EASA Software
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Analyst Coverage: Philip Howard and Daniel Howard
EASA was initially developed by an engineering software development team at AEA Technology (which was previously the entity known as UKAEA – the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority) as a rapid, custom user-interface (UI) building tool having the end goal of simplifying the execution of their complex and general modeling and simulation software for very specific (and usually often repeated) design studies. This substantially reduced the level of expertise needed by their customers to operate the software while making it much more efficient for existing users. Over time, EASA evolved into a far more general tool that could not only greatly simplify the running of a single program, but also complete workflows, or software processes involving the integration of multiple and dissimilar software.
EASA was so successful that AEA created a new business entity focused on its development, support and marketing, and this entity was ultimately spun off as an independent company. EASA has operations in Oxford, UK; Tampa, Florida; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Recently (July 2022), EASA was acquired by Volaris Group, itself part of Constellation Software Inc. (CSI, or CSU on the Toronto Stock Exchange). CSI has revenues of over $5B a year and is based in Toronto.
EASA
Last Updated: 5th September 2022
EASA offers two modules: EASA Web and EASA Sheets. EASA Web is the original product, and still accounts for the vast majority of users. It enables you to create custom, enterprise-grade web applications built around your existing spreadsheets, workflows, and other End User Computing (EUC) models. This works, in essence, by capturing the processes that surround any given model, then encoding them into the resulting web app along with the Excel model itself. The end result is that you can expose your models for business use while enjoying several benefits: for instance, your models no longer need to reside on your local device, but can be accessed and run via a web browser; complex models can be accessed using a simple, business-friendly interface; and your models (and particularly your spreadsheets) can be exposed without allowing them to be copied or altered. Moreover, EASA Web enables you to do this without having to write any computer code, meaning you do not need to be a programmer to use it. In this sense, it could be described as a low- or no-code platform, although in practice it is largely in a class of its own. In fact, to our knowledge, there are no competing products that will directly incorporate your existing assets and models in the same way as EASA Web.
In short, EASA Web is an effective tool for building out your most complex and important spreadsheets, as well as various other models, into full-blown web apps, and is vastly faster than hand-coding the same. On the other hand, it will still probably be overkill for many of the spreadsheets within your organisation. This is where EASA Sheets comes in. EASA Sheets is essentially a specialised, web-based launcher for Excel that provides ease of deployment and access while still giving you centralised control of your organisation’s assorted spreadsheets. This carries over some key benefits from EASA Web – most notably, although spreadsheet models are opened and run on the user’s machine, they cannot be saved locally – but trades the customised interface (as well as some security and a few other miscellanies) for an even lower barrier of entry than EASA Web. This makes it ideal for deploying to your spreadsheets en masse, perhaps as part of an intermediary stage before full EASA Web adoption.
Customer Quotes
“EASA has defined itself as the perfect complement to Excel; no longer shall the computational power of Excel be marooned on a desktop, available only to expert users.”
Vincent Page, Technical Solutions Manager, Hyde Marine
“EASA is the only tool we were able to find that can fully address the Governance, Risk and Compliance issues of spreadsheets.”
Grant Donnell, Application Landscape Manager, LeasePlan
“We have used EASA to build CPQ tools which consolidate dozens of processes across our business. As a “citizen developer”, I can publish my own apps without relying on IT. The ability to put a wrapper around a pre-existing spreadsheet is also attractive – you don’t have to code any logic.”
Nick Seagrave, Pricing Manager, Ingersoll Rand
Fig 1 - EASA transforms spreadsheets into web apps
Using EASA Web, you create custom web applications which connect to underlying spreadsheets, scripts, databases, and other EUC assets. The underlying tools (Excel, for instance) or code that define your applications no longer need to be shared: instead, you share the web application that interfaces to that tool. This means, firstly, that the end-users do not have to have any of these tools or code running on whatever device they are using. This in turn means that EASA Web applications are easily deployable more or less anywhere. It also means that the application interface does not need to be based on the technology underpinning the application: you may be interacting, ultimately, with a spreadsheet, but your interface doesn’t have to look like a spreadsheet unless you want it to. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this approach means that you can change the logic in your underlying application without having to change the user interface. In the case of a spreadsheet application, for example, this means that you can ensure that users are always employing the latest, most current version of that spreadsheet.
An illustrative example is how EASA Web transforms Excel. Excel is a program that has both the interface and logic contained within it, and can cause chaos in terms of version control, error introduction, and error propagation, not to mention lack of control of critical intellectual property, and no ability to monitor or audit its use. With EASA Web, users no longer need to have Excel running locally, they simply need a web browser to access and use the spreadsheet but cannot copy, download or change it. But EASA Web also allows other programs to be integrated with the spreadsheet, so databases, CRM, ERP and virtually any other program can now be packaged with the web app, making complex workflows usable by people who do not have to have any direct knowledge of how to operate these various software tools.
