by Alex Chriss under Industry Trends

I woke up this morning thinking about microeconomic pricing theory , specifically price elasticity of demand.  That’s not actually true.  I really woke up thinking about the Superbowl and how the Pat’s were going to dominate, but then I started thinking about pricing.  I’m pretty sure this was stimulated by two conversations I had last night.  The first was with one of our Solution Providers who was trying to convince me he couldn’t sell QuickBase across an Enterprise because our per user pricing was too low for the potential value and the CIO was skittish – classic Veblen reaction.  The other conversation was with a CIO who didn’t want to roll out QuickBase to his entire org, because he was afraid that QuickBase would be so pervasive throughout his company that it would essentially become price inelastic and we could charge him anything we wanted – scary dependency.

Both of these conversations turned out fine, but it struck me that when we’re selling QuickBase across an enterprise, our value proposition is disruptive.  Because of our unlimited application model (we charge for users and you can build as many apps as you want), the potential and/or value of QuickBase at scale is really hard to calculate.  In Business Development, we have to take control of the value discussion from the beginning and make sure our customers understand how unbelievable the unlimited app concept can be. 

Why?  Well, look at the difference between calculating value when you first look at QuickBase and when you look to expand your usage. When a prospect first comes to us, they are most often looking to solve a single problem (i.e. This spreadsheet is killing me – I need a real Project Management solution).  They can get their application working in a few days and then make a simple ROI calculation to see if the price we‘re charging is giving them fair value.

But when we’re spreading QuickBase across an enterprise (or even across a team), it’s different.   A single user may be using 5 or 10 or more QuickBase applications each day to be more efficient.  How do you calculate the ROI on that when the per user pricing is fixed?

So my cop-out answer is – value is directly related to use.  With unlimited applications you have unlimited potential and unlimited potential value.  The only thing that matters is that you use the product – and use it heavily.  This is one of those cool economic models when both QuickBase and the customer are getting awesome value.  So build more applications – more and more and more.  Spread them to as many people as you can.  The more apps you build and the more users you spread it too, the more value you get – and even better, your price per user goes down.  When you use QuickBase more, we penetrate more advocates which spreads to more users.  We have many customers extracting insane value from QuickBase and we love it!  Win-Win!

by Alex Chriss under Industry Trends

Erick Schonfeld’s post yesterday, Belt-Tightening In Corporate IT Spending Will be Good For Web 2.0, is right on, with a few caveats.  Software as a service is cheaper upfront and requires little to no maintenance, however corporate IT depts. are not going to hand over data and user control to startup web 2.0 companies.  A fortune 1000 company can’t afford to bet on a Web 2.0 startup with an outsourced data center and minimal enterprise features.  I do think we’re seeing greater adoption of Web 2.0 software by IT and I think a tighter economy will raise the priority, but we still need to deliver to IT’s expectations. 

This includes three things:

Security – Standard features the users & IT expect such as LDAP integration, password & user control, IP filtering, etc.

Visibility – The Who, When and Where of user, data, and application monitoring is the bare minimum (The What and Why are up to the business unit and business users and shouldn’t concern IT)

Reliability – No Internal IT department keeps there systems up and running 100% of the time, but at least they’re in control.  Before they outsource, they’ll need to be working with a company they trust with a significant track record of reliable uptime and superior support.

by Peter Fearey under Uncategorized

We have renamed our QuickBase blog to reflect its expanded focus. This blog is written by individuals from QuickBase, the team collaboration platform from Intuit, the makers of Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax. We are excited about the opportunities that come from bringing the best of the new web inside the enterprise, as well as to small and midsize businesses. We want to encourage the conversation around workgroup applications that business users can implement to improve how their teams collaborate and work. Our goal is to empower business leaders to help change the way their teams manage their processes and accomplish their goals. We want to help build Enterprise 2.0.

While we offer our QuickBase view and news, this blog is open to the broader discussion of all aspects of online workgroup applications and how they can change an organization. This includes best practices, industry trends, examples, implementation issues, adoption challenges, business value, as well as technology issues. We want to hear from you and welcome your comments, stories, and questions.

We invite you to look into our past posts and not just our latest content. Many of the past posts remain current as we aim to discuss issues and not simply provide news. Browse our categories and use our search field. If you like what you find here join the conversation and tell a friend. We look forward to hearing from you.

Our legal guys remind us that Intuit, the Intuit logo, and QuickBase, among others, are registered trademarks and/or service marks of Intuit Inc.

