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Perspectives

Building Better Businesses One Application at a Time

Written By: Jessica Hawley
March 29, 2018
7 min read

The traditional system of IT-based custom app development can be inefficient and sometimes may create more problems than it solves. “One size fits all” software and clunky homegrown solutions put the responsibility for these tools in the hands of people who may not be closest to the problem that the application needs to solve. But with Quickbase, more than 6,000 customers have seen how our simple and intuitive business application development tools can empower workers to create the solutions they need.

Traditional software development is time-consuming, and the challenge of implementation can quickly drive teams apart and encourage siloing. An IT-driven business plan for application development limited by bandwidth and a single perspective may also overlook the problem-solving strengths of those driven to seek out a customized software solution. We already know that workplace diversity builds business strength when employees with differing perspectives work as part of a team to solve problems. With Quickbase, these line-of-business developers are empowered to create their own solutions.

Low-code and no-code web application development for business has helped corporations solve problems and grow in nearly every sector of the economy, along with nonprofit and government organizations. But why do half of the Fortune 100 and thousands of other small, medium, and large enterprises use Quickbase business application development tools?

When workers build their own solutions to the problems they experience every day, IT departments can contribute their expertise, but they don’t need to learn every aspect of a department’s work processes to support Quickbase development.

In addition to improving upon legacy software and inflexible off-the-shelf programs your workforce may struggle to use, Quickbase can empower non-technical departments to move beyond desktop spreadsheets and legacy paper systems. Our cloud-based business application development framework supports approaches to solving specific project management problems at a granular level, and it can also streamline and support data solutions for enterprise-level processes as well as integrate reporting across departments, and much more.

Quickbase Empowered ResCare to Meet National Disability Care Challenges

With more than 50,000 employees, ResCare is the largest non-governmental provider of disability services in the U.S. ResCare employees serve disabled individuals in thousands of communities across the nation. The 60,000 people ResCare serves have complex needs, and the company’s technology, data management, and information security needs are just as complex.

Before ResCare adopted Quickbase in 2009, getting custom apps made for scheduling, training, and billing took three to four months, leading to a high need for rapid application development software. As a national disability care leader, ResCare also required connectivity between IT, compliance, and information security. Quickbase met and exceeded ResCare’s business requirements for application development.

Since ResCare’s initial use of Quickbase, the company’s divisions, working together with its IT department, have built hundreds of apps. ResCare’s Quickbase apps are developed and implemented three to four times faster than legacy solutions. Currently, the company runs more than 120 active Quickbase applications.

Helm Inc. Used Quickbase to Innovate and Grow

Helm Inc. makes branded OEM owner and service manuals for automakers ranging from Acura to Saturn. The company also provides multichannel fulfillment and additional branded merchandise and marketing services to retail businesses.

In 2010, Helm Inc. was burdened with thousands of spreadsheets. After implementing rapid business application development with Quickbase, Helm Inc. eliminated more than 3,000 spreadsheets and reduced operating costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The company then began to drive rapid-fire innovation across the enterprise, moving past its former system that included manual processes and no central system of management, warehouse, shipping, and fulfillment tracking. Today, employees have standardized processes, and they’ve become business developers, able to customize their apps. The company has spent $20,000 less on licensing fees for unnecessary “one size fits all” software and has eliminated more than 100,000 emails per year.

Agero Built a Roadside Assistance App in One Day

In January 2014, the polar vortex took temperatures in the U.S. and Canada to unprecedented lows, giving roadside assistance industry leader Agero the motivation to develop a more responsive, agile app for roadside assistance calls. Agero serves 75 million drivers through its roadside assistance network.

When the cold weather hit, Agero’s CEO motivated the company’s product management team to use Quickbase to develop, test, and deploy a mobile app allowing customers to request assistance without calling an 800 number. The app improved Agero’s quality of service and was ready to deploy in time to meet the challenge of extreme winter weather from the Arctic blast.

Cambridge Innovation Center Boosted Efficiency With Quickbase

Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is a provider of flexible office spaces for venture capital, technology, life sciences, and professional services corporations. CIC needed a fast solution to replace the manual tracking of standard tasks, as they were bogging down key processes. Tenant move-ins and move-outs were entered manually and tracked through Excel. They had no automatic invoice generation process and were haphazardly communicating critical staff tasks.

Using Quickbase, CIC saved $200,000 on custom application development and reduced their time to generate invoices and receive payments by 400 percent. The company integrated Quickbase smoothly with the QuickBooks automated invoice generation function. By switching to a cloud-based system, CIC was also able to respond efficiently to an emergency evacuation that ended up lasting for six weeks with no downtime.

Commonwealth Financial Network’s Project Management Office Empowered 1,500 Financial Advisers

With more than 1,500 financial advisers as part of its team, Commonwealth Financial Network was bogged down in spreadsheets and emails and lacked centralized project tracking. Reporting was almost glacially slow, and metrics were hard to come by. Commonwealth responded by implementing a Quickbase app to manage more than 600 different projects in 2011.

Commonwealth Financial Network created a project management office to oversee the company’s project workflows through its custom Quickbase application, allowing them to manage diverse projects and track and document metrics and tasks in a transparent fashion. Commonwealth’s system enabled 170 project managers, business analysts, and other stakeholders to deliver flexibility, transparency, insight, communication, and access for every platform and device used in the company. That may sound simple, but off-the-shelf software solutions don’t always work smoothly on every employee-owned device. However, Commonwealth Financial Network’s cloud-based system works with any browser, any operating system, and any device workers may be using.

Engaging Schools Improves Client Relationships and Grows With Quickbase

Nonprofit organization Engaging Schools works with thousands of school administrators and staff at middle and high schools nationwide to create communities that integrate social, emotional, and academic development. But the organization found itself losing time, efficiency, and the all-important human connections that its mission relies upon while struggling to use an inflexible Access-based contract management system. Managers couldn’t see contract statuses or staff communications with school personnel. Staff members also struggled to use the organization’s custom-built Access database. And Engaging Schools workers were spending hours of valuable time juggling paperwork instead of working directly with schools.

After developing a contract management business database app with Quickbase, Engaging Schools increased staff productivity by 25 to 30 hours a week. Rapid reporting of contract revenue and new contract opportunities helped Engaging Schools to grow. Staff time management and assessment also improved as consultant assignments and activities were logged directly in the flexible Quickbase app.

How Can Quickbase Help Your Business?

If you’re looking for a business application development framework, know that no software or app solves business problems or finds business opportunities: People do those things. But with the right tools, your people can maximize the results of their labor.

Quickbase can help any team to integrate, manipulate, and analyze data and workflows. And on top of that, we also offer a choice of pre-developed apps that can be adjusted to meet your specific needs. These solutions may help to minimize time spent in development and expedite implementation, freeing up your IT team to focus on other projects.

Companies that use Quickbase are in the industries of real estate, financial management, government, nonprofit, retail, professional services, health care, and many other fields. Thousands of companies have used Quickbase to reduce costs and streamline operations, but the many benefits of no-code app development continue to be discovered. We already know that different generations and diverse employees approach problem-solving differently. Legacy systems, working in silos, and traditional development solutions requiring heavy IT team investment all present challenges to solving operational problems or building business success. But with its no-code framework, ease of use, and proven success in many sectors, Quickbase’s business application development tools empower people-based solutions to business challenges and can drive innovation one app at a time.

Written By: Jessica Hawley
Jessica Hawley is a marketing manager at Quickbase, focused on SEO, content and social media.

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