quick base product report

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© Copyright 2018 TrustRadius

Quick Base Product ReportBased on 402 end-user reviews and ratings of Quick Base on TrustRadius

Curated from end-user reviews on:

© 2018 TrustRadius. All rights reserved. This publication has been licensed by Quick Base. Reproduction or sharing of this publication in any form without TrustRadius’ prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

First published May 2018

Table of Contents

About This Report ......................................................................................................3

Quick Base Product Summary ................................................................................. 4

Summary of Quick Base User Feedback ................................................................. 6Use Cases ........................................................................................................................................... 6Strengths ..............................................................................................................................................7Areas for Improvement ...................................................................................................................14Aggregate User Ratings of Quick Base Software on TrustRadius ..........................................19

Executive Interview with Jay Jamison, SVP Strategy & Product Management....20

This publication has been licensed by Quick Base. Reproduction or sharing of this publication in any form without TrustRadius’ prior written permission is strictly prohibited. For information on reprints, please contact [email protected]. TrustRadius is a trademark of T-Radius Holdings, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. TrustRadius disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in such information. This publication consists of the opinions of TrustRadius’ research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

ABOUT TRUSTRADIUS

TrustRadius is the leading site for business software users to share real-world insights through in-depth reviews and networking. We help users make better product selection, implementation and usage decisions. Every reviewer is authenticated and every review vetted before publication. Unlike simple rating sites, TrustRadius reviews are structured and substantive, averaging more than 400 words each. Reviewers can also update their reviews to keep them current. Founded by successful entrepreneurs and backed by the Mayfield Fund, TrustRadius is bringing transparency and efficiency to the $3.7 trillion business technology market.

To learn more, visit www.trustradius.com.

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About This Report

Why read this report? This report is designed to help you make an informed decision about Quick Base. It is based on 402 ratings and in-depth reviews of Quick Base on TrustRadius, the trusted user review site for business software. By crowd-sourcing user perspectives, we help you to get a true sense of the product.

This report includes analysis of the types of customers (company sizes, industries, etc.) that use Quick Base, what companies and users like most about the product, as well as areas for improvement.

Our methodology TrustRadius invited a broad sample of the Quick Base user base to review the product on TrustRadius. Reviewers were encouraged to provide candid feedback and had the option to remain anonymous. Incentives were also used to motivate response from a broad spectrum of customers. All reviewers were vetted by our research team to ensure that they were legitimate customers and that their feedback was authentic and unbiased.

https://www.trustradius.com/products/quick-base/reviews

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Quick Base Product Summary

Product DescriptionLow-Code and No-Code Platform ConceptBoth low-code and no-code platforms are a response to the perception that traditional code-centric software development is overly complex and that development cycles are generally too lengthy to meet the needs of the modern, high-flexible enterprise. The distinction between low-code and no-code is that low-code tools typically streamline the work of professional developers, while no-code platforms like Quick Base allow business users to build complex, self-service applications without having to write any code. The focus of no-code platforms becomes making the knowledge worker’s life easier by enabling task automation and the development of apps that do not require extensive technical know-how. The goal is to inject agility back into what had become a complex, lengthy, and onerous task. Low-code platforms are usually drag-and-drop environments, where components are connected like Legos allowing app builders to continually update their apps as processes evolve.

Quick Base PlatformQuick Base empowers those closest to the work to automate processes by building custom cloud applications that do not require coding skills to be built. Citizen developers can customize one of the already existing apps in the Quick Base Exchange, or build a new app from scratch.

In Quick Base, tables containing various kinds of information are the building blocks for building apps. Tables can be related to one another making it possible, for example, to view all sales orders associated with a single customer in one place. Comprehensive reports and charts give insight into every aspect of the process managed by the app. For example, team members can receive notifications when things happen in Quick Base, such as when new tasks are assigned or invoices are submitted.

Score 8.2 out of 10

(402)

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Team members have role-based customized home pages showing them what is important to help keep them on task, and notifications can be set up to alert team members if anything has changed.