Access management, version control, audit trails, load balancing, and cloud support – among other things – are provided. You can ingest external data into your EASA Web application via web services and/or JDBC, and integration with various CRM systems (such as Salesforce) is also included.
EASA Web is, to the best of our knowledge, unique: we are aware of no other product on the market that has been designed to turn your EUC models into software applications. It combines a low-code development platform with EUC governance in a way that is both novel and effective, and meaningfully addresses the problem of shadow IT that is at the core of both of those spaces. This is the first of its advantages: if you want what it’s got, there’s nothing else like it.
Moreover, there are good reasons to care about this kind of offering. From a low-code perspective, you’ve got the ease of creating applications built around your existing models. From an EUC governance perspective, the centralised applications created by EASA Web are notable for providing both model security and model access. In fact, it is clear that securing the intellectual property in your underlying models is a fundamental part of EASA’s proposition.
At the same time, EASA Sheets provides more general spreadsheet governance, suitable for use when there are many spreadsheets that need to be centrally controlled. This fills the hole left by EASA Web’s application-based approach. Although by itself we would describe EASA Sheets as a fairly slim offering, this works to its advantage when considered alongside EASA Web.
The Bottom Line
EASA offers a unique and effective pair of products that blur the line between low-code development and EUC governance. Whether you’re having issues with shadow IT or you want to operationalise your models for more general benefit, EASA is more than worth a look.
EASA Software
Last Updated: 10th April 2017
EASA continues its original mission of making software and software processes far easier to use, but has greatly broadened that mission to include the sort of compliance, security and governance capabilities that one might expect. In particular, EASA web-enables your software and workflows, such that software no longer needs to reside on your local device, but rather is accessed and run via a simple web browser connected to a company's intranet or internal network. But, sticking with its original mission of simplicity, EASA enables you to do all of this without having to write any computer code - you do not need to be a programmer to use it.
So, to summarise what it does, it enables you to create a custom user interface, allowing simple execution of complex software and workflows, and makes these interfaces web-accessible, protecting the core software from ever being copied or altered.
A good example is how EASA transforms Excel. Excel is a program that has both the interface and logic contained in it, and can cause enormous chaos in terms of version control, error introduction, and error propagation, not to mention no control of critical intellectual property, and no ability to monitor or audit its use. With EASA, users no longer need to have Excel running locally, they simply need a web browser to access and use the spreadsheet but cannot copy, download or change it. But EASA also allows other programs to now be integrated with the spreadsheet, so databases, CRM, ERP and virtually any other program can now be packaged with the web app, making complex workflows usable by people who do not have to have any direct knowledge of how to operate these various software tools.
EASA operates via a direct marketing approach where it has offices in Oxford, UK, and Pittsburgh, PA. The company has partners in Japan, China, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, South Korea and India.
EASA is suitable for use in a wide-range of applications. It has, for example, been used to web-enable and generally modernise legacy text-based applications driven from the command line. More typically, however, its focus is on two areas. First are those where Excel plays a critical role, such as CPQ (configure, price, quote), proposal generation and any other company specific process, and second are software workflows involving models and simulation. These can be scientific/engineering, financial, or insurance risk scenarios to name but a few. Clients include General Electric, Monsanto, Proctor & Gamble, Zurich, and others.
Using EASA you create custom web applications, known as EASAPs, which connect to underlying spreadsheets, scripts, and/or databases. A major point to note about an EASAP is that the underlying tool or tools (Excel, MATLAB and so on) or code that defines your application no longer needs to be shared. What is shared is the (web) application that interfaces to that application. This means, firstly, that the end-users do not have to have any of these tools or codes running on whatever device they are using. This in turn means that EASAPs are easily deployable on mobile devices as well as desktops. It also means that the application interface does not need to be based on the technology underpinning the application: you may be interacting, ultimately, with a spreadsheet, but your interface doesn't have to look like a spreadsheet, unless you want it to. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this approach means that you can change the logic in your underlying application without having to change the user interface. In the case of a spreadsheet application, for example, this means that you can ensure that users are always employing the latest, most current, version of that spreadsheet.
Access management, version control, and audit trails are all provided. Securing the intellectual property in the underlying spreadsheet or script is a fundamental part of EASA's proposition. You can integrate data from outside your application - via web services or JDBC (SQL and NoSQL databases and application environments such as CRM) - into your EASA application, thereby enriching its use. Cloud-based options are available.
The company provides a significant number of online resources such as videos, but recommends a two-day onsite training course for new users. Bespoke development is also available if required, along with conventional consulting and support.
The company runs regular webinars that show EASA in action with live demonstrations and practical case studies. The webinar schedule is available at: http://easasoftware.com/webinars/
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