Lots of Apps/empowered users
Updated December 18, 2017
Lots of Apps/empowered users
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Quick Base
Our organization is using many different applications developed in QuickBase. My specific group is developing project management and scheduling tools to manage our capital projects. Our company as a whole is trying to consolidate spreadsheets, improve processes and improve communication across departments.
- Quickly allow someone to build a proof of concept to help determine a process flow. This helps showcase to users and management the abilities of Quickbase and how much more powerful it is versus traditional access of Excel.
- Flexible to allow for on the fly modifications. So often an application is built knowing how to cover 80% of the process and as the exceptions become visible, it's easy to incorporate fixes in the system.
- Quick report building and sharing. Access and other programs take a ton of time to do what can be done in seconds in QuickBase.
- Quickbase support is very prompt and knowledgeable.
- Gantt charts and their predecessor fields. Building scheduling apps is limited with their Gantt and predecessor fields.
- The form builder is rather cumbersome.
- I'd love to see a relationship diagram or a visualization in the Dynamic Form Rules because I can get lost in how many I've built and where there might be overlap.
- Many to Many relationships are rather difficult to create.
Yes, we're empowering business process owners to develop their own applications to consolidate spreadsheets/processes.
I've used Zoho Creator, MS Access and MS Excel to try to create relational databases to house and report information. Quickbase is definitely easier and more flexible. Zoho Creator is structured slightly differently and has a few more features. It'd be great if Quickbase cherry picked what they're doing well and incorporated those into their system.
Most of our citizen developers have a pretty easy time building apps. When they want some advanced level stuff, then they ask for help from our more experienced users. We also use a third party Quickbase consultant MCF for things that require complicated solutions.
- Building and deploying business applications faster
- Improving our ability to drive insights from our data
- Improving collaboration across one or more teams
- Solving a specific business challenge
- Building and deploying an application (or multiple applications) that meets our exact needs
We're achieving more and more every day but I'm finding we have to also manage user/management expectations. Some users/management seem disappointed when our applications can't "read minds" or perform "magic". Its easy for them to lose site of how much we've gained with quickbase when they start asking for far more complicated process changes. Also, we're struggling with bad data inputs so Quickbase is helping showcase how we've collected bad data which isn't a fault of Quickbase. I just wanted to say, we've do so much with Quickbase and we're changing the way we tackle business processes.
I update and maintain applications frequently. It's typically easy to do but I find my skills are in need of sharpening. This is especially true with the introduction of WebHooks and the partnership with Workato.
Using Quick Base
275 - Widely diverse set of users from accounting, engineering, construction field crews, survey, environmental, etc. We're using Quick Base to connect these very different groups together in a better means to centralize communication and information. Each group gets to customize Quick Base to meet their department specific needs while aggregating common information to allow interested parties see meaningful data.
7 - Our in-house people that support Quick Base are "home grown". They start on the business side, so they have detailed knowledge of what their group does and needs. Those users that have a strong curiosity and desire to make better processes are given training and access start developing. We all meet to make sure we're moving in the same general direction but still having freedom to be creative. It's a very nimble group that juggles normal job requirements while also building and expanding on applications.
- Collecting construction scheduling data into one central location
- Reporting spending forecasts
- Collaboration between departments
- We have a landscaping group that is using a new solution through Quick Base that enables them to track work tickets by location and issue vendors specific scopes of work. Those vendors can then submit proof they've completed the job and submit invoices. Previously this group was using a database built for them back in 1999! It's a gigantic improvement.
- We are giving different departments small applications as a starting point so they can gain confidence in building small solutions that have been major pain points for them. Afterwards we work with them to coordinate a more strategic plan to address their process and system needs leveraging their newly found enthusiasm and business side expertise.
- We're getting people to stop trying to recreate old, bad processes to maintain familiarity and to start trying to trim or reinvent actual need from the system.
- We are going to start using Quick Base to project our labor requirements to allow us to start resource load our projects.
- We're going to start helping each department forecast work that comes from neighboring departments by getting alerts and reporting from the schedules each group creates. This will help us proactively work together to accomplish projects rather than be blindsided when we have new job requests with no planning time.
- Reduced research, reporting and organizing time. Provided better, accurate and timely information to decision makers.
Evaluating Quick Base and Competitors
Yes - Quick Base is replacing many scattered Excel spreadsheets, Access databases and a cloud based scheduling tool.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
I used Quick Base previously at another company and was amazed at what we were able to accomplish there. When I started my new role I was instantly asking how could we get started building in Quick Base to tackle the same problems I saw at my previous job.
I wouldn't.
Quick Base Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes - We are developing and deploying live. We tackle major elements at once and otherwise constantly modify and build as needs develop.
Change management was minimal - This is a can of worms at my company. They claim they need change management but I think the bigger issue is there is no accountability for the users to use the system or follow the process. That being said, it's amazing we get anything done here. Quick Base would have a better success rate if we used change management but it would be much more improved if management required and had use of Quick Base tied to end of year performance metrics.
- Users simply refusing to use the system. Mind you, these are 25+ year union folks that work in the field and never wanted to work on the computer to begin with. If it's not in their union contract, they won't do it. Most are close to retirement. That's a near impossible scenario to overcome.
Quick Base Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - Support is included as part of our service agreement so there is no additional cost for the support that they provide. Additionally, I can reach out to my customer success rep with questions about possible ideas and new things to build and they're more than willing to schedule time to discuss and help collaborate.
Yes - Yes, they often solve the problem within a couple of hours. It's pretty amazing how fast they are to contact me directly and immediately begin digging into the application to figure out if it is a user error or system issue. It's rare that it's a system issue but happy with how they handle both.
It'd be easier for me to explain I get great service every time. The exceptional part is that every time I walk away from having a trouble ticket I'm amazed at how fast and accurate their help is. This isn't just years of Comcast of lowering the bar for my expectations for support, I'm truly amazed at how good their support staff are!
Using Quick Base
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Report building
- Table to Table relationship building
- Roles and permissions
- Self inflicted problems like having too many roles and then trying to manage the permissions afterwards.
Yes - It works pretty well but looking forward to all the new features they're working on.