The most important features of the Quick Base platform are as follows:

y Process and Workflow Automation: Approvals, sales orders, trouble tickets, etc. can be managed with smart forms that trigger updates and actions. Workflow automation rules eliminate manual repetitive tasks and ensure that each step is followed in the right sequence.

y Collaboration: Data can be shared with those who need it, whether internal team members, external customers, or partners. Custom roles and permissions ensure that people see either a subset of data needed to do their job, or all data.

y Customization: Apps can be customized to match specific workflows, and forms, fields, and tables are all configurable. Everything from look and feel to functionality can be customized.

y Dashboards and Reporting: Stakeholders have access to their own personalized dashboards showing critical information. Reporting tools allow data to be visualized in summary reports, charts, maps, calendars, and timelines. Team members can also create their own reports with an easy-to-use report builder.

y Integrations: Quick Base includes native integration capabilities for connecting with several leading cloud platforms (NetSuite, Salesforce, etc.) plus webhooks and open APIs for building custom connections with other data sources.

y Security and Reliability: Quick Base provides a high level of physical data security in addition to monitoring and data encryption ensuring mission-critical reliability.

Vendor’s Value PropositionQuick Base is a low-code platform enabling anyone to quickly create and modify customized apps and share them with others, even if they have no coding experience. The platform offers a strong development experience, with excellent reporting and dashboards, and high-quality customer support.

Best FitThe focus on empowering anyone to build apps means that Quick Base is frequently purchased by business problem solvers. However, many reviewers of the product on TrustRadius are also IT employees, reflecting the fact that IT is frequently involved in purchase, and that the platform is also useful to developers with significant coding experience.

Quick Base is also more likely to be used by enterprises and large mid-market companies. Almost 50% of reviews of Quick Base on TrustRadius are by reviewers at companies with over 1,000 employees, and 91% are from reviewers at companies with more than 50 employees.

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Summary of Quick Base User Feedback

The following is a distillation of product strengths and areas for improvement from the 264 reviews of Quick Base on TrustRadius.

Use CasesQuick Base is fundamentally a development platform and, therefore, is used in a wide variety of ways, with many different use cases. A sample of reviewer responses to questions on product usage provide a good indication of this use case variety.

“We use Quick Base for everything. Every single one of our departments use Quick Base. Quick Base apps have been developed specific to each de-partment and I’ve even developed my own app for our marketing department. I developed my app to catalog articles and information I find on the web on a particular topic and it works perfectly.”

David S.Marketing ManagerHospital & Health Care Organization501-1,000 EmployeesApril 2017

“Quick Base has solved the primary issue for which we implemented it. We were using three, or maybe even four, completely separate CRM systems for sales, support, and general info. Quick Base has allowed us to get everything into one system, and to clean up the widely-disparate styles of data entry.”

Beth H.Information Content Design & DeliveryComputer Software 1-10 Employees January 2018

Frances R.Administrator

Computer Software501-1,000 Employees

January 2018

“The Products group uses Quick Base as both an asset management and project management tool. We use it to maintain information about the mod-ules, content, and courses we develop and deliver. We use it to manage and keep up with production costs for our production schedule. We also use it to interface with other software in the company.”

Matthew B.Director of Operations

Consumer Services1-10 Employees

January 2018

“We use Quick Base for our CRM, customer support, and invoicing. Basically, the entire business process is conducted within Quick Base. That has been the aim over the past 3 years. It has taken our business completely off spreadsheets in the sense of manual creation. We also have completely automated our invoicing process within the last 6 months.”



https://www.trustradius.com/products/quick-base/reviews/product-usage

https://www.trustradius.com/reviews/quick-base-2018-01-05-14-49-48

https://www.trustradius.com/products/quick-base/reviews/product-usage

https://www.trustradius.com/reviews/quickbase-2017-04-18-11-28-01

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Strengths1. ReportingAccording to users, the ease of producing reports is one of the great strengths of the platform.

“We use QB to manage our workflow, our invoicing, and our customer data tracking. Hard to imagine how we survived without it.”

Neil S.Project ManagerTelecommunications51-200 EmployeesMarch 2018

“Elevate uses Quick Base as a platform to develop applications for our internal use. We have created our own HRMS system called ElevatedHR on Quick Base which is being used across Elevate from all its locations in the US, UK, India, and the Philippines. We also have our time tracking tool developed on Quick Base which helps us bill our clients.”

Samit M.Direcot HR & LearningLegal Services201-500 Employees April 2017

Engineering ManagerOil and Energy Company

51-200 EmployeesDecember 2017

“Our main use for Quick Base is as a tool for our clients, in the oil and gas industry, to manage their assets and compliance with government regula-tions. We use it in-house as well to track company licenses, trademarks, contracts, etc. as well as for the internal audits that we perform for our clients on their behalf.”

“Complicated reports are easy to create and cus-tomize in minutes so that you can quickly assess the status of the project or drive accountability down to the user level.”

