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It’s annual review time… so how are we doing?

By Peter Fearey | Posted on August 14th, 2006

So, it is annual review time here at Intuit, and I thought I’d ask y’all for a little annual review feedback.

1. How are we doing on delivering our QuickBase True North of providing a service that quickly delivers supportable workgroup applications for easily managing your business workflows? In other words, how are we delivering on our tagline of "working together made easy"?

2. What are the two things that you most want us to continue to do? i.e., if you had to choose (and you don’t), what is most important in what we do that you’d ring our necks if we messed it up?

3. What are the two things that you most want us to strengthen or start doing? i.e., you are going to ring our necks if we don’t improve this or start it!

4. What was your one favorite and least favorite thing we did this year?

Thanks for your feedback! We are always learning from you all.

About Peter Fearey

Ivan Uhrin

Hi Jana,

ad.3) our company is using QiuckBase in Europe, from this matter of fact we want to use time and date in format which is used in Europe. U.S. format for time and date is not suitable in Europe. Please add into QuickBase possibility to set up european settings.

Thank you
Ivan Uhrin

[Reply]
Ivan Uhrin

Hi Jana,

ad.3) our company is using QiuckBase in Europe, from this matter of fact we want to use time and date in format which is used in Europe. U.S. format for time and date is not suitable in Europe. Please add into QuickBase possibility to set up european settings.

Thank you
Ivan Uhrin

[Reply]
Spence Lloyd

You guys are wonderful. You get 5 out of 5 stars. Wish list: (1) Add a “Print Form” to the forms usage dialog to allow a different form to be used when printing a record. (2) How about an option in a URL-type field to auto-save the record (or at least prompt to save) before going to the link. Would help prevent “orphan” children when entering child records.

I’m sure you’re going to tell me “RTFM,” that you’ve already done both of these. [grin]

[Reply]
Spence Lloyd

You guys are wonderful. You get 5 out of 5 stars. Wish list: (1) Add a “Print Form” to the forms usage dialog to allow a different form to be used when printing a record. (2) How about an option in a URL-type field to auto-save the record (or at least prompt to save) before going to the link. Would help prevent “orphan” children when entering child records.

I’m sure you’re going to tell me “RTFM,” that you’ve already done both of these. [grin]

[Reply]
Hunter Walker

Hi Jana,

1) Absolutely. I have been using Quickbase for two years and I can’t imagine going back to the grind of creating these types of apps in VB. In a few minutes, we can have a secure app deployed world wide. We have had zero complaints concerning speed and reliability from our domestic or foreign partners.

2) Uptime and Security. There has been little downtime this year (or last) and when there was, the blog was a great source for updates. Last Friday afternoon/evening was a good example.
As for security: please, please, please don’t let me read in the news that Intuit’s data centers were breached and hackers stole X number of records OR that a laptop was stolen with two gigs of customer TurboTax data on it. I tell potential clients that their data is as safe or safer with Intuit than it is on their own servers. I believe it and as of this moment, it would be difficult to prove me wrong.
I know that the above points are things you are always striving for, but they are big selling points with clients who are frustrated by their current system crashes and paranoid from news stories about stolen data.

3) I would love to see the dynamic form rules be able to act upon values in formula/summary fields. For me, this starts to provide the control I need to make the app flow the way I want it to.
Along the lines of the above item, I would like to have more control over the built-in buttons on a form. Specifically which should appear when and what happens if they are clicked. Maybe I want to direct them to another form when they click Save (base on certain conditions). If they click Cancel, can they be directed somewhere else? Perhaps, I want the user to only be able to add a child record from a formula URL/button on the Parent table’s form.

4) I don’t really have a least favorite because I have benefited from each new feature, so I will list my two favorite additions. If cross application relationships falls into this year’s accomplishments (November 2005?), I would list that Numero Uno..
My second favorite addition was the Ruby wrapper for the Quickbase API that Gareth Lewis created. The fact that an Intuit employee, who isn’t even on the Quickbase team, would go to the trouble to create that and document it (on his own time, no less) is pretty cool in my book. For me, it made using the Quickbase API much easier and I am a complete hack. I use it in almost every app I build now.

Thank you for a great year! I am looking forward to many more feature releases!

