Not really sure where to start looking for what we need, but I’m thinking it should be something like Excel or Google Sheets, just with more options for exporting and displaying info in different ways.
I work for a fire and EMS 911 center, and we need to track our strike team and unit deployments. The way we want to see this info is spread across multiple websites, which means we end up manually entering the same data over and over, either through Google Forms or directly into a Google Sheet or Excel file.
We can get data exports from our dispatch CAD system or the national resource status database, which should cover most of what we need.
The issue with Google Sheets is that we want different tabs to show on different websites, but it only defaults to the main tab. So we end up with multiple sheets that can’t link to each other."
You might want to check out tools like Zapier or n8n. They can connect multiple sites and services with desktop programs, and there are tons of ways to automate tasks using them. n8n even has a free community version you can try out to get started and learn the ropes.
As a software engineer, I think what you really need is a custom system for collecting and managing your data. While it might come with a price tag, relying on spreadsheets in the long run isn’t a great idea. They can get messy pretty quickly and aren’t really built to handle growth effectively.
You can actually link data between sheets in both Google Sheets and Excel. However, since it sounds like you’re pulling data from multiple sources, you might want to consider using tools like Power BI or Google Data Studio. These tools let you combine information from different places and help you analyze the data more effectively. You simply feed them your data streams and specify what insights you’re looking for.
Unless you’ve got years of experience in configuring and integrating software systems, you’ll probably need some help from someone who knows how to develop a solution that works for you. There are a lot of technical details to consider, like enterprise architecture, master data management, information flow, the number of different software tools involved, and how to handle reconciliations.
Instead of trying to tackle this “nuclear reactor” of a project on your own, why not hire a company that can guide you through the process?