VP EngineeringTelecommunications Company10,000+ EmployeesApril 2017

George K.CTO

Information Technology Company1-10 Employees

January 2018

“Creating extremely useful reports is tremendously easy in Quick Base. This makes it very simple for us to keep on top of any sort of statistics, reports, and other items that help with our growth.”






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2. Ease of App CreationApplication development is straightforward for non-developers.

“The Quick Base report builder is simple and easy to use and permits data to be interpreted/converted into meaningful business information.”

Neil B.General ManagerIndustrial Automation Company 201-500 EmployeesMay 2017

“We find that QB users love the ability to produce self-serve reports. This is efficient in two ways. Users get the exact reports they need in a timely manner because they don’t have to ask a QB developer to make the report for them. QB developers can focus on developing great software instead of writing reports.”

Ming H.PresidentInformation Technology Company1-10 EmployeesNovember 2016

Sam G.Director, Governance, Risk & Compliance

Banking Company10,000+ Employees

May 2017

“Ad hoc reporting allows us to slice and dice all of our information in endless ways that help to serve a multitude of audiences.”

Miles G.Operations Analyst

Marketing and Advertising Company501-1,000 Employees

December 2016

“Quick Base allows our teams to pull hours and financial reports and view the information in real time on the screen, improving on a system where we would have a month delay on hours. This allows us to communicate with the teams on potential hours overages or changes to the projects in terms of finances.”

“You can go on to develop an end-to-end interactive application without writing a single snippet of code. You can do this with a quick turnaround (the baseline setup can be built in a few hours). This includes creating forms, fields, valida-tions, user roles, role-based dashboards, notifications, reminders, SSO, as well as reports. Quick Base is extremely easy to learn and in most cases you don’t even need the first lesson to get going on the platform and build something useful out of the system.”

Mohit C.Project ManagerComputer Software Company10,001+ EmployeesMarch 2017






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Janet P.Business Analyst

Telecommunications Company501-1,000 Employees

December 2017

“Quick Base allows the actual user to develop the solution for his/her own use. I believe this is the greatest strength or convenience. The devel-opers can be users and users can be developers, without any technical or coding or software devel-opment knowledge.”

Director Product ManagementPharmaceuticals Company

51-200 EmployeesJanuary 2017

“You don’t have to be in IT to be able to build an app. Anyone can build an app; it breaks down walls and doesn’t rely on an approval process necessarily.”

“Ease of design - I am our account administrator, with zero technical background, and I was able to build our applications from the ground up.”

Greg A. Marketing Operations ManagerMarketing and Advertising Company with 201-500 Employees March 2017

Information Technology Company1,001-5,000 Employees

November 2017

“Quick Base is easier and cheaper than other database tools to set up and it provides a very nice interface for your end users/customers to navigate. Almost no skills are necessary, and what skills you might need for a simple application are easily acquired. Within minutes you can have a tool that is accessible via desktop/mobile device that is dynamic and not at risk for being “old”, which is always a problem with email and spreadsheets.”

“With an extensive point and click system for application development that still encompasses almost ALL types of programming situations, it makes it easy and quick for developers to build solutions by focusing on the business needs rather than the nitty gritty details of the implementation or the small programming components.”

Surya A.ArchitectManagement Consulting Company201-500 EmployeesMarch 2017

“Yes, we have implemented several business applications to track different types of project management, tracking assets, and tracking safety incidents. Some of our apps in production have been implemented to production in a day or two! Rapid Application Development at its best!”

Director Quality AssuranceInternet Company501-1,000 EmployeesJanuary 2017




https://www.trustradius.com/reviews/sauce-labs-2017-03-25-18-55-00



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3. SupportThe quality of customer support is high. The support team is responsive and very knowledgeable.

Mike S.Instructional design Supervisor

Utilities Company 1,001-5,000 Employees

May 2017

“Quick Base customer support is excellent. They respond quickly and tend to have a very good understanding of the product. Support team is always willing to get on the phone with me and help solve my Quick Base puzzle.”

Vice PresidentFinancial Services Company

10,001+ EmployeesDecember 2016

“Customer support has been great; anytime I’ve used the built-in functionality to search for guidance or contact support, I’ve been helped immediately. Very responsive team with knowledge of the tool.”

“Their customer service is best-in-class! Responsive, helpful, and always willing to go the extra mile.”

Jessica C.Vice PresidentHospital and Healthcare Company51-200 Employees January 2017

Information Technology May 2017

“Support - support has been awesome and we have received the advice or assistance we need quickly and accurately.”

