by Peter Fearey under Inside QuickBase

Our PR team likes to position me as somewhat of a contrarian with respect to Web 2.0. (I’m anti-hype.) This morning though, I have to admit to being pretty happy with Web 2.0, thanks to Tim O’Reilly. I was listening to a Business Week podcast in my car: "O’Reilly’s Guide to Web 2.0" Tim said [via my paraphrasing]:

Web 2.0 is about leveraging the power of the network created by the Internet… doing things that could never be done before.

Notice, he didn’t mention technologies like Web services, or AJAX. He didn’t mention start-ups eating established companies. He didn’t mention new business models, etc. He stayed focused on the value… do what couldn’t have accomplished before. Before the Internet, we couldn’t leverage the collective content of billions of people. Google then used Google smarts to harness the collective wisdom on that collective content via their page rank algorithm. Now that’s stuff that couldn’t have been done before.

Here’s an article that I wrote for iMediaConnection on marketing collaboration technology. Go in and replace marketing with whatever field you are in… sales, IT, HR, operations, finance, etc…, and provide some workflow examples that fit the stuff you do every day. This brings the power of Web 2.0 to you. We can make technology social, and we need to. You don’t have to stick with manual workflows (spreadsheets, emails, meetings, etc.) because traditional software doesn’t fit your needs for flexibility, costs, and supportability. What QuickBase is doing wasn’t possible before.

My big question to you, does this make any sense? Am I caught in some hype bubble or helping keep QuickBase focused on core value by thinking about it this way? Thanks for your counsel!

[Aside: I love O'Reilly's company, because of their charter... poorly paraphrased by me: "to spread innovation." They don't view themselves as a publishing company, but rather as evangelists, so they focus not on reporting what's out there, but how to embrace it. How cool is that?]

by emccann under Customer Stories

Join us on Thursday, July 27th @ 2:00pm EDT to learn how Intuit’s Supply Chain group uses QuickBase to manage requests to add or change offers and product SKUs across manufacturing, supply chain, and financial systems. In their search for a more efficient, automated solution, the team had considered various product lifecycle and supply chain tools, but none fit the team’s process – one that had been honed through Intuit’s Process Excellence program. QuickBase was the one option that allowed the team to stick with their process and automate it. Come and learn what you can do with QuickBase.

This Webinar is perfect for those new to QuickBase, as well as existing users. For more information and to register for this session, go to: http://www.quickbase.com/p/news/webinar_overview.asp

by Philip Gross under Industry Trends

First, a quick introduction… I’m Phil Gross, QuickBase’s CRM product manager. Since CRM often involves emails to and from prospects and customers, I’m researching how QuickBase is currently being used with email to determine we could improve things for all users in the future. What I’d like to know is how you are using email with and “around” QuickBase, and what else you would like to do. Here are some specific questions to help get the conversation started:

• Do you have information in an email conversation you want to get in to QuickBase? Where would you store it in your QuickBase? In customer records? Projects or Tasks? Somewhere else?
• Do you send email from QuickBase to folks without QuickBase access? Do you want those emails or the responses to them tracked? If so, why?
• Do you need to track communication between team members? Between team members and customers? Salespeople and prospects?  Others?
• When you send notifications or reminders, or email a view or form, what (typically) do you want people to do with those emails? Are they truly informational, calls to action?
• How else are you interacting with email that could be managed by QuickBase?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this big subject!

by Peter Fearey under Industry Trends

We cringe when we hear folks saying how much they love Software-as-a-Service (or hosted solutions) because it helps them avoid IT. While we understand business folks often feel IT is a hurdle to getting applications that support their work, we have architected specifically to answer business user needs, while also trying to satisfy IT and security requirements. We often don’t get to tell our story because business users won’t involve IT or business users don’t even engage with us because IT has previously said no to other solutions. We’d like to do a better job at presenting our case more clearly. To do that, we’d like to know:

• What are the top three objections your IT and Security folks have? Or if you are IT/Security, what are your top three when business folks ask for your approval?
• What information and in what form (reports, audits, etc.) would provide the information that you or your IT and Security teams need to approve a purchase like QuickBase?
• What solution providers do the best job providing you with information and features that satisfies you and your IT and Security team when you are making a decision on a hosted versus installed solution?