-Hunter

[Reply]
Hunter Walker

Hi Jana,

1) Absolutely. I have been using Quickbase for two years and I can’t imagine going back to the grind of creating these types of apps in VB. In a few minutes, we can have a secure app deployed world wide. We have had zero complaints concerning speed and reliability from our domestic or foreign partners.

2) Uptime and Security. There has been little downtime this year (or last) and when there was, the blog was a great source for updates. Last Friday afternoon/evening was a good example.
As for security: please, please, please don’t let me read in the news that Intuit’s data centers were breached and hackers stole X number of records OR that a laptop was stolen with two gigs of customer TurboTax data on it. I tell potential clients that their data is as safe or safer with Intuit than it is on their own servers. I believe it and as of this moment, it would be difficult to prove me wrong.
I know that the above points are things you are always striving for, but they are big selling points with clients who are frustrated by their current system crashes and paranoid from news stories about stolen data.

3) I would love to see the dynamic form rules be able to act upon values in formula/summary fields. For me, this starts to provide the control I need to make the app flow the way I want it to.
Along the lines of the above item, I would like to have more control over the built-in buttons on a form. Specifically which should appear when and what happens if they are clicked. Maybe I want to direct them to another form when they click Save (base on certain conditions). If they click Cancel, can they be directed somewhere else? Perhaps, I want the user to only be able to add a child record from a formula URL/button on the Parent table’s form.

4) I don’t really have a least favorite because I have benefited from each new feature, so I will list my two favorite additions. If cross application relationships falls into this year’s accomplishments (November 2005?), I would list that Numero Uno..
My second favorite addition was the Ruby wrapper for the Quickbase API that Gareth Lewis created. The fact that an Intuit employee, who isn’t even on the Quickbase team, would go to the trouble to create that and document it (on his own time, no less) is pretty cool in my book. For me, it made using the Quickbase API much easier and I am a complete hack. I use it in almost every app I build now.

Thank you for a great year! I am looking forward to many more feature releases!

-Hunter

[Reply]
Dave Sunderhaft

Hi Jana,

1. How are you doing on our tagline? There is nothing else on the market that comes close. You are kicking A!

2. What are the 2 things to continue to do? 1.Security. 2. Communication…there is no one better!

3. What do I most want? From a consultant/ reseller perspective this is what is most important to me:
a. Reseller business model (ie, enabling me to be a VAR similar to if I developed an app on top of SQL or Oracle and sold it as my own)
b. Multi year term offering
c. Offline Capability,
d. Multi-Lingual Support
e. Broader support for integration with Quickbooks editions
f. More flexibility with Dashboard Stylesheets (mainly the tabs at the top of the page,
g. Broader Enterprise Offering (personalized to the organization…ie, e-mail notification branding and MyQuickbase page personalization.
h. E-Signature Support for documents; ie Contracts.
i. HIPPA Compliance and CFR Part 11 e-Signature Compliance.
j. All of the features mentioned in the previous post.
k. A packaged edition that can be installed behind a firewall

4. What are my favorite and least favorite things for the year? I absolutely agree with the previous posts. The Ruby Wrapper and the Cross App capabilities are fantastic adds! Otherwise, I have no least favorites. You continue to impress and amaze.

[Reply]
Dave Sunderhaft

Hi Jana,

1. How are you doing on our tagline? There is nothing else on the market that comes close. You are kicking A!

2. What are the 2 things to continue to do? 1.Security. 2. Communication…there is no one better!

3. What do I most want? From a consultant/ reseller perspective this is what is most important to me:
a. Reseller business model (ie, enabling me to be a VAR similar to if I developed an app on top of SQL or Oracle and sold it as my own)
b. Multi year term offering
c. Offline Capability,
d. Multi-Lingual Support
e. Broader support for integration with Quickbooks editions
f. More flexibility with Dashboard Stylesheets (mainly the tabs at the top of the page,
g. Broader Enterprise Offering (personalized to the organization…ie, e-mail notification branding and MyQuickbase page personalization.
h. E-Signature Support for documents; ie Contracts.
i. HIPPA Compliance and CFR Part 11 e-Signature Compliance.
j. All of the features mentioned in the previous post.
k. A packaged edition that can be installed behind a firewall

4. What are my favorite and least favorite things for the year? I absolutely agree with the previous posts. The Ruby Wrapper and the Cross App capabilities are fantastic adds! Otherwise, I have no least favorites. You continue to impress and amaze.