“Very helpful support team. You don’t have to wait for Quick Base employees to respond to the ques-tions you raise. Even the partners are available to address your questions.”

ConsultantHigher Education Company 501-1,000 EmployeesMay 2017

“Quick Base customer service is superb and very efficient.”

Project ManagerMarketing and Advertising Company 10,001+ EmployeesNovember 2016







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4. Customizable DashboardsUsers appreciate that dashboards can be easily customized so that each user sees only an uncluttered display of information they need to do their job.

Kelly H.Administrative Supervisor,

Telecommunications Company501-1,000 Employees

March 2017

“Personalizing dashboards allows our users to only see what is relevant to them, so they are not bombarded by extraneous data.”

Engineer Quality Assurance Internet Company

5,001-10,000 EmployeesDecember 2016

“User Dashboards can be customized depending on who the user is. Only relevant information and pertinent reports are visible, streamlining what the user sees. Since access to QB is roles based, role clarity becomes inherent in a QB system - QB actually forces roles clarity within the process.”

“Customized Dashboards - This feature allows us to customize the dashboards that are seen by individual employees based on the internal roles that they play. We are able to add and remove reports and features that may not be needed by all employees and tailor the look and feel to optimize the roles uses of Quick Base.”

Miles G.Operations AnalystMarketing and Advertising Company501-1,000 EmployeesDecember 2016

“Individualized dashboards for different user-types is a huge help. Each user sees the reports and data relevant to their needs.”

Manager Higher Education Company501-1,000 EmployeesMarch 2017

“Dashboards are drag-and-drop which makes it easy for certain users to see exactly what they want to see.”

Casey K.Project EngineerPlastics Company51-200 EmployeesFebruary 2017






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5. Large Library of Sample AppsQuick Base users can make use of a large library of example applications to kick-start the development process.

Mohit C.Project Manager

Computer Software10,000+ Employees

March 2017

“Quick Base offers more than 800 different appli-cations set up as vanilla apps which can be reused to our advantage.”

Ryan D.Accounts Receivable ManagerComputer Software Company

51-200 EmployeesDecember 2016

“The exchange includes many apps that serve as a good starting point and give you a structure to build around.”

“Quick Base provides a great library of in-built apps that you can use and customize to your liking.”

Senior ManagerLegal Services Company201-500 Employees December 2016

VP SalesNon-Profit Organization

201-500 EmployeesNovember 2016

“The pre-coded databases are such an amazing tool! Why rebuild the wheel when Quick Base has done the work for you? These aren’t ‘light’ data-bases either, they come pre-loaded with report-ing features and the ability to customize. A real time saver.”

“Quick Base provides a lot of functional examples that can be customized to our company.”

Consultant Quality AssuranceOil & Energy Company10,000+ EmployeesMarch 2017

“There is a large base of Quick Base applications developed by other customers in a wide range of categories that are readily downloaded and modified to suit our needs.”

IT ManagerNon-Profit Organization51-200 EmployeesMay 2017







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6. CommunityThe large user base constitutes a helpful resource for technical assistance.

AnalystAviation & Aerospace Company

10,001 EmployeesFebruary 2017

“The HELP and Community Questions and Answers are very helpful. When you ask a question, help is provided very quickly; you don’t have to wait days.”

Luisana C.Data Survey Assistant

Research Company1,001-5,000 Employees

December 2016

“The Quick Base community is amazing. If there is something I don’t know how to do, it’s as simple as searching my question and it has most likely already been answered. If not, I can post the question and it gets answered within minutes.”

“Quick Base has a vibrant community of enthusi-asts and experts who can help troubleshoot any issues you may be facing.”

Swapnil G.Senior Manager Talent OperationsLegal Services Company201-500 EmployeesDecember 2016

“The Quick Base Community of users is the best I’ve seen. Submitting questions could not be easier, answers are provided typically within a day, and the solutions offered are spot on.”

IT ManagerInformation Technology Company1,001-5,000 EmployeesMarch 2017

“Ongoing training and conferences are available to new and advanced users. Beyond just the company of Quick Base, the universe of users is such a large, connected, and friendly community of empowered citizen developers.”

Jessica C.VP, Clinical Systems & AnalyticsHospital and Healthcare Organization51-200 EmployeesJanuary 2017






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Areas for Improvement1. Form Design and LayoutThere is some dissatisfaction with form design, with users complaining of a variety of issues from difficult-to-use design tools, to challenges incorporating forms into applications.

