Item: Kintone
Rating: 6
Author: Seth Woodard

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Other than our email through Outlook. Kintone is the primary online software that our office uses to manage the office. This includes a document library, a CRM-like system for constituent casework, a project management tracker, and communication software. The document library is simply a holder of our documents. The constituent casework portion tracks staff actions taken in assisting constituents with the issues they ask about. The project management tracker is for when we file bills and keep track of the changes made and wherein the process of a bill is. Lastly, we will use the messaging feature for communications that are not time-sensitive.

Pros and Cons

Document library.
Being able to @ someone and link them to a specific item.
Segment work into different "apps".
Announcements page.

The settings menus are complicated.
The settings menus and the system admin pages are separated.
The UI is often a bit clumsy.
The notifications/reminders are difficult to setup and calibrate.

Return on Investment

Since using the software, our office has had 686 constituent case files.
We have used it to track and draft 70+ bills.
It holds all of our stuff in one place.

Support Rating

I had an issue with the mobile app and the support team was responsive in a timely manner. I have never had an issue where I could not reach support when needed.

Product Configurability

Yes, the software can be configured to do almost anything within the confines of a browser. As I elaborated earlier that we use the software in several ways and each "app" is configured differently. But this does cause some difficulty that I would compare the blank canvass problem. I.E. it can be configured anyway and do many things so how it can be difficult to start the process because of the huge range of options.

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?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Kintone go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Kintone again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Google Calendar, Constant Contact

Likelihood to Recommend

It is an excellent document library. The communication features, being able to use the @ and bring the target to a specific item is most helpful when working on a collaborative project that might use proprietary or unique file types that must be downloaded and cannot be edited in a browser. The CRM functionality at least how it was set up for our organization needs more work.

We need software which does everything else but email and calendar, that is why we have Kintone.

Overall Satisfaction with Kintone