There are many ways to come up with ideas for software products. A proven way to generate high-quality ideas is to build something that you desperately need.
At Stele & Rivers Group, we help businesses collect and manage data. A recurring problem that we’re faced with is how to store and deliver the data that we collect in a scalable, efficient way.
We’ve found that many firms are eager to adopt centralized, cloud-based data storage in an attempt to organize their data. There are many reasons for this, with a significant emphasis as of late on preparing for a world where AI can automate or supplement tasks if given the right data as inputs.
The good news for companies looking to go down this path is that there are awesome, user-friendly data storage solutions like Airtable available in the market today. These solutions can be effective, but they bring an immediate, challenging question into play: how will business teams actually access the data when they need it for ad hoc analysis and reporting?
When reading the words “ad hoc analysis and reporting,” it’s hard to think of a better tool than Microsoft Excel. There’s simply no product that does a better job of finding a balance between the analytical power of a programming language and the tactile feel of scratch paper. Excel is ubiquitous in business for a reason.
As such, our earlier question might be better posed as follows: once businesses move their data to the cloud, how will they get it back to Excel when needed?
The answer? Flyline.
Flyline is an Excel plug-in that connects your spreadsheets to a variety of data storage sources. It allows for the best of both worlds when considering databases versus spreadsheets.
The product is a reflection of many years of experience supporting Excel-based data delivery solutions for Wall Street clients at S&P 500 FinTech firms, as well as the unique problems that we’ve uncovered in our current venture. We can’t wait to see what it can do for your business.
Check us out at getflyline.com or send me an email at sam@stelerivers.com to learn more!