by Kirk Trachy under Uncategorized

If you have ever want to use QuickBase to create email marketing campaigns and track their effectiveness through to sales close, then join us on Thursday, October 29th at 2:00 PM Eastern time when Scott Wyatt, CEO of Advantage Integrated Solutions, (http://advantagequickbase.com) will demonstrate and answer questions about their Advantage CRM+ offering.

This QuickBase webinar will show you how Advantage CRM+ works in QuickBase and uses built-in integration with Vertical Response’s, (www.verticalresponse.com) email campaign management engine. Advantage Integrated Solutions is a Certified QuickBase Solution Provider offering application development and custom integration services.

You can register at http://quickbase.intuit.com/webinars/.

by emccann under Uncategorized

To everyone who voted for QuickBase in the 2009 Webware Awards, thank you for your vote! QuickBase was named one of Web 2.0’s best business productivity solutions!

In May, Webware announced its annual list of Webware 100 award winners. QuickBase was on the list and recognized as one of the top offerings in the web productivity category.

Click the image to see the full Webware 100 list

The 2009 Webware 100 Awards recognize the best Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications on the Web today. After receiving more than 6,000 nominations for inclusion in the Webware 100, the editors selected 300 finalists. But the Web’s users made the final cut, voting more than 600,000 times to select their favorite 100 products. QuickBase was one of just 10 products to get the award in the productivity category.

Rafe Needleman, editor at Webware and CNET commented that “This annual listing has become such an essential resource for people who want to learn more about Web 2.0 and the many ways it can help them stay connected. The Web 2.0 community and our editors ultimately selected the very best sites, services and applications that have made a lasting impression.”

by emccann under Uncategorized

…or rather, ‘What didn’t I learn? Not much.’ It was a great 1-day conference, held at the Boston-Newton Marriott, just a hop and a skip from our office here in Waltham.

Really relevant material and great panelists. All attendees heard from companies like VersionOne, Tableau, HP and Google. If you are in the IT industry or have products and services you sell to IT buyers – you may find some of the below content relevant.

Three learnings that I found interesting are:

#1- Give your prospects a map of how they are supposed to find your product. They know what they are looking for generally; but it would be great if we could help them during their search/research phase. There’s so much content out there. Push relevant messages that will help them narrow their focus. Not necessarily just on your product/offering – consider giving them industry information early on during their research phase.

#2 – IT buyer preferences for online content types: 66% find that trial software offers are v. effective; 38% find that case studies are v. effective; followed by white papers (37%), vendor demos (36%), online videos (31%), webcasts (28%), etc…

#3 – Also, did you know that IT buyers spend more time on Google search – often times digging down 3-4+ pages until they find what they are looking for?

For those of you considering QuickBase or for those who have already decided on QuickBase – what other types of information/content can we provide you with in order to make the research phase when learning about the online database market even easier?

How can we make your search even easier and less time consuming? Let me know, I’m all ears.

by Kathleen Lamphier under Industry Trends, Uncategorized

Here’s the third tip for boosting team productivity with customizable web-based software. Another tip is coming Tuesday but if you’d like all the tips now, click here to request them.

Tip #3 – Get the hosted app advantage

A hosted project management solution gives your team members access to the information they need – wherever and whenever they need it – allowing faster response, reducing errors and enabling better decisions.  It helps your team:

Overcome geographic obstacles
Whether team members are in Paris or Peoria, they can collaborate on projects. Staff, vendors, partners and customers can work together regardless of location.

Remove time boundaries
The Internet is up and ready 24/7 – so participants can work on projects regardless of the time of day or time zone.

Hosted project management solutions also help minimize administration and maximize security, allowing you to:

Reduce installation, maintenance and even training hassles
By eliminating the need to install and run the application on your own computer, SaaS removes the burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation and support. The only software that team members need on their computers is one they already have and know how to use – a Web browser.

If you choose a customizable SaaS solution, you can adjust the application to match your existing project management process, drastically minimizing the need for application training. Customizable software accommodates the way you and your team work, not vice versa, making adoption much easier.

Reduce security threats
USB drives, email attachments and laptops are prone to data loss, theft and other security leaks. Using a hosted Web-based application means your team doesn’t have to store or email information. Instead, it’s all stored in a secure data center managed by your SaaS vendor.  For example, QuickBase uses the same data center that handles millions of tax returns via TurboTax for the Web each year.

Coming Monday, tip# 4 – How to do more and rely on IT less.

How have you used QuickBase’s customization features?
One customer I spoke with told me she looked at several packaged CRM applications, determined what she liked from each, then created her own custom QuickBase CRM application adding in those features she liked from the other applications and creating her ideal app.

Has anyone done something similar with QuickBase for project management?

Share your story.
One customer, KLH, commented on a recent post of mine and mentioned that his team “needed a robust Proj Mgmt Application(s) that was totally tailorable to our client’s needs. QuickBase was the solution of choice…”

Have you customized QuickBase to work the way you want?
To match your existing process? Tell us about your process. And about life before and after QuickBase.

by Kathleen Lamphier under Industry Trends, Uncategorized

I’ve been thinking about my last post and figured if I’m asking you to share your spreadsheet story why don’t I share mine too. I admit it, I was a shuffler. Don’t get me wrong. I like spreadsheets for number crunching — even making lists or schedules when I’m the only person working on a project. But, I’ve not a fan of the shuffling thing.

