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 Bill Lucchini under Customer Stories, Industry Trends

Back about a year ago I posted about customization and SaaS.  Some people have said that one of the primary inhibitors to adoption of Online Applications (SaaS) was that there is no ability to customize them.  Well, as all of you know as users of QuickBase, that doesn’t have to be true.  Just recently I did a post asking to hear stories about how people were using QuickBase.  The results were awesome and one reaction I had was that reading the comments was enough to prove the point that customization and online can go together.  Here are a couple of examples:

• Scott Skibell at National Seminars Group uses QuickBase to organize over 700 training videos.  In his words:
  “ I created a content management system in QuickBase that points to our different servers…  …Marketing and web designers can search the database and click a preview button to watch the different videos. They can then copy the file’s URL and use it in their code for web pages or downloads. This saves me countless hours each day and streamlines our workflow. Without it, we’d probably have to hire someone just to track everything. QuickBase is a godsend.”
• Tamara Littleton is CEO of eModeration Limited and has a global challenge.  She has offices in London, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as 65 staff members working in locations such as Belgium, Germany, Australia, etc.  They use QuickBase to track time cards, manage their clients and new leads, track projects, bring new employees on board, and track staff experience, knowledge and preferences to match them to projects.  You can see more in her excellent comment to my post.  This one company demonstrates the flexibility of QuickBase all on their own.
• Patti Dornacker uses QuickBase to track expense reports for employees.  Employees complete an online form and reimbursement rates are calculated automatically.  They’ve been able to please employees by reducing turnaround time and managers get easy access to reports that give them the info to stay within budget.

As you can see from these examples, because QuickBase is an online database it can serve a broad variety of needs.  People in today’s world have begun to expect things to be exactly how they want them.  Today we have 190k different ways to have our lattes at Starbucks, we can get custom printed M&M’s, or the awesome Flip Mino video camera that you can order with a picture of your choosing on the body (my wife’s has a grasshopper).  It’s time software started working for us and working the way we want it to.  No more “one size fits all” software that solves everything everyone asked for and in the end is such a clutter that it makes no one happy.