[Reply]
Craig

As a college age summer employee, one of my major projects was creating a opportunity and forecast tracking database for my company. After only a few days, and I saw how helpful and easy qb was, I had the project completed way ahead of schedule. The hardest part was getting the data out of the mess they called a database used before, but QB let me move it in, in pretty much any format. I then designed and implemented many other features that are now just an unexpected bonus to my employers.

Everything about QB has seemed excellent, its ease of use, and communication between the community stand out in particular.

2 Features that would have benefited our application greatly would be the dynamic forms looking up formula or lookup fields, as well as the summary fields being allowed when the relationships is defined by a lookup field. Agreeing with the 2nd post, a prompt save rather than a prompt “are you sure you want to leave” would be very useful when following a view link, since not all sales engineers are computer savvy; anything to prevent their mistakes is useful.

Admittedly I havent been around all year, but you guys havent done anything I didnt like. If I ever go into my own business, QB would be one of my top choices for a database system.

[Reply]
Craig

As a college age summer employee, one of my major projects was creating a opportunity and forecast tracking database for my company. After only a few days, and I saw how helpful and easy qb was, I had the project completed way ahead of schedule. The hardest part was getting the data out of the mess they called a database used before, but QB let me move it in, in pretty much any format. I then designed and implemented many other features that are now just an unexpected bonus to my employers.

Everything about QB has seemed excellent, its ease of use, and communication between the community stand out in particular.

2 Features that would have benefited our application greatly would be the dynamic forms looking up formula or lookup fields, as well as the summary fields being allowed when the relationships is defined by a lookup field. Agreeing with the 2nd post, a prompt save rather than a prompt “are you sure you want to leave” would be very useful when following a view link, since not all sales engineers are computer savvy; anything to prevent their mistakes is useful.

Admittedly I havent been around all year, but you guys havent done anything I didnt like. If I ever go into my own business, QB would be one of my top choices for a database system.

[Reply]
craig

One more quick comment, adding features to the graphing view might also be useful. Allowing real calculations, maybe regressions, in preparing the graphs, as well as more customizability would help in summarizing the data. Currently we had to pull some of the data out to excel, it would be nice to do it all in QB.

[Reply]
craig

One more quick comment, adding features to the graphing view might also be useful. Allowing real calculations, maybe regressions, in preparing the graphs, as well as more customizability would help in summarizing the data. Currently we had to pull some of the data out to excel, it would be nice to do it all in QB.

[Reply]
Kristina

I’m one of your biggest fans! One thing that could maintain my high praise would be the automation or scheduling of importing from tables. Keep up the good work!

[Reply]
Kristina

I’m one of your biggest fans! One thing that could maintain my high praise would be the automation or scheduling of importing from tables. Keep up the good work!

[Reply]
James LaCorte

Desires -
more reporting features with graphs like a bubble chart for prioritizing projects.

more dashboard flexibility

better prebuilt apps

conditional drop down menus or fields (easier then now)

more trainings or meetings with a community of users

better management and controls for other admins (super admin and other admins – a way to control what they can build and do

Likes -
-customized forms
-easy implementation
-roles
-notivications

[Reply]
James LaCorte

Desires -
more reporting features with graphs like a bubble chart for prioritizing projects.

more dashboard flexibility

better prebuilt apps

conditional drop down menus or fields (easier then now)

more trainings or meetings with a community of users

better management and controls for other admins (super admin and other admins – a way to control what they can build and do

Likes -
-customized forms
-easy implementation
-roles
-notivications

[Reply]
blogMidtown

shouldn’t we be seeing community education classes showing people how to use the product in different areas of the country? The support is outstanding but it would be great to see live people/classes in major cities.

[Reply]
blogMidtown

shouldn’t we be seeing community education classes showing people how to use the product in different areas of the country? The support is outstanding but it would be great to see live people/classes in major cities.

[Reply]
Dave Sunderhaft

Hi Jana,

A couple of other feature requests that I would like to see added to the hopper include:
1. Quick Keys – IE, the ability to program key stroke combinations to perform specific functions while building a database. IE, ALT-T to access the tables&fields;, ALT-V to access views, etc…. Ideally the actual key combinations would start as a default but could be changed by the end user.
2. Automatically Move Fields from One Table to Another – something Similar to the way Schema Find and Replace feature works. IE, find field XYZ, then select new table to put it in. Ideally it could be set up to move multiple fields at Once.
3. Dynamic Fields to Support Cross Table Conditions – I think this has been brought up already but if not it would be cool to be able to set up a Dynamic Form Rule to include conditions that would navigate the user to a new form after completing the current form or change a field, or add/change a record in another table.
4. Move quickbase desktop to a Browser based app – I would like to see Quickbase desktop have the same look and feel of quickbase. Ideally one would not know the difference between working online and offline.

