Item: Quickbase
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with QuickBase

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Quickbase to track our various programs, participants, projects, and key documentation. The university as a whole has access to the product. Within our center, each program manager has their own databases set up to track the data they need. We're working towards using a center-wide database to understand how participants move through our various programs.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Ability for non-experts to learn the system and create effective database and project management systems.
Automatic visualization of key data points.
Ability to bring together quantitative and qualitative reporting.

Cons

Figuring out how to import linked data (e.g. profiles for participants and the programs they participate in; a "many-to-many" relationship) - this feature is more complicated for non-experts to learn.
Getting the right output format for reports can be challenging.
There are so many functions available (good!) but it does take time to find the right resources when you're trying to learn how to do something. It would be great if a complete guide to QuickBase were more readily available.

Alternatives Considered

Most of our work was previously done in Microsoft Word and Excel. We've also used GoogleDrive and DropBox for syncing information. QuickBase is a huge improvement upon these because of the security, the multiple user capabilities, as well as the ability to keep institutional records which can be passed on to future staff. Personally, I've also used Filemaker and Access, and QuickBase is a much more intuitive product for someone with no background in database development or management.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's been a great tool for us to streamline the management of our programs, share information across the center, and have multiple users updating information. It's helped significantly cut down on the antiquated approach of sending versions of spreadsheets back and forth. I think there's a lot that QuickBase can do that we're still learning about. Although I know it can automate emails to be triggered upon particular tasks completed, we have not yet had time to work on this function.

Comments

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Using QuickBase in Higher Ed