External services integration for internal usage of an organization, using Google App Script

Abstract

In this project we have tried to pick an already existing software solution and give it new features as well as integrating it with third party services, maintaining the freeware philosophy it had since its beginning. The main goal, anyway, is not to further extend the development of the application's core (the spreadsheet) but to boost its ability to communicate with other apps and services and to unify all the business intelligence and let the data flow. Most businesses run multiple applications (CRM, ERP, calendars...) that run independently and therefore have to lead with data type incompatibilities, loss of data and in consequence a decrease in economical profits. Integrating our services has many advantages, such as said flow of information between programs and people, consolidating our data storage and getting rid of duplicated resources or avoiding slow data allocation and access. The result of our investigation and development is an improved business opportunity flow whose stages are fully covered in a managing site where the user can check incoming opportunities, update economic data, keep track of his daily tasks and maintenance duties and also have a quick access to some useful reports which are updated in real time as sales go by. This system is fully builded upon free resources, which means that with a simple setup the end user can benefit of our solution with no economic expense while saving also time and headaches. Furthermore, this project in his «final» state still shows a huge potential for connecting to many other free services in the future, such as financial services, newsletter and marketing tools, booking engines, social media, business reviewing websites, invoicing apps... its scalability and low maintenance make it a good starting point in case someone wants to extend it or customize it even more.