[Reply]
Dave Sunderhaft

Hi Jana,

A couple of other feature requests that I would like to see added to the hopper include:
1. Quick Keys – IE, the ability to program key stroke combinations to perform specific functions while building a database. IE, ALT-T to access the tables&fields, ALT-V to access views, etc…. Ideally the actual key combinations would start as a default but could be changed by the end user.
2. Automatically Move Fields from One Table to Another – something Similar to the way Schema Find and Replace feature works. IE, find field XYZ, then select new table to put it in. Ideally it could be set up to move multiple fields at Once.
3. Dynamic Fields to Support Cross Table Conditions – I think this has been brought up already but if not it would be cool to be able to set up a Dynamic Form Rule to include conditions that would navigate the user to a new form after completing the current form or change a field, or add/change a record in another table.
4. Move quickbase desktop to a Browser based app – I would like to see Quickbase desktop have the same look and feel of quickbase. Ideally one would not know the difference between working online and offline.

[Reply]
Anonymous

QuickBase is great, I couldn’t imagine another better product that exists.

When creating views it would be nice to have under the ‘Matching’ section to have a “Or” option. Currently it is “Match requests for which all of the following are true:”. It could also be an option that states: ” Match requests for which one of the following are true:”.

Keep enhancing the Form rules, I love what you have done so far.

[Reply]
Anonymous

QuickBase is great, I couldn’t imagine another better product that exists.

When creating views it would be nice to have under the ‘Matching’ section to have a “Or” option. Currently it is “Match requests for which all of the following are true:”. It could also be an option that states: ” Match requests for which one of the following are true:”.

Keep enhancing the Form rules, I love what you have done so far.

[Reply]
james lacorte

I think Quickbase needs a nice demo video to help customers understand the product.

Have you ever heard of Basecamp? How does Quickbase compare?
Check this vidio out
http://screencastsonline.com/sco/Shows/php/showscomovie.php?N=SCO0053-BaseCamp-640×360-free-h264&T;=SCO0053-BaseCamp&K1;=37Signals&K2;=Project&K3;=Collaboration&K4;=mac&K5;=virtualteam

[Reply]
james lacorte

I think Quickbase needs a nice demo video to help customers understand the product.

Have you ever heard of Basecamp? How does Quickbase compare?
Check this vidio out
http://screencastsonline.com/sco/Shows/php/showscomovie.php?N=SCO0053-BaseCamp-640×360-free-h264&T=SCO0053-BaseCamp&K1=37Signals&K2=Project&K3=Collaboration&K4=mac&K5=virtualteam

[Reply]
Ilse Ackerman

I would love to see a QuickBase subscription available to individuals rather than just companies!

[Reply]
Ilse Ackerman

I would love to see a QuickBase subscription available to individuals rather than just companies!

[Reply]
Mohamed Bennouf

Hello,

How about a way to remove any “extra” buttons like “help” which is very confusing to people who only use QB not devellop database with it. The best way will be to be able to completly customize what the user sees. A regular user do not need to see stuff like “developer info” or have access to the QB forum! Complelty confusing.

Other than that, 100% love QB!

Thanks.
Mo.

[Reply]
Mohamed Bennouf

Hello,

How about a way to remove any “extra” buttons like “help” which is very confusing to people who only use QB not devellop database with it. The best way will be to be able to completly customize what the user sees. A regular user do not need to see stuff like “developer info” or have access to the QB forum! Complelty confusing.

Other than that, 100% love QB!

Thanks.
Mo.

[Reply]
Scott Burday

1. You’ve greatly exceeded your tagline of “working together made easy”. As a consultant we’ve shown clients how not only to loose the spreadsheets but how to increase efficiency and communication way beyond where they were previously. It is nice to be able to say with confidence that “we can do that!”.

2. a. Uptime. We’ve documented about 6 hours that QuickBase has been unavailable in the past year which is fantastic. As consultants, we support over 1,200 users across multiple companies and we can’t afford any downtime, so this is paramount. b. Enhancements. Keep ‘em coming. They are great and add so much that we can do for our clients.