Scott G.Business Process Manager

Investment Management1-10 Employees

May 2017

“Better form creation, especially for data entry. I used to use MS Access to create applications and had the ability to create user-friendly forms with layouts giving the user understandable instructions and tips plus moving the cursor to the appropriate field.”

Sam K.IT Director

Consumer Services201-500 Employees

April 2017

“I would like to see a few more options available for building forms (embedded images).”

“The Form Builder is rather cumbersome.”

Lee G.PlannerUtilities Company1,001-5000 Employees December 2017

Jason P.Director Digital Communications

Higher Education Organization10,000+ Employees

December 2016

“Multi-table forms - If you would like to be able to edit fields from multiple tables on the same form, that’s currently not possible.”

“Forms design and layout. In 2018, I expect to have a more WYSIWYG input form design. It’s currently awkward and time consuming.”

Robert M.Finance and Operations ManagerDesign Company11-50 EmployeesDecember 2017

“It would work well to build your forms out by default using a more common framework such as bootstrap. Standardizing them on that framework and/or some other similar frameworks would allow us to incorporate the forms more easily into our own applications.”

Brett C.Product ManagerFinancial Services Company10,000+ EmployeesApril 2017







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2. Creating Table Joins Is Difficult for Non-expertsTable joins whether one-to-many or many-to-many are complex and challenging for many users.

Professional Services Program ManagerInformation Technology and Services Company

10,000+ EmployeesMay 2017

“[Would like to] have the ability to define one-to-one relationship between tables to have the ability to transfer text fields from child table to the master table.”

AdministratorHigher Education Organization

5,001-10,000 EmployeesFebruary 2017

“Figuring out how to import linked data (e.g., profiles for participants and the programs they participate in; a “many-to-many” relationship) - this feature is more complicated for non-experts to learn.”

“Table to Table relationships - it would be great to have a more direct/simple way to build many-to-many relationships.”

Greg A.Marketing Operations Group ManagerMarketing and Advertising201-500 Employees March 2017

IT DirectorEducation Management Company

501-1,000 EmployeesApril 2017

“Creating complex joins between tables can be very tricky.”

“We would like to see an easier way to do many to many relationships, which Quick Base is working on.”

John P.Claims system AdministratorInsurance Company5001-10,000 EmployeesDecember 2017

“Inter-table relationships have some odd peculiarities and are not very robust.”

Swapnil G.Senior Manager Talent OperationsLegal Services Company201-500 EmployeesDecember 2016







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3. Pricing StructureThe per-user pricing structure can make the platform expensive for smaller companies.

3. Training Resources“Pricing is quite steep. On multiple occasions, I’ve been wanting to refer small clients to Quick Base, but haven’t been able to, due to the high-priced entry point plan which is out of the reach of most small businesses.”

Georges K.Co-founder and CEOInformation Technology and Services1-10 EmployeesJanuary 2018

“The monthly recurring cost has always been an issue for us. It becomes more important for us because we need many users to be able to ac-cess and provide updates. Each user has to pay a monthly license fee and that creates issues because some people are still using spreadsheets and we have to do manual uploads each evening.”

VP EngineeringTelecommunications Company10,000+ EmployeesApril 2017

Robert T.VP Infrastructure

Computer Software Company51-200 Employees

April 2017

“Pricing model is limiting for us as a small business not being able to afford to use it for a larger number of users.”

IT Team LeadPolitical Organization501-1,000 Employees

February 2017

“Cost is the biggest deterrent. But, all good things cost money. The pricing plans aren’t very clear about what they include. It is important to have calls with a rep to make sure everything is under-stood properly.”





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3. Training Resources Several reviewers would like to see more training resources, particularly online “how-to” videos.

Note: Quick Base has introduced a number of new training options since May 2017, including Quick Base University (online training), several “how-to” videos for getting started, and a certification program. Earlier in 2017 they also rolled out live and regional training events. Many of the following reviews pre-date those initiatives.



“I would like to see training videos specific to each type of pre-made database. It does not need to be anything extensive, maybe just a quick navigation-al tour to show everything the database can do. That would save time and help to determine if we want to go customized or pre-made.”

ConsultantHigher Education Organization

501-1,000 EmployeesMay 2017

“Very few video tutorials. The one available is very fast and to the point.”

“There are so many functions available (good!) but it does take time to find the right resources when you’re trying to learn how to do something. It would be great if a complete guide to Quick Base were more readily available.”