What amazes me about this issue is that whenever we engage in specific conversations with IT and Security folks, we have great conversations about our information and features, and most often the QuickBase purchase is approved. So, where’s the disconnect between the hosted/Software-as-a-Service industry and the IT/security teams and how can we help bridge that gap?

by Peter Fearey under QuickBase News

We often get the question, "Why didn’t I know about QuickBase sooner?" Some of the reason I can explain, some I can’t. The part I can explain was summed up by David Becker of c|net fame: "I could write about you in every article, because you do that much." QuickBase doesn’t fit into traditional categories, and like it or not, as humans we do tend to pattern recognize and fit into existing categories in general.

What I don’t understand is that QuickBase is a revolutionary idea that it deserves a chance to make a case for a new category. (I can say this because I didn’t create the idea… I’m like you… I just fell for it!) So, about now you are thinking I need to get to the point of this post, which is… we are starting to get more press pick-up, which hopefully means less of "why didn’t I know sooner?"

Here’s the big one:

Disrupting Your Desktop by Oliver Ryan
Fortune Magazine, July 10th, 2006

I like the intro, of course:

ON JUNE 15, Bill Gates announced his retirement plan (see page 72), and the software world turned its eyes in unison to Ray Ozzie, his chosen successor. Ozzie had already signaled his vision for Microsoft in a November memo, which was widely summarized as "must beat Google." Mostly overlooked by the media, however, were Ozzie’s comments on business software, which might similarly be reduced to "must beat QuickBase."

QuickBase, a division of Intuit, otherwise known for its tax software, is the elder statesman of a growing crowd of companies hoping to overhaul the way office work is done.

But, while I love that introduction, the real proof is in what customers say, and they said:

Procter & Gamble, for instance, now uses QuickBase to track technology projects. Before, says P&G exec Irv Kieback, his team used "what we called the MOM, the mother of all spreadsheets. We’d have to have people sitting in a room, going through project by project. Now we just go to the web."

And what works for a FORTUNE 500 IT shop also works for Ramp Motors, a General Motors dealer in New York City. "It lets many people work out of the same songbook," says president John Rampone, who customized QuickBase to manage inventory, rebate programs, and even employee birthdays. "Everything we do touches QuickBase."

These examples give you a little flavor of "overhauling the way office work is done." It is a meaty goal, and exactly what we task ourselves with doing! We phrase it… "Working together made easy".

Here are a few more great mentions:

• Intuit’s Upgraded QuickBase hastens competition with Microsoft, Google, by Eric Lai
  Computerworld, June 20, 2006

  From the article:
  "People didn’t feel like they were in the loop. Also, salespeople were e-mailing PDFs of spreadsheets to each other. That led to the problem of dueling versions." Workflow has improved so much, [Anne] Walsh [of Genworth Financial Inc.] said, that "people grab me in the hallway and literally hug and tell me that QuickBase has changed their life."

"I don’t know Javascript or HTML. I’d say I’m about a B+ level user of Excel. But I can develop applications pretty quickly with QuickBase," said [Mark] Shnier [of G.E. Shnier Co.]. The company integrates data from its central ERP system into QuickBase. It also uses the software to centrally host important documents that are accessible by 200 employees.

• QuickBase Expands Sales Team Functionality, by Erika Morphy
  CRMBuyer, June 26, 2006

  From the article:
  QuickBase, a division of Intuit, has upgraded its hosted-model product to make it easier for sales reps and sales executives — two user groups that often have competing application requirements — to use the sales module.

New functionality in the application, called "Manage Your Sales Team," includes more advanced configuration, reporting and display tools. Another enhancement aimed specifically at sales reps is the addition of smart, or dynamic, forms that request information during the sales cycle only when necessary.

• Intuit Enhances QuickBase CRM-as-a-Service Entry, by Stephen Swoyer
  Enterprise Systems Journal, June 21, 2006

From the article:
With more than one-third of the Fortune 100 tapping QuickBase for CRM, sales management and project management, Intuit thinks it has a winner on its hands.

“…IT really appreciates [QuickBase], because it’s a tool that the business person can understand, and that [IT] can still quickly and easily support,” [Jana Eggers of QuickBase] comments.

If you are interested, you can find a current listing of QuickBase in the News on our Website.

So, have y’all noticed more mentions of QuickBase?