Organize and manage various structured information in the form of tables to realize online collaborative office and project management.

Wen | Rui Chu

Edit | Xiaoxi

Today, when collaborative office and efficient office have become a consensus, DingTalk, Feishu, and Tencent documents have become common online office tools. Small and medium-sized companies have also poured into the track of efficient office applications to find opportunities. The current market situation is that the various needs of users have been met by corresponding mainstream applications, and the basic management of fragmented information is still mainly solved by Excel tools, and Excel is not suitable for long text input and presentation. In this regard, online form tools represented by Airtable have appeared abroad, relying on online forms to combine text, pictures, links, and documents Various materials are integrated, suitable for users to manage information.

I learned recentlySeaTableis a domestic New online tabular efficiency tool application. Users can organize and manage various structured information in the form of tables to realize online collaborative office and project management. In addition, SeaTable also has good scalability to meet the needs of data processing and office automation. SeaTable was developed by Beijing Haiwen Mutual Knowledge Network Technology Co., Ltd. and officially released in January 2020.

Previously, I have reported another product of the company-private cloud disk deployment tool Seafile. The company’s co-founder Xu Jiaqiang introduced that the team came up with the idea of ​​integrating smart tables in the process of developing Seafile, and after research, it was decided to make SeaTable an independent product. Other domestic smart table products, such as Kodev, Vika, etc. tend to “low code” and “zero code”, emphasizing the use of tables to build applications, reducing development costs, and having strong attributes for developers and large enterprises, while SeaTable is positioned It is an efficient collaborative tool to help individuals and teams better manage scattered information. At present, SeaTable can be applied to a variety of demand scenarios such as simple project management, personal work plan management, expenditure detailed records, customer problem records and follow-up, sales data statistical analysis, etc., and can realize multi-user online collaborative editing. It can also be combined with forms. Realize team information collection and automatic aggregation, and solve the problem of poor effect of using Excel to record such content. In terms of specific functions, SeaTable has the following characteristics:

  • Rich data types. SeaTable supports editing rich text and long text in cells, and can insert multiple file types such as documents and pictures in cells.

Insert documents etc.

  • Classify, sort and filter data in different dimensions in the form of views, which is simple and intuitive, and can quickly generate basic statistical charts.

Realize multi-dimensional data viewing in the form of views

Support to quickly generate statistical charts

  • Strong scalability, supports three extension mechanisms: API, SDK, and plug-in. Users can use SeaTable as a database by calling API, or they can write plug-ins to increase page functions according to their own needs. In addition, SeaTable It also provides a variety of plug-ins for users to choose from.

In addition to learning from and referencing the basic functions of Airtable, SeaTable optimizes product functions based on the usage habits of domestic users, hoping to lower the threshold for users to use and improve the detailed experience:< /strong>

  • SeaTable supports data types that are frequently used, reducing data types required by niche groups and simplifying use.

  • SeaTable focuses on the core functions of tables, and uses view forms that are not frequently used by domestic users such as calendars and photo albums as plug-ins for users to choose from.

  • The login method is adjusted, and the login method is based on WeChat. At present, SeaTable can be used on PC and mobile terminals. The PC terminal is mainly in the form of a browser, and the mobile terminal is in the form of a WeChat applet. Through the WeChat applet, users can easily share and edit with multiple people.

In the above functions, the technical difficulty of SeaTable lies in the design of the table data structure and the realization of multi-user collaborative editing. In addition, SeaTable borrows from Seafile more mature technologies such as cell saving rich text and WYSIWYG editing. In terms of collaboration between the two products, SeaTable can now be configured to connect to Seafile and support access to attachment files from Seafile network disks.

In terms of the charging model, SeaTable divides users into three categories: personal, team, and enterprise. Both the personal version and the team version have free and paid versions to choose from. The personal paid version is expanded on the basis of the free version. Resources such as attachment space and limit on the total number of rows, and the paid team version has advanced functions such as creating groups. The enterprise customized version also supports local area network deployment and enterprise privatization deployment, and is currently in the exploratory stage. According to Xu Jiaqiang, SeaTable has accumulated tens of thousands of users since its official release, mainly from Seafile’s diversion and user word-of-mouth recommendations. Among them, 20% are monthly active users, and the proportion of team accounts exceeds 50%. At this stage, the company will focus on product details and user accumulation, and will enhance the functions of the paid version in the future.

SeaTable’s founding team all graduated from Tsinghua University and worked in well-known companies such as NetEase and EMC, with a strong technical background. The Seafile previously developed by the team has formed a relatively mature business model, with hundreds of medium and large paying customers, including Ping An of China, Tsinghua University, Dongfeng Nissan, Haro Travel, Yuanjiao, etc. At present, the company has achieved annual revenue of tens of millions and achieved profitability. Xu Jiaqiang said that the company’s current focus is to develop SeaTable products while maintaining the steady growth of the Seafile business.