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Freed from Paperwork, Nonprofit Employees Have More Time to Do Real Work

Eric Segal — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:48:06 +0000

At Horizons for Homeless Children (HHC), job one is helping homeless children become ready for school and learn how to play, share, read, and enjoy exploring their worlds. But the nonprofit’s employees were increasingly drowning in paperwork. Now, just a few weeks after implementing the QuickBase application developed by The Data Collaborative, Inc., HHC has automated many of the tasks formerly done manually, freeing time for the more important hands-on work of educating and advocating for homeless children and their families, said Nathan Hutto, Director of Evaluation and Innovation, who spearheaded the project.

“Our center-based staff maintain case files on each family we serve; everything was on paper,” Hutto said. Intake assessments, for example, were done by hand and employees had their own categories for basic demographic information. Such a system was fine when HHC was founded in Boston in 1988, but today, it touches the lives of more than 2,200 young homeless children each week through its Playspaces in shelters across the state, and 175 children through its three Community Children’s Centers in the Greater Boston area.

After a comparative analysis of the database applications available, HHC made the strategic decision to invest in QuickBase and to engage Data Collaborative to custom-fit its application development through the Intuit QuickBase Solution Provider (QSP) program. Headquartered in Arlington, Mass., Data Collaborative has been providing QuickBase application development since the product’s inception in 1999.

“The investment metaphor is the right one,” Hutto said. For example, assistant directors at each Center used to spend eight hours per month auditing files. The personnel costs of these routine tasks on an annual basis was more than the start-up investment in QuickBase and consulting services provided by Data Collaborative combined.

“Previously in our paper-based system, we couldn’t have many reports,” Hutto said. Now with QuickBase, generating quantitative data for grant proposals or donor reports is no longer a chore, but a strategic asset for the nonprofit as it seeks to continue its primary mission of preparing homeless children for school success and exploring their worlds.

“Using QuickBase has been a game-changer for the organization,” Hutto said.

How the HHC Solution was Created

Data Collaborative Developer Josh Shortlidge started working closely with Hutto in September 2011 to understand the organization’s current — and future – needs. They could simultaneously log into the application from their respective computers (i.e. ‘shared screen’) and talk through specific design issues by phone. Shortlidge described the collaboration as follows:

“Some of the key technical requirements were tracking students and classroom attendance, as well as the ability to generate statistical models from the data. We made an interface that the non-technical center-base staff would feel comfortable using on a daily basis.

Even though the application is up and running, we’re still working together to enhance its capabilities for different user groups at HHC. Nathan is now building a lot of the new functionality himself. The challenge of the project was, and still is, invigorating, thanks to Nathan’s voracious leadership!”

Twenty HHC staff members are now trained on it, Hutto said, including more than 15 who use it daily. “There was a bit of a learning curve to get all users up to speed,” he said, “but many workers had been waiting from day one for a system like this.”

For more information on QuickBase visit our website or sign up for a 30-day free trial.

3 Universal Traits of Successful Change Agents

Richard Crum — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:21:12 +0000

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do.” – Leonardo da da Vinci (1452-1519);

At TwinSuns, a QuickBase Solution Provider, we’ve been fortunate over the years to work with some remarkable clients – companies that are dynamic and forward-thinking. And within those companies, we’ve been privileged to team up with the folks who are looking to make a positive impact within their organizations – we sometimes call them change agents. Insofar as our business is developing QuickBase solutions for project management challenges, these change agents are invariably the people who are instrumental in pushing their company forward, whether it’s by moving applications and data to the cloud, driving process improvements, or influencing old ways of thinking. These key people are not necessarily in top management. They can be at any level in a company that fosters innovation. We’ve been able to discern three characteristics that these special people have in common and wanted to share them with you:

Innovative but with focus. They don’t just come up with ideas, they know how to apply them as well. Change agents are curious, experimental, and, as we’ve witnessed with our customers, they try to apply their discoveries to the organization’s goals. They are not necessarily “techies,” or experts, but are more likely generalists who have the vision of what will make a difference to the company.