QuickBase provides tools that allow you to select ready-made online workgroup applications designed to solve common business challenges, customize them to suit your processes, and share them with your team. If you’d like, you can checkout our web site to learn about the many examples of how QuickBase can be used for project management, customer relationship management and employee management.

by Alex Chriss under Customer Stories

In my last post about customer growth, I talked about customer success spreading throughout an organization and beyond.  In this post, I’d like to focus on failure. It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while, we do get a growing account that stops dead in its tracks and cancels.  Why o’ why would this happen? 

It’s a predictable pattern:  A frustrated manager brings in QuickBase to solve one or many team collaboration problems .  They build the apps, spread their use throughout their teams, become wildly more efficient (and popular), which leads to insane success and dozens of job offers.  BUT the problem is, they never shared the wealth. No one else learned to build a QuickBase app, no one learned how to manage the account.  In some instances, no one else even knew how they were paying for QuickBase. 

This leads to two results:

                1)The initial champion moves on to a new company and instantly brings QuickBase in – they are once again a hero.

                2)The original customer is left dead in the water.  If another hero-in-training doesn’t step up to take over the QuickBase account, the applications and account may ultimately fail.

As I said before, this is not a common occurrence, but it does happen.  Don’t let it happen to your organization.  If you are the only account admin and the only person who knows how to build applications, spread the wealth!  Teach your co-workers how to build apps to solve their own problems – remember, QuickBase accounts have unlimited apps and anyone can learn to build an app – you can’t go wrong!

And if you’re a user on a QuickBase account but have never tried to build an app – give it a shot.  It’s a lot of fun and leads to insane increase in productivity. There are a ton of on-line resources available to you.  You can even order a book, QuickBase: The Missing Manual.  In fact, I’ll send a free copy of the book to the first 10 users to request one and who post here on the Blog how they’re using (or want to use) QuickBase.  QuickBase Rocks – Learn it today!

by bknippers under Inside QuickBase

          When I first arrived at Intuit I was unsure what to expect.  As a new employee you’ve only had a brief glimpse behind the scenes through the interview process.  I was a nervous Nipper!!  I’ll never forget a day in my early twenties when I started my first corporate job.  I walked in, greeted the manager with a smile and then proceeded to spill a 20oz cup of coffee all over my desk and chair.  Well, I ended up swapping chairs with what I belived to be a vacant desk and the gentleman who sat there came in and sat down in a chair and absorbed 20oz of coffee into his creased khakis.  The gentleman’s name was Stan.  Needless to say Stan didn’t speak to me for the next 6 months.  Of course Stan had no problem telling everyone else in the company to be careful of the new guy because he may spill something all over you.  That memory has haunted me so I always want my first day to be a low key, relaxed, calm and productive.  I also use sippy cups. 

My first day at Intuit describes the entire on-boarding experience.  I was greeted by Mr. Herbert whom I knew through a previous job.  It was immediately comfortable and that put me at ease.  Then Sally Russell and I sat down and reviewed the new hire paperwork.  Sally was very polite and cheerful so once again I was very optimistic about Intuit.  It was immediately obvious employees were treated well here in Waltham.  I don’t remember all the details of my first day but I do remember that everyone I met greeted me with a smile and welcomed me to Intuit.  Eric and Sally had put a plan in place for me so I didn’t have a lot of idle time.  All the resources I needed to perform my job were waiting for me.  As a ‘Sales Guy’ that’s really important.  You need every ratchet in the toolbox to be successful and here I was set up for success.  I remember walking away from day one impressed by the company, impressed by the culture, impressed by the values and really excited to delve into the job and get started.

Eric assigned a buddy to me and I think that was a huge help.  When you’re new all the little things are hard.  Where’s the bathroom?  Where’s the coffee stirrer thingies?  Who sells the best subs in Waltham?  So on and so forth.  Tim Conte was my buddy and he has been awesome to work with.  The application specialists welcomed me with open arms.  That’s unusual for a sales team.  As gregarious as we all may seem there’s always a level of competitiveness on the sales floor and in the past, at other companies I’ve worked for, I have felt resentment starting on day one from sales people who weren’t overjoyed there was someone else on board and they might have to share territory or leads with.  I was never made to feel that way here at Intuit.  Kevin, Jim, Amy, Tim, Sean, Dick, Kirk, Eric, Alex and Darren all welcomed me and offered assistance.  I met with the management team individually and asked them, “What’s the best way for us to work together?”  The response was great.  It wasn’t as if I was talking to someone who didn’t have time for me.  These people genuinely cared about my experience.  Everyone took 30-45 minutes to tell me what they were working on, how they’d like sales to interact with their department and what the best approach would be in facing clients to describe the solution.   As a sales guy this was super helpful because I was able to define the process up front.  Normally working with other departments is a trial and error process and you upset a few people along the way.  At Intuit my role was defined immediately?  I know that sounds like a QuickBase ad but it’s true! 

