Item: Kintone
Rating: 10
Author: Ben Clarkson

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Kintone on a daily basis for sales leads, quoting, purchasing, and client management. It is thoroughly ingrained in our day-to-day operations. It helped take us from a position where we needed to keep track of paper copies moving around our shop to a point where every piece of information is digital. We track the time it takes to complete projects, who was involved, what steps were taken, etc. Kintone may be the most powerful tool we use.

Pros and Cons

Automation
Reduction of Redundancy
User History

Developer Documentation
Styling without CSS
Better form output without the need for 3rd party plugins

Return on Investment

It used to take us 15-20 minutes to create a quote for a client. It now takes less than 3.
It allows a few of our employees to work remotely, which was essentially impossible prior.
We can see raw data for success/failure rates, which we actively use in our employee review process.

Support Rating

I have had very specific questions about different aspects of the software, and I have always been able to get a hold of someone who could help. If my sales rep didn’t know the answer, he would get me in touch with someone who did know the answer. The whole team is very ready to help. It definitely feels like they view my success as their success, which is so important with this type of software.

Product Configurability

Kintone has been exactly what we didn’t realize we needed. The only limitation to its capabilities is the user putting together the applications. It’s sort of a “the sky is the limit” scenario. There are also a vast array of examples and tutorials to teach users how to use the software and solve specific, common problems.

Alternatives Considered

Quickbase and FileMaker Pro

Kintone is the best value for the dollar amount. It is also based on JavaScript (as far as the more in-depth customizations go) so you don’t have to learn a new language. Quickbase was extremely expensive for what it offered and FileMaker Pro required learning their custom language. Kintone is very fairly priced and extremely robust.

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

Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe PhotoShop

Likelihood to Recommend

Kintone is well suited for clients who are self-starters with a specific vision of their needs. It also doesn’t hurt to have a very specific problem that you need to solve. For example, we ended up finding and using Kintone after testing out dozen industry-specific software options only to realize that none of them exactly fit our workflow. There is a lot one can do without any knowledge of JavaScript, however, I would strongly suggest having someone on your team who can learn JS, as it adds so much more depth to what is possible with the product.

The Best Decision we Ever Made

Overall Satisfaction with Kintone