Diplomatic and organizationally savvy. Rarely do we see a good change agent who is not diplomatic. They are usually very good at working with multiple groups and moving them forward. They usually have a good feel for what it takes to make something happen. Often, they will combine their diplomacy with innovation to develop a “proof of concept” to motivate and impress a cautious boss.

Supercharged. Not hyperactive, but motivated with a purpose. With persistent determination, these change agents methodically spread their vision, achieve buy-in, and get the boss on board. Along the way, they learn the rewards of patience. Even the best ideas can become better by listening to and incorporating the input of others.

We’ve learned that being a change agent is not specific to a job title or area of expertise. No matter what their position, they have a passion to positively impact their organization, their way of working, and to embrace new tool sets and methodologies to achieve their vision. We’ve been privileged to grow with these special clients.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a (QSP) Match!

Liz McCann — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:54:45 +0000

Have you ever sat there imaging what you could do with QuickBase; but didn’t know exactly how to get from point A to point B? Or perhaps, you have some application building to get done and you want to find someone to bring your vision to reality versus spending the cycles doing it yourself. If yes, then let me introduce you to our QuickBase Solution Providers (QSPs). QSPs are 3^rd party business consultants and/or developers who combined have hundreds of years of QuickBase experience that you can tap to help you create the QuickBase solutions of your dreams. Now it’s easier than ever to find the perfect QSP for your business with our new self-serve tool that matches you with QSPs based on key criteria.

When to engage a QSP

Before I get into the how to find the right QSP, let’s talk about when you might want to leverage their talents. A great time to connect with a QSP is when you know you have a specific business or technical need. For example, you’re looking for some assistance with:

Application Development
Business Process Analysis
Integrations with other software
Training
Support

Or perhaps, you might need a QuickBase expert who can code in html, javascript, PHP or ruby skills in order to further extend your QuickBase application.

Finding the right QSP

As I mentioned, we recently launched a new self-serve tool to help you find the right QSP for your QuickBase development needs. The QSP directory can be accessed from the QuickBase website or via the ‘Help’ drop down within QuickBase.

Here’s how to use the tool to find your QSP:

Step 1: Search for a partner by specialization, by region and/or by native language. The criteria you select will dynamically modify the list of QSP results that are returned.

Step 2: Browse the results & click through on each QSP description to learn more.

Step 3: If you’re interested in being contacted by the QSP select ‘Contact Partner’ and complete the form.

Step 4: The respective QSP will receive that request directly and follow up with you to discuss your solution needs further.

Did you also know we now have an improved QSP Add On list! An ‘Add On’ is a tool that further extends QuickBase functionality (i.e . email integration, QuickBooks Integration, exact forms, ganttcharts, etc.) As you can see in the screenshot below, you can browse by Add On category to find the solution you’re looking for and you can connect with the QSP to learn more. Note: Most QSP product offerings require some level of customization work to implement and pricing varies for each.

All QSPs have unique capabilities and offerings. They will charge you per their pricing model. The best way to find out how much a QSP might cost is to discuss your project needs directly with the QSP offering their services.

Use our directory to get connected with the right QSP today!

Realities of Solution Change Management

James Cosman — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:34:36 +0000

Coming out of business school, somebody once told me, “If you design a solution correctly, everybody can be a winner.” It was up to the solution designer to capture every user’s requests, wants, and needs and to piece them together into a solution that creates high value for all of them. Soon after, I entered the real world of system implementation and I soon realized that this advice was purely, 100%, unequivocally wrong.

In the real world of solution design and implementation, executive management, middle management, and rank-and-file often have very different and competing goals. Executive managers typically value reporting and metrics. They want to capture every piece of data that might possibly be used for some type of analytical reporting at some point in the future. Executives tend to drive systems towards analytically powerful, but overly-complex systems.