3. a. Continue to enhance the rules capabilities. b. Since we use the QuickBase Desktop as an offline archival of data, make it so that when a field is added in QuickBase the field is automatically added to the Desktop at the next synch.

4. Most favorite; form rules. Least favorite; none that I can think of. But, based on other’s responses I would like to know where I can find out about the “Ruby Wrapper”. I searched the KnowledgeBase and the Help Topics and found nothing.

Keep up the great work!

[Reply]
Scott Burday

1. You’ve greatly exceeded your tagline of “working together made easy”. As a consultant we’ve shown clients how not only to loose the spreadsheets but how to increase efficiency and communication way beyond where they were previously. It is nice to be able to say with confidence that “we can do that!”.

2. a. Uptime. We’ve documented about 6 hours that QuickBase has been unavailable in the past year which is fantastic. As consultants, we support over 1,200 users across multiple companies and we can’t afford any downtime, so this is paramount. b. Enhancements. Keep ‘em coming. They are great and add so much that we can do for our clients.

3. a. Continue to enhance the rules capabilities. b. Since we use the QuickBase Desktop as an offline archival of data, make it so that when a field is added in QuickBase the field is automatically added to the Desktop at the next synch.

4. Most favorite; form rules. Least favorite; none that I can think of. But, based on other’s responses I would like to know where I can find out about the “Ruby Wrapper”. I searched the KnowledgeBase and the Help Topics and found nothing.

Keep up the great work!

[Reply]
Ross

Quickbase is wonderful. I could think of 300 more ways to use it in my company if you offered the ability to save and email exact forms (if they were PDF format, that would be even better)

[Reply]
Ross

Quickbase is wonderful. I could think of 300 more ways to use it in my company if you offered the ability to save and email exact forms (if they were PDF format, that would be even better)

[Reply]
Constance de Brun

I second Mo’s comment about removing extra buttons for certain roles. Another quick suggestion is to allow customization of application colors to match company logos, and more easily add banners and logos. It would be a great feature and is becoming a common feature, see for example http://www.weboffice.com/EN/Services/Workgroup/Customization/

I LOVE Quickbase, keep up the good work!

[Reply]
Constance de Brun

I second Mo’s comment about removing extra buttons for certain roles. Another quick suggestion is to allow customization of application colors to match company logos, and more easily add banners and logos. It would be a great feature and is becoming a common feature, see for example http://www.weboffice.com/EN/Services/Workgroup/Customization/

I LOVE Quickbase, keep up the good work!

[Reply]
MIKE KANOWITZ

Regarding IT’s reluctance to use hosted apps:
1) I work for a firm that hosts web applications for many large companies. I use quickbase to manage my projects,tasks,issues, etc. The account managers who support our clients are not happy about this. Clients requirements are private and confidential documents. Be that as it may I don’t allow users to attach specs to my tables. Is there an easy way for me to setup a shared folder on a network drive and have users drop attachments there when entering a project.

[Reply]
MIKE KANOWITZ

Regarding IT’s reluctance to use hosted apps:
1) I work for a firm that hosts web applications for many large companies. I use quickbase to manage my projects,tasks,issues, etc. The account managers who support our clients are not happy about this. Clients requirements are private and confidential documents. Be that as it may I don’t allow users to attach specs to my tables. Is there an easy way for me to setup a shared folder on a network drive and have users drop attachments there when entering a project.

[Reply]
MIKE KANOWITZ

Regarding IT’s reluctance to use hosted apps:
1) I work for a firm that hosts web applications for many large companies. I use quickbase to manage my projects,tasks,issues, etc. The account managers who support our clients are not happy about this. Clients requirements are private and confidential documents. Be that as it may I don’t allow users to attach specs to my tables. Is there an easy way for me to setup a shared folder on a network drive and have users drop attachments there when entering a project.

[Reply]
MIKE KANOWITZ

Regarding IT’s reluctance to use hosted apps:
1) I work for a firm that hosts web applications for many large companies. I use quickbase to manage my projects,tasks,issues, etc. The account managers who support our clients are not happy about this. Clients requirements are private and confidential documents. Be that as it may I don’t allow users to attach specs to my tables. Is there an easy way for me to setup a shared folder on a network drive and have users drop attachments there when entering a project.

[Reply]
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[Reply]
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