AdministratorHigher Education Company5,001-10,000 Employees February 2017



“Training videos on how to code common things like email notifications. Again, a quick video tutori-al would be great. I am sure they have a “hit list” of common questions, maybe cover those first. Then when we get into the live conference call with the Quick Base professional, we are better able to ask educated questions. We just may need a bit of “pre work” to prepare, and that is missing right now.”

“It was very stressful learning the system when first introduced. There wasn’t a lot of training available 4 years ago. Now there is an ample amount. I think today it would be much easier to create an application fresh into the game and would actually be a great training method for new employees to get acquainted with the system.”

Matthew B.Director of OperationsConsumer Services Organization1-10 EmployeesDecember 2017

“Quick Base can develop a more open training platform of YouTube channels etc. There are many such resources in place, however, there is a need for more.”

Project ManagerProfessional Services Design Company51-200 EmployeesNovember 2016







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4. MobileSome reviewers felt that mobile capabilities are an area for improvement.

“Quick Base is working on its mobile platform and this is an important area for improvement.”

John P.Claims System AdministratorInsurance Company5001-10,000 EmployeesDecember 2017

“Quick Base’s Mobile platform is where the largest area for improvement currently stands. While is holds most functionalities the “Full Site” has, not all of them are present or fully functional. Quick Base should really dedicate some time to this platform as it is much quicker and easier to use on mobile than the full site and provides a very interesting expansion to app usability.”

Account ManagerInformation Technology and Services Company1-10 EmployeesMarch 2017

Professional ServicesInformation Technology Company

10,000+ EmployeesMay 2017

“Quick Base app for both Android and iPhone users. I have the Quick Base saved in my browser’s favorites but a nice quick action to use a phone app displaying all Quick Base applications.”

Account ManagerInformation Technology and Services Company

1-10 EmployeesJanuary 2017

“Quick Base’s mobile support is poor. It is possible to view your Quick Base on a phone or tablet, but it’s difficult to navigate most apps and takes many clicks/taps.”





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Aggregate User Ratings of Quick Base Software on TrustRadius

Overall Rating (402)

Likey to Recommend (264)

Likey to Renew (19)

Usability (12)

Availability (5)

Performance (4)

Support (13)

Online Training (1)

Implementation (7)

Product Scalability (4)

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Executive Interview with Jay Jamison, SVP Strategy & Product Management

THE NO-CODE MOVEMENT IS IN SOME WAYS AN EXTENSION OF AGILE TECHNOLOGIES TO NON-PROGRAMMERS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT “AGILITY FOR EVERYONE” APPROACH?

Agile methodologies have historically been the domain of technical functions, particularly software developers. The idea is to break software teams into smaller groups that talk to customers regularly and deliver in a fast and iterative way.

A no-code platform like Quick Base enables agile to be delivered to everyone in an organization; especially non-technical people who manage critical business processes within their organizations. These are people who live on the front lines and want to be able to iterate quickly and come up with solutions that will adapt as conditions evolve.

In that way, a no-code platform like Quick Base provides the power of a software platform with the ease-of-use of a tool that does not require coding, bringing the benefits of the agile methodology to many more people in the organization.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LOW-CODE AND NO-CODE PLATFORMS, AND WHO IS THE IDEAL USER FOR EACH?

The way I see it, no-code platforms are tools that are designed for anyone to use. You don’t have to have a coding background. The idea is to bring the power of software development to non-technical people.

Low-code platforms, on the other hand, are designed for people who are more technical, typically in IT or software development. The focus of low-code platforms is to enable those developers and IT professionals to be vastly more productive and efficient. At Quick Base, about 25% of our users are technical professionals, while 75% are non-technical knowledge workers.

ARE THESE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRODUCTS OR DO MANY PRODUCTS HANDLE EACH SCENARIO EQUALLY WELL?

They are different in that low-code platforms are designed, marketed, and sold as enterprise IT solutions, while no-code platforms typically attract knowledge workers who then build and deploy solutions in their organization. Robust no-code platforms like Quick Base are capable of serving many, if not all, of the needs of professional developers looking to accelerate application delivery, while at the same time empowering non-technical users to build their own solutions. In that way, no-code platforms help organizations accelerate their digital transformation efforts by serving the needs of several different functions rather than just the IT or development teams.

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DO YOU THINK NO-CODE PLATFORMS LIKE QUICK BASE CAN HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT, ALLOWING PERHAPS YOUNGER OR LESS TECHNICAL EMPLOYEES TO MAKE SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS MORE QUICKLY?