On the other hand, rank-and-file employees typically value efficiency, ease of use, and collaboration. They want a tool that actually speeds up their job and helps keep them on the same page with other team members. Rank-and-file employees tend to drive towards automated, efficient systems with very little analytical power and accountability. Middle Managers are usually trapped somewhere in between, having the unenviable task of reconciling one group to the other.

So what is a QuickBase developer to do? Far be it from me to offer a solution to probably the most difficult problem in change management; however, the following observations have been helpful to me.

Step 1: Accept Reality

First, I have found that after a new system is put in place users can be grouped into one of three categories:

Winners: Users who gain high value from a system

Losers: Users whose jobs will temporarily be made more difficult by the new system.

Sorta’ Winners/Sorta’ Losers: Users who will gain some value from the system, but will also have some difficulty adopting it.

It is impossible to design a system where at least one user group does not face challenges. The sooner we accept this reality, the sooner we can design strategies to manage the effects of change on this group. This is very evident in sales automation systems. Most systems on the market are geared more towards executive management and middle management. It is usually an uphill battle to explain to a sales rep, who is used to capturing their sales quickly on a paper form and letting an admin deal with organizing the data, that they gain value from now having to logon to an online system they don’t yet understand in order to enter their leads. Or even worse, now they need to fill out a paper sheet on the road and re-enter it into the fancy new sales system. But what about the value they perceive from having a place to manage their contacts and follow ups? My experience is that most sales reps already have sophisticated and effective ways for managing this for themselves.

So let’s face it, management are the winners in most sales systems, not the sales rep. If you were to build a sales system geared towards sales reps, management would most likely have to make major tradeoffs in the type of reporting they will see. Still not convinced? A major goal of sales systems is pipeline reporting. What value does a sales rep get from having to login to the system and update their “Expected Close Dates” every week? In this instance, I posit they get limited value. Let’s be honest with ourselves that each group expereinces solution changes very differently, so we can plan how to maximize overall value to the organization as a whole.

Step 2: Choose Your Winners

Your next step is choose which user group will be your winners. In some cases, this will already be chosen for you. If you are hired by executive management and they are providing your requirements, you have no choice but to gear a system towards this user group. In other cases, it will be less clear who your winners should be.

Who is the optimal user group to build a system around? I don’t think there is a single right answer to this, as this is largely determined by the organizational situation. My personal view that no matter what user group you target as the Winners, it is often optimal to convince executive management that they accept the role of Sorta’ Winners/Sorta’ Losers. This creates an environment where management is accepting trade-offs, resulting in a more balanced system.

Step 3: Maximize Value to the Sorta’ Winners/Sorta’ Losers

Next, you should try to create as much value for the Sorta’ Winners/Sorta’ Losers as possible. The goal of course is to win as many of these users over to your side as possible. It is the battle for the heart and minds of this user group where the true success of the system is decided. For QuickBase, this is easier because it was designed to be simple yet powerful for end users and it also enables them to create their own solutions.

Step 4: Plan for your Losers

Best case scenario, these users will grumble about the system, but comply. More often, they will vocally complain about the system, but comply. Worst case scenario, they will actively sabotage the implementation of the new system. The absolutely worst thing you can do with this group is ignore them or refuse to accept that they exist, though this often seems the path of least resistance. Their anger will grow and possibly spread to other user groups. I have found it helpful to listen to their issues and actively communicate the benefits of the system to the organization as a whole. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least they feel listened to. I also try to make concessions when possible and keep them in the communication loop. I have had varied results with this, but it always turns out better if I acknowledge them.

What do you think? How do you handle change management, especially user groups who will lose from your system?

Also, if you are interested in this sort of stuff, you should read Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter, whose ideas I borrowed freely.

Lean Manufacturing and QuickBase

Spence Lloyd — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:01:01 +0000

I visited a local a manufacturing company this morning. It’s a very interesting company—they make simulation software for various governmental agencies. As I was listening to their COO present a summary of their operations and then later as we toured the facility, it struck me how consistent the use of QuickBase is with a lot of the things they do to manage their work flow and their business. They emphasize:

Agile Software Development

According to Wikipedia, “Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.”

