Item: Kintone
Rating: 9
Author: Becca Rusinko

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I was consulting for a rapidly growing organization. They needed a system that could track both daily workflow and major projects. Too many things were falling through the cracks, processes weren't being followed consistently, and management didn't have a clear line of sight into status on important projects. The goal was to find a system that could meet all of those needs. I researched systems that could meet their needs, presented them with the best options, and Kintone was the best combination of function and price.

Pros and Cons

Flexibility. You can build apps (without coding) to serve a wide range of processes and projects.
Ease of use. The interface is intuitive.
Training. There are resources readily available to train new users. Even starting from scratch, I felt like I was up to speed in just a few hours.

One of the main needs that went unmet was for a singular calendar that would show all organizational activities at once.
Several categories in our apps showed up in a foreign language, and even with tech support, we were never able to solve it. We eventually just learned the symbols and their English translations. Workable, but not ideal.
Overall dashboards. The in-app dashboards are great, but if we want an overall picture of the entire organization, it's hard to get.

Return on Investment

Improved quality and consistency
Increased management capacity--no longer needing to manually track who's doing what
Improved process flow due to the nature of modeling. It provides a chance to think through the process and create an efficient and effective flow.

Support Rating

The support team is friendly and responsive, but the only time we needed support was for categories in our apps (in the drag and drop interface) that were showing up in a foreign language. They never were able to figure out what was happening, so it's hard to evaluate them based on a case that wasn't ultimately resolved.

Product Configurability

Kintone has been highly successful. It's a great combination of flexibility and structure. We were able to create multiple apps with relative ease. For the individual processes and projects, it solved our biggest problems quickly. Still, I scored this category 8 out of 10 because of the limits of interacting between processes or creating org-wide dashboards. For a busy, rapidly growing org, it left us needing additional solutions to improve management's ability to stay up to date and engaged on everything happening.

Alternatives Considered

Asana, monday.com and Trello

We selected Kintone because it was the best combination of price and function. We needed something that could grow and scale with the organization, and that included looking at future prices. We didn't want to invest in something if we would be priced out five new users later. We also needed something that didn't need a full-time administrator. We needed something flexible, where a non-technical administrator with plenty of other responsibilities could create apps and pull reports with relative ease.

Key Insights

Do you think Kintone delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Kintone's feature set?

Yes

Did Kintone live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Kintone go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Kintone again?

Yes

Other Software Used

WordPress, Mailchimp, SiteGround

Likelihood to Recommend

Kintone works great for a team that needs a combination of flexibility and structure. It allows administrators to create apps and workflows that can serve a wide variety of purposes, and once implemented, creates an instant structure for a process that can help drive quality and consistency.

Intuitive, adaptable, and a life saver for busy managers

Overall Satisfaction with Kintone