Absolutely. We recently surveyed our users and found that more than 50% of them said they had been publicly recognized for their work on Quick Base, and more than 20% had received a promotion directly because of their work with Quick Base. It’s really exciting for us because we have customers who are saying “I’m getting ahead in my career because of my dedication to your platform”. That’s very inspiring to hear, but it’s also something more senior executives are looking for — ways to engage employees and find people who are committed to solving problems.

We think Quick Base users are exactly the types of engaged employees that every CEO wants. They want employees who see a problem and take action to fix it, so the company is more responsive to customers and to changes in the marketplace. Quick Base is the tool that enables this.

CAN YOU GIVE A COUPLE OF CONCRETE EXAMPLES OF HOW CUSTOMERS ACTUALLY USE YOUR PLATFORM IN THE REAL WORLD?

We are used across all industries and company sizes, from the Fortune 100 down to very small companies. At a high-level, we create simple ways to automate and streamline processes. For example, Southwest Airlines uses us in a wide range of critical business processes, including managing the workflows for baggage handling and flight maintenance operations. All that workflow has been built on Quick Base, not by a professional developer but by someone more like a business analyst.

We have another customer who manufactures building supplies for roads or commercial real

estate. They would sometimes send a large shipment of cement to a customer and later get a report that the cement was damaged or could not be used. With Quick Base, they built a loss analysis tool to get accurate workflow data to troubleshoot and improve the business process.

Another example is Blackhawk Network. They make white label gift cards that you see in a grocery store or Starbucks. They found they were spending millions of dollars every year on expedited shipping, so they built a Quick Base application to track that workflow to understand what was happening in the order process. With Quick Base, they cut those costs by 96%.

A lot of these examples are basic business processes that cause companies pain but don’t have out-of-the-box SaaS solutions. There aren’t really SaaS platforms to handle expedited shipping charges. Quick Base provides people with the tools they need to build a solution that is perfectly suited to the specific problem.

We have a customer who was looking to build an application for fire drill compliance. Where are they going to buy a fire drill compliance application? There is no such thing! We have the ability to help them build that very quickly and get it up and running. They don’t have to hire coders or maintain it; they just define that process and build the app in days and then deploy it to their properties.

THE ROOTS OF LOW CODE AND NO CODE ARE IN BPM SYSTEMS. WE ARE STARTING TO SEE MANY BPM VENDORS REPOSITIONING THEMSELVES AS LOW-CODE PLATFORMS. IS THERE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN BPM AND SYSTEMS LIKE YOURS? ARE THEY RELATED IN YOUR VIEW?

One distinction is that no-code systems are really fast and flexible and adaptable. The application

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that I build today may not work tomorrow as my business evolves. With no-code platforms, that’s no big deal. Anyone who builds an application on Quick Base can add a new field or make some other change and simply move on. Most BPM solutions, even as they try to reposition themselves as low-code platforms, lack that flexibility. And their customers are often trying to dig out from under the BPM solution that they bought years ago because of that.

INTUIT SOLD QUICK BASE TO A PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM A FEW YEARS AGO. WAS THAT BECAUSE OF A MISMATCH BETWEEN SIZE OF CUSTOMERS, WITH QUICK BASE HAVING LARGER CUSTOMERS? IS INTUIT STILL ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST CUSTOMERS?

Yes, Intuit remains a very large and very supportive customer. They use Quick Base extensively and we are thrilled with the partnership. Because Quick Base is relevant to businesses of all sizes, we were very different from Intuit’s focus on personal finance and small businesses. It was a very wise strategic move for Intuit to spin us out, and I think it’s been a good result for Quick Base investors and customers. We now have a management team, a product organization, and a sales and customer success organization that really are laser focused on bringing this platform to businesses of all sizes and helping them achieve the success that they seek on their terms. I think that’s a powerful evolution for us and for our customer base. Now we can invest the time and expertise and resources to support a large customer like Southwest Airlines.

HOW MANY OF YOUR CUSTOMERS TODAY ARE ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS? WHO IS YOUR BUYER TODAY? IS IT IT OR LINE OF BUSINESS?

Numbers-wise, the majority of our customers are SMBs. But our enterprise segment is growing

quickly. As we’ve started to engage with more large businesses and innovated new enterprise capabilities, we have been rewarded with increasing support from our enterprise customers.