Key principles of Agile Software Development include:

a focus on customer satisfaction through the rapid delivery of useful software
close cooperation and communication between developers and businesspeople
frequent delivery of software (days or weeks rather than months or years)
welcoming changing requirements, even late in development
a focus on simplicity

That sounds exactly like the typical development process for a QuickBase application!

Quick Strike Approach

The COO made a point that that they believe it much better to deliver a “good” tool rapidly to 80% of the target audience than an “amazing” tool to 10% of the target audience a year later.

Again—very consistent with the typical development process (and philosophy) for a QuickBase application. The typical development process on a QuickBase application is short (and the cost low), so the benefits are realized quickly.

Visual Management

On the facility floor, there were color coded charts and bulletin boards everywhere. The company seeks to use “visual management” where a manager can rapidly assess the state of work by quickly glancing at a board (that hopefully is filled with green).

QuickBase’s ability to color-code dashboards and reports means that a user can quickly identify important items that need

attention. (If you were looking at the report to the right, what would you focus on?)

The company I visited has been highly successful because they focus on rapidly delivering high-value software. QuickBase is focused on the same thing (albeit with business software, not simulations!).

A Developer Gazes Into the Future of QuickBase Mobile Apps

Eric Segal — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:37:02 +0000

It’s easy to see many tasks that once required a PC are now commonly performed on smartphones. We listen to music, track our schedule, send emails, watch video, and (by the way) make phone calls with that little device in our pockets.

But the desktop isn’t obsolete just yet. Most of us aren’t writing reports, composing spreadsheets, or using QuickBase from our iPhones, Androids, or Blackberrys. There are three smartphone apps available for QuickBase, all released in 2010. You can read my review of them here.

These initial QuickBase apps are faced with the limits of screen size and functionality on current smartphones. But I believe that the ability to make full use of QuickBase from your smartphone is going to vastly improve.

The rough edges will be quickly smoothed.

The next generation of QuickBase smartphone apps should arrive fairly soon — by the end of 2011, I hope — and fix some of the biggest hurdles left standing by the initial app releases. For example:

The next generation of apps will read app tokens from email, so you don’t have to type those 26-character strings by hand — er, thumb.
They will allow some basic data entry – similar to grid edit on the desktop. If you can see a record, you’ll be able to edit inside the fields that are displayed.
Larger screens and better screen resolution will improve the display of data in the apps.

Steps towards improving data entry.

Typing into a smartphone is never going to be easy, though the new phones with “zigzag” text-entry technology are a big step forward. If you just have to enter a small amount of data, typing onto a tiny keyboard is okay.

Voice recognition is a still better prospect.

Thankfully, the hard part of voice recognition – turning sounds into words on a screen – has taken huge strides. When I tell my phone, “Navigate to the nearest Home Depot,” I don’t even have to worry that I’m going to end up at a train station instead.

Alternate display methods can help overcome small screen obstacle.

Can you really fill out a whole form when you can just see a little piece of it at a time? I think that as database pros, we need to come up with another kind way of viewing the data – perhaps with lots of small pages, like a deck of cards – before you can confidently handle data entry with your smartphone. The desktop equivalent would be multi-tab forms in QuickBase. This could translate easily to the stack of cards in a mobile version of the form.

I’m confident that, given some time, we’ll get there.

Learn How to Connect SQL Server to QuickBase via ODBC

Kirk Trachy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:53:45 +0000

You can use ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) to connect your QuickBase applications to other databases thanks an ODBC Connector from Qunect.

If you have data in SQL Server, Access, Oracle, SAP or any ODBC compliant database including Access, Excel and Word you can connect to your data and work with it in QuickBase.

How? Join us on Wednesday March 24th at 2:00 PM Eastern for a demo and Q&A webinar with Claude von Roesgen. REGISTER!

