Ingersoll Rand looked for a solution to bring Excel-based processes up to date and identified EASA’s unique approach as ideal. EASA provides an intuitive low-code environment with which “fit for purpose” applications can be rapidly built. Unlike other low-code platforms, however, EASA enables application builders to leverage Excel spreadsheets (complete with macros and VBA) as “logic engines” for the apps they publish. This approach completely eliminates what would be a prohibitively expensive effort to recreate the logic that already exists in Excel. Several apps have been successfully deployed. Examples
include:
- Sales Concession Tool
This is used by the sales teams to quote for compressors, blowers, fluid transfer systems and other highly engineered products - Ticketing App
The pricing team uses this app to upload master pricing data to SAP as part of a formalized process; this eliminates the need for several hundred people independently updating data in SAP - Pricing Database App
This replaces an out-of-date Access database and is used for pricing aftermarket sales; it saves many hours per da
The latest app, currently in testing, automatically generates a price book; it makes it straightforward for management to update pricing and ensure that everyone is using the current version.
This approach of using a real database such as SQL Server combined with the logic capabilities of Excel has proved very agile and maintainable. It is highly relevant because a recent merger between Ingersoll Rand and Gardner Denver will result in significant changes to the business logic. If it was hard-coded this would be an impossible task; instead, the logic can be updated in Excel and then re-published as a web app, usually in minutes.