Online Rental Company
Challenges
An online rental company with 3,000 employees is facing challenges in data analysis efficiency and data security due to rapid business growth:
- The challenges of generating online spreadsheets on the server side
The company previously relied on tools like Apache POI to generate Excel files on the server side. However, this approach led to data being outside the company's control and did not support online collaboration. At the same time, the company attempted to generate online spreadsheets directly from the server, but implementing many of Excel's complex operations—such as copy-paste, undo-redo, drag-fill, freezing rows and columns, and inserting/deleting rows and columns—proved to be highly challenging. Additionally, the technical demands for formula calculation and large data display in Excel were extremely high, making the company’s in-house development process difficult. Eventually, they had to abandon in-house development and began searching for a mature solution in the market.
- Limitations in Customized Analysis
Due to the rapid expansion of the company's business, system requirements frequently change, and the existing BI system is unable to meet the diverse needs of analysts. For instance, it lacks the ability to customize formulas to create new calculation logic, cannot generate the required charts, and the absence of pivot table functionality makes data analysis complex. Additionally, the dashboard in the BI system lacks flexible layout options. More critically, the amount of data the BI system can display is limited, making it incapable of handling large-scale data analysis tasks, ultimately reducing the BI system to a mere "Excel download tool" for employees.
- Data Security Risks
Employees perform approximately 10,000 Excel file downloads from the BI system every day, which results in data being outside the company's control. This increases the risk of core data being leaked to competitors through email or messaging tools.
- Collaboration and Sharing Challenges
The company also found that employees' desktops, email inboxes, and chat groups were filled with numerous Excel files. A major reason for the frequent downloading and sharing of Excel files is that colleagues from other departments need to add data to the spreadsheets. The more departments involved, the lower the efficiency of consolidating this Excel data.
Solution
To enhance data analysis efficiency and resolve data security concerns, the company's R&D manager reached out to the Univer team. By embedding Univer into the company's BI system, they achieved remarkable results:
- Server-side Spreadsheet Snapshot Generation
Univer is an isomorphic full-stack framework, allowing in-house developers to easily generate spreadsheet snapshots on the server side using the Univer API. A snapshot is a JSON data structure defined by Univer, enabling the seamless integration of structured data from the BI system into the snapshot, resulting in more comprehensive data and the creation of reports that meet the specific needs of the company.
- Data Analysis Online
After embedding the Univer SDK, users can perform data analysis directly within the BI system using Univer Spreadsheets. Univer Spreadsheets provides a full Excel-like experience, supporting features such as charts, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and over 500 formulas, allowing employees to get started quickly without any training or the need to download local files. Univer’s modular plugin architecture, where each feature corresponds to a plugin, already includes over 100 plugins. Developers can flexibly extend these plugins to meet personalized data analysis needs, such as custom formulas, specialized chart types, enhanced pivot table aggregation, custom menus, and keyboard shortcuts.
- Enhancing Data Security
As an isomorphic full-stack framework, Univer can be embedded into a company's BI system and combined with its permission system to precisely control functions like data sharing, copy-paste, and watermarking. For example, in spreadsheets, the company can accurately manage viewing and editing permissions at the cell, worksheet, and workbook levels. This enhances the efficiency of information sharing while minimizing the risk of critical data leakage.
- Improving Collaboration Efficiency
Univer supports multi-user collaborative editing and uses OT (Operational Transformation) algorithms to resolve conflicts when employees edit simultaneously. It allows up to 200 users to edit a spreadsheet at the same time and 1,000 users to view it simultaneously, adhering to industry-leading standards. Employees can set permissions for copy-pasting, viewing, editing, and sharing spreadsheets, and collaborate by sharing a hyperlink. Any changes are instantly reflected in the spreadsheet, eliminating the need for frequent local file transfers and data consolidation. Additionally, the version history feature supports automatic data backups and allows restoration to any point in time, employees don't have to worry about accidental changes or data loss.
Client Feedback
Listen to what our customers say about us:
"The introduction of Univer has completely transformed our BI system. Not only has it enabled efficient server-side calculations and online data analysis, but it has also helped us better manage and protect our core data. Its high scalability and seamless integration have allowed us to easily adapt to changing business needs, significantly improving both our efficiency and data security. Univer is an excellent partner in our business upgrade."
R&D Manager/Online Rental Company