Claude has created a number of stored procedures that do everything from archiving QuickBase application and attachment data to automating a two-way synchronization between QuickBase and SQL Server.

Claude von Roesgen is one of the original founders of QuickBase, the creator of many QuickBase wizards and principal of Qunect.

Image courtesy of Tim Morgan

Texting + QuickBase Makes Buying Girl Scouts Cookies Easier in LA

Liz McCann — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:32:18 +0000

Ever consider sending a text message or email to find out where you can buy your favorite Girl Scouts Cookies? Well, in the Greater Los Angeles County now you can!

The Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles - serving Los Angeles County and parts of Kern and San Bernardino counties – are using QuickBase as their online database to track and manage cookie booth sales locations and times for their annual cookie sales. Following the merger of six Girl Scouts councils, the Greater Los Angeles council now serves 45,000 Girl Scouts and QuickBase is playing a big part in streamlining operations for the council and the volunteers. Previously, more than 100 different spreadsheets from across the council had to be manually entered into the cookie baker’s system.

Since automating their systems with QuickBase, the Council has reduced the paperwork associated with the sales for 3.5M boxes of cookies annually by 95%.

In addition to their more traditional use of QuickBase, texting functionality has been implemented to make it easier for the general public in the Los Angeles area to find and buy those highly sought after Thin Mints.

How does it work?

When Greater Los Angeles County residents decide they want to buy Girl Scout cookies this March, they can now simply text or email their zip code to gs@girlscoutsla.org. The system will search the online database and return the exact location, date and time of two nearby cookie sales booths. If you want more locations, simply hit reply and QuickBase will send you two additional locations pulled from the more than 600 sales booth locations and 18,000 sales dates and times that the volunteers had previously entered into the system.

This new text querying functionality is very customized and specific to the Girl Scouts main QuickBase application. QuickBase partners, Dovetail Associates and Juiced Technologies worked together to deliver this customization. For several years, Dovetail Associates has been working with a few different Girl Scouts councils developing and customizing their QuickBase booth sales applications, which the councils now so fondly refer to as Green Beans.

Hungry Yet?

This is a pretty cool use of QuickBase. What are some of the ways you might consider leveraging this kind of customized functionality?

About the Girl Scouts

The Annual Girl Scout Cookie Program is America’s leading financial empowerment and entrepreneurial program for girls, in addition to a money-earning activity. The cookie program is an integral part of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience and a time-honored Girl Scout tradition for more than 90 years. The public eagerly awaits the cookie season every year and this new technology is a way to connect customers with Girl Scouts who gain important skills and confidence with every customer interaction.

Posting Microsoft Office Documents Into QuickBase

Kirk Trachy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:52:28 +0000

If you want a tool to add Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents to QuickBase, MCF Office might just be the solution for you.

Join us today (2/11) at 2:00 PM EST for a webinar to explore the Who, What, When, Where, How and How Much of making this happen for you.

With MCF Office you can integrate your Microsoft Office documents with QuickBase. Emails from Outlook and documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. As you edit a document you select a project or contact you want to save to and MCF Office saves it to your QuickBase.

Don Larson of MCF Technology will be on hand to demonstrate and answer questions. Register for this webinar.

MCF Technologies is a Certified QuickBase Solution Provider and is based in Cleveland, Ohio. http://mcftech.com.

PocketBase for iPhone Just Released for QuickBase

Kirk Trachy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:32:54 +0000

There is a new iPhone application in the iTunes Store called PocketBase. What is noteworthy about this application is that it works natively with QuickBase. Instead of accessing QuickBase via the iPhone’s web browser, MCF Tech has leveraged QuickBase’s API to present QuickBase applications with native iPhone functionality.

Don Larson, founder of MCF Tech will be demonstrating PocketBase and answering questions in a live 2:00pm Eastern time webinar on Thursday 1/7/10. You can register for this webinar at http://quickbase.intuit.com/webinars/.

MCF Technology Solutions http://mcftech.com are certified Intuit Solution Providers.

Hope to see you Thursday.