Prior to joining the QuickBase team I worked for several companies where I have been locked out of team spreadsheets that were posted on a shared drive – because someone else updated their information and left the spreadsheet open. That resulted in the rest of the team – or at least the most frustrated member – hunting that person down to close the spreadsheet so the rest of us could update our respective sections before our team meeting that day. That was definitely frustrating. Other times it was like an update roll-call. I’m done. Who’s going next? Ok, I’m done. Next. And on and on till we each got our updates in.

In the past I’ve also had to spend time consolidating spreadsheets. One time I had a list of leads from a seminar and I needed status updates from various sales reps. Because each sales rep could only see their own information I had to create about 10 versions of the spreadsheet – one per sales rep. Then email one spreadsheet to each rep requesting an update on the list of prospects. Followed by reminder emails and phone calls to get the information back, then consolidate that information back into one spreadsheet for a program report to management.

With QuickBase reporting on leads is so much easier. Our concierge team (think inside sales meets customer service) uses QuickBase to get their leads – each rep sees only their information – and I can easily report from the same system. I just pull a report of leads by their campaign code in order to get just my program. If I ever needed to remind the concierge team to update information I could set up an email notification to remind the whole team – instead of having to send out an individual email to each person.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to have all the information I need all in one system and accessible through an internet browser. I can pull reports from home, from the road. I don’t have to be in the office or using a VPN to do it.

One more confession.
You know when you send out a spreadsheet to a few people for updates and at least one of them messes with the formatting so you can’t just cut and paste information back into your master spreadsheet? Well, sometimes I’m one of those people who reformat a spreadsheet to make it work better for me. At my last job, I drove my manager a little crazy with my spreadsheet tweaking. But that’s all behind me now because with QuickBase I don’t need a spreadsheet, I can just create or edit a report in my team’s QuickBase application to see just the fields I need to see and then use grid edit to update my project information. I love grid edit – it looks just like a spreadsheet. I get to see the information I need the way I need it and I haven’t messed up any formatting for anyone else. And there’s no cutting and pasting, my information is updated along with my co-workers all in one place. No fuss, no muss and no frustrated managers.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Ok, enough about me. Tell me your story.
Remember the first five people to reply to my last post will receive a Starbucks gift card.

by Kathleen Lamphier under Industry Trends, Uncategorized

We wrote a paper that explains 7 ways you can improve team productivity with customizable web-based software.

We’re sharing the first tip below and will post a new tip every few days. If you would like to read the entire paper now click here to request your copy.

Tip #1 – Stop shuffling spreadsheets and start being more productive
There’s an old saying: “When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” For many companies, the spreadsheet is the hammer they apply to any project. And just as a hammer is a poor way to measure dimensions or cut wood, the spreadsheet – though familiar – introduces more project management problems than it solves when you’re working with a team.

When you and your colleagues do the “spreadsheet shuffle,” your team choreography descends into chaos. Without a centralized location for all your project information – a place where individuals can update their pieces of information in real-time- you don’t have one version of the truth. Instead you’ve got spreadsheets and emails traveling around and potentially people working off of inconsistent/old information.

Spreadsheets hurt productivity in several ways. You waste time reconciling multiple document versions. There is a lack of adequate tracking and audit tools which makes it nearly impossible to find errors. And, spreadsheet applications haven’t been designed to encourage and facilitate communication: they have no features for tracking progress, prompting activity or alerting team members to deadlines.

Emailing spreadsheets is a project work-around, not an effective means for managing work. The best alternative is an online project management application that centralizes project information, provides all team members with secure access to the information they need—whenever and wherever they need it—streamlines data gathering, tracking and communication, and makes it easy to stay on the same page and easy to monitor progress.

Coming Monday– tip #2 – Find your productivity sweet spot

Have a friend who’s suffering from the spreadsheet shuffle?
Send them the link to this tip because friends don’t let friends shuffle spreadsheets.

Are you a reformed spreadsheet shuffler?
Share your story by replying to this post.
Tell us what life was like before QuickBase — and of course after.

To thank you for sharing, I’ll send you something near and dear to my heavily caffeinated heart – a Starbucks gift card. Just be one of the first five people to reply with their story and your next coffee’s on me.

by emccann under Uncategorized

‘Workplace survivors’ is a term being used more and more these days. With tens of thousands of layoffs announced every week, employees who remain with their company are now faced with more work and far fewer resources to get their jobs done. In order to address this growing population of “workplace survivors,” as well as those individuals simply interested in optimizing their performance in the workplace today, the QuickBase team is sponsoring a thought-leadership webinar on March 11th from 2:00-3:00pm EDT.

“5 Big Ideas for Getting All That Work Done”

Three leading voices in small business, marketing and career strategies –Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends, John Jantsch author of Duct Tape Marketing and Jonathan Field author of Career Renegade – will focus their discussion on the new thinking, strategies and tools that can help teams work smarter, pre-empt personal burn out and help companies weather the storm.

Attendees will have the opportunity to win one of 10 copies of the panelists’ books, signed by the authors.