VP's consolidated view. Likewise, changes by other reps all show up in the consolidated view on the VP's desktop.
Change Management
BCP’s cell-level persistence means updates from other users or backend systems refresh, rather than replace, only changes the cells in your desktop environment that have been updated so you can easily see what’s changed. In most other systems, changes by others overwrite ALL the values you have in your local data environment which makes change management and collaboration difficult. With BCP, when working in Excel, you can see the most recent update using Excel's comment feature. In addition, you can look at a cell history for every cell to see who has made changed to the shared value, when, and why-- including changes to formulas. You can also compare any change to any other change using BCP's powerful change management capabilities. BCP also updates all pivot reports automatically.
One of the biggest issues with collaborative data is understanding what's changed from version to version. With BCP, all changes at the cell level are automatically versioned using the patented BCP technology. This means as changes are made, only the changed cells are updated in your desktop environment and for Excel users, the comment feature is used to indicate the changes to the cell.
Automatic Version Control and Full Audit Trail of All Changes
Once your positional data is shared through BCP, all changes to all cells to BCP managed single version of the truth are continuously versioned enabling data comparisons at any point in time down to the cell level. This versioning capability means you have a complete audit trail of all changes which can be used to analyze data and insure regulatory compliance.
All updates by all users to the shared range of data are versioned in BCP. This means you can look at the changes and see if they added or deleted rows or columns. You can tell if they just updated cells or changed formulas. And, you can actually look at the changes for a specific user in a report or compare changes between any users.
A detailed change report for every cell is just a click away. You can see who has made changes to the cell including formula changes. And, since BCP versions all changes, if multiple users need to access the same cells at the same time, you can easily see if there have been multiple updates and let the process decide which data value should be accepted. Unlike other systems that rely on a check-in/check-out model where only one value can "win"-- all participants can work collaboratively with BCP concurrently and all updates are captured.
Cell-level Access Control & Security
BCP provides adaptive, role-appropriate access control down to the cell level leveraging your existing security infrastructure. You can specify which users can see which data. For example, you can specify which that users only see specific rows and columns and that some data is "read-only" data (like actual sales from previous months). And, this can be changed on-demand as the process requires so you can control users being able to change data, formulas, macros, and adding/deleting rows or columns.
BCP can control who can see what rows and columns and what they can do with the data. In the example above, the forecaster only sees their rows of data. Also, the revenue calculations are all read only-- driven by the forecast unit amounts and the deal sales price. If the reps tries to update read-only data, both Excel-side and server-side access control prevents any unauthorized changes.
Business Process Automation & Control
BCP can automate the data collection and calculation processes of even the most complicated business process. BCP can control the data process flow and aggregation of relevant data across multiple systems into BCP without any manual intervention. BCP can also interact with business process management solutions giving them access to cell-level data changes which need to be surfaced to other processes.
Since BCP is built on top of an industry standard, relational database, BCP can turn Excel spreadsheet-based data or any positional dataset and the associated business processes into "live" active data ranges which can intelligently interact with relational database driven enterprise applications at the data table level through a rich API.
