What’s Ahead for QuickBase in the Near Term?

1by Peter Fearey under Uncategorized

I’m going to talk in this post about near term “ahead” and then later (this week hopefully) about longer term “ahead”. First, the caveats… sharing new features early is tough for a few reasons:

• I have to give a brief overview (these aren’t our release notes), which inevitably leads to some miss set expectations (sometimes even scandalous rumors!).
• You won’t get that "holiday gift anticipation" the days leading to our release, because the surprise element will be gone.
• We might not get all the features planned done because of changes in scope and regular “things happen” demands.
• Some of these features will only be available for additional costs. Final packaging decisions have not been made, so I can’t tell you which now.

If something below jumps out at you as particularly "scandalous", don’t let it bug you. Talk to us about it by posting comments here or through feedback@quickbase.com.

So, here we go… As per our norm, we plan on having a Fall release. Based on feedback from our customers and prospects, our theme for this release is “supporting the corporation”. Here are the top three areas that this translates into:

• Enhanced Integration and Consolidation: I need some help in naming this one; these words are too bland. Two major features here: the ability to create relationships across applications and the ability to roll-up/synch data across applications. So for example, you’ll be able to have one, single, centralized list of products, customers, resources or initiatives that can be used across many applications. You’ll be able to have four different divisions with customized sales or project applications that work perfectly for each, but still “roll-up” to the corporate level key information about status. These are just two examples. Let your mind ponder this one. It is big.
• Improved Reporting and Printing: While you might hate “new and improved” wording in advertising, you’ll love them here. For you data analysis geeks, we are talking cross tabs with drill down. For the rest of us, we mean that you’ll have more flexibility in the layout of reports to help get your points across. We’ll also make improvements to printing, so you have less to worry about when reporting all your great progress and results.
• Easier User Administration and Increased Security Options: We’re adding user directory integration, including LDAP support, and a broad range of password policy improvements (expiring, lock-outs, length and characteristic enhancements, etc.). This one is geeky, but really cool to “all of the sudden” have the world of your corporate directory open to QuickBase. We’ve been using LDAP-based integration at Intuit for over a month now, and the easier administration has been felt by us and by our IT management team.

As the theme indicates, these features are targeted at larger applications with larger numbers of users which are demanded by “the corporation”. We’ve got you to thank for this! You’ve pushed what QuickBase can do, and we are all seeing continual growth in the “size” of applications, number of applications, and number of users that companies need us to support.

I look forward to your feedback and questions!

P.S. I apologize for being later than expected in getting this out to y’all. Along with backlog from our budgeting process, I’ve been training for a triathlon, which has completely corrupted my normal workaholic schedule. Three of us from the QuickBase team are taking part in this triathlon and many others who are supporting us. I feel lucky everyday to work with folks I also like to see on the weekends!