I met with Jim Sullivan daily.  Jim showed me the inner working of QuickBase and made me realize the incredible value of the solution.  In fact, Jim got me so fired up; I started mapping and building applications immediately.  Jim’s help during training was invaluable to me.  After three days at Intuit I knew who I could go to in every department and the best approach to take when working together.  In some companies it may take weeks or even months to clarify that information.

The marketing department also deserves a lot of credit for shared vision.  I almost fell out of my chair when the Director of Marketing, Peter Fearey, came into our sales meeting and walked through some ideas he had for lead gen.  I was uber impressed.  He diplayed marketing graphs, helped us modify Trial Tracker so we could optimize efficiency and track leads through the process in a more detailed way.  He listened to our ideas and then implemented them.  Very impressive!!   

By the end of my first week I was calling my Mommy to tell her what a great company Intuit was.  From the automated systems for bringing a new hire on board, to the resources and training provided during the first week, to eating lunch with Bill Lucchini on my 5th day with the company and having an open forum lunch to discuss how my first week went.  In my experience that’s the best approach to bringing a new team member on board I have ever experienced in my life.   I thank Intuit for understanding how important this process is.  If other organizations had the same dedication to the new hire experience I’m sure they’d have more longevity in the workforce and a better overall employee culture.  I’d like to thank everyone who has assisted me thus far in my daily workings at Intuit.  There are many of you.  I truly believe as a team we’ll accomplish any goal we set our minds to.      

by Alex Chriss under Customer Stories

I was talking to one of our Enterprise prospects today and wanted to pass on a funny / terrifying story.  This team from a Fortune 500 company is migrating some of their critical data from spreadsheets to a QuickBase application, and was explaining to me how their current process works.  Previously, they had a single spreadsheet that tracks global project information.  Since they have dozens of people in multiple global locations (across the U.S., Europe, Middle East, Asia, & Australia) they keep sending this spreadsheet around the world each day, essentially following the time-zones.  Around and around and around.

Not surprisingly, this is a nightmare!  There is often a question as to which is the most recent document and folks have to wait their turn to update the spreadsheet with their own information.  The security holes are pretty darn big too!  As they were explaining this process, I couldn’t help but imagine travelocity’s traveling gnome running incredibly fast with this spreadsheet in tow, trying to make it to London before the sun went down.  I have a feeling QuickBase is going to be a significant upgrade!

by Alex Chriss under Inside QuickBase

On the Business Development team we actively help our customers grow QuickBase adoption throughout their enterprise.  We do this through lots of different methods including, helping our current champions spread the word, engaging with IT to solve specific application problems, introducing different solution providers or training partners, etc.  I’m planning on this being the first in a series of postings detailing how we help our customers grow, examples of what they’re doing to spread themselves, and hopefully some feedback from you all on idea’s we haven’t thought of yet.

To get started, let’s talk about success.  One of the measures of success for my team is something we call “enterprise penetration”.  This is a simple calculation of the number of QuickBase users divided by the potential users.  Since we believe that QuickBase can and should be used by essentially every computer using employee, this calculation should seem easy.  But it’s not!! – we’re finding that our customers are using QuickBase with so many external partners, vendors, contractors, customers, etc., that the enterprise penetration % is often greater that 100%.

This isn’t really surprising since many business workgroups include people external to the company…but it does bring up three interesting conversations for us:

1)      With IT, who want to make sure they have some visibility into access from external parties to QuickBase. Our new Enterprise Edition solves this issue with features like our access control and usage monitoring dashboard, IP filtering, LDAP integration, etc.

2)      With senior management, who want to have these externally visible applications appropriately branded.  Enterprise Edition gives them the flexibility to brand the app and the URL.

3)      With purchasing, who are completely confused as to why their business users are requesting  a PO for 118% of the total employees in the company.  These are my favorite conversations!

So now it’s your turn…Are you using QuickBase with external partners and customers?  How has QuickBase helped your team reach beyond the borders of your organization?