Our buyers are all across the board. Historically, they have been line of business people with titles like business analyst or project manager — people on the front lines trying to solve problems for their company. More and more we are finding ourselves engaged in conversations across the organization. We are increasingly seeing a cross-functional buying effort, working with IT and business together in a more holistic and strategic manner. So, we are in the process of evolving.

HOW WOULD YOU SEGMENT THIS MARKET AND POSITION YOURSELVES WITH COMPETITORS LIKE OUTSYSTEMS, APPIAN, MENDIX? HOW DO YOU FIT INTO THIS MARKET?

Quick Base’s biggest competition is actually a spreadsheet sitting in somebody’s inbox. Spreadsheets are great for some things, but you don’t want to run business-critical systems by sharing spreadsheets. That is a recipe for disaster. As far as other low-code tools, I think of the market as a two-by-two grid. The X axis represents the power of the platform, while the Y axis represents the ease of use. I think tools like OutSystems, Appian, and Mendix are in the lower right quadrant of the grid; very powerful but not really accessible to business users. Other competitors like Smartsheet are in the upper left quadrant; very easy to use but not as powerful. We exist in the upper right quadrant, easy enough that anyone can learn to use, and powerful and scalable enough to build robust, business-critical applications.

WHO DO YOU SEE IN COMPETITIVE SALES DEALS?

Most often we are the only ones at the table.

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However, we have a number of customers who are using Quick Base with Mendix or Quick Base with OutSystems or Appian. We don’t see it as a zero-sum game because those products won’t really be relevant for the non-technical user. From time to time, especially as we climb more into the central IT arena, we see other vendors like ServiceNow. ServiceNow is often an entrenched standard within central IT. Companies might use them for ITSM and then realize that they have a need for a no-code offering also. If we have made our case about buying into a platform that can be broadly distributed to users to solve business problems, then we tend to do well because we are well outside the ServiceNow ITSM sweet spot.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP? WHAT IS QUICK BASE WORKING ON RIGHT NOW? YOU HAVE AROUND 300 REVIEWS ON TRUSTRADIUS, AND TO QUICKLY SUMMARIZE THE PROS AND CONS: YOUR CLIENTS LOVE THE REPORTING CAPABILITY, EASE OF APPLICATION CREATION, QUALITY OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT, CUSTOMIZABLE DASHBOARDS, THE LIBRARY OF SAMPLE APPLICATIONS, AND THE VERY STRONG COMMUNITY SUPPORT. ON THE ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT SIDE, THEY MENTION FORM DESIGN, DIFFICULTY OF TABLE JOINS, PRICING, LACK OF VIDEO TRAINING RESOURCES, AND UNDER-DEVELOPED MOBILE CAPABILITIES. DOES YOUR ROADMAP ADDRESS ANY OF THE PRODUCT WEAKNESSES I JUST MENTIONED?

Yes, absolutely. One of our core values as a company is being customer obsessed, and I am pleased to say that it’s very gratifying to hear the positives. But we are very interested in areas where our users feel we are coming up short. The good news is that what you described to me is exactly where our focus is.

Our product roadmap falls into three basic

categories: The first is building features that increase customer trust. That means improving our security, reliability, performance, and manageability.

The second category is power. We want to make Quick Base builders more powerful. For example, we recently built a new automation capability that empowers users to set up a cascading set of actions that happen when something triggers it. It’s an “if x happens then y” logic.

The third category is simplicity. We have released a number of updates over the last year to modernize and simplify our user experience. We have already started improving our UI to make it more approachable, and next we’re going to make it easier to build table-to-table relationships.

As for pricing, we’re always looking to price Quick Base commensurate with the value our product delivers. We have several enterprise customers who say Quick Base is underpriced compared to the value they derive, but we’re also working on initiatives to help Quick Base users prove that value before committing to a contract. At our user conference in June 2018 we announced a Quick Base builder program which will include a free-to-use version of Quick Base for new builders who want to learn and try out their skills on the platform. As builders start working with Quick Base and create value and really see that as something they want to put into production, we believe that will help us alleviate some of the pricing challenges.

Finally, at our user conference this year we showed a native mobile application that we are planning to release later this year. We will be continuing to extend that to build a “web studio” that a Quick Base builder can use to design a

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mobile-first experience for a Quick Base built application for the phone. This is very important for field workers who need to check status in the field or take a picture from their phone if they are doing field maintenance. We have customers who really want to have that user experience. We will have one roadmap milestone later this year on this, and more coming in 2019.

quick base product report

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