Kintone

Commentaires: Kintone has been the most cost-effective solution to my organization's database, data, and reporting needs for over two years. I don't see us dropping Kintone even if we adopt other systems. In fact, our plan is to find systems (e.g. BI tools) that can link to Kintone. It takes a look of development time off your hands. For the needs of a small to medium organization, it is almost all you may need to rid yourself off scattered spreadsheets, stay data organized, manage workflows and business process communication etc. Just take time to know the tool and you may never need the computer science person.

Avantages: Quite easy/quick to learn
Ease of use
Very cost-effective for nonprofits
May be all the database needed for small to medium organizations. Link it to another tool (e.g. through ODBC) that supports functionalities like SQL and that's it.
Customization support if you know JavaScript.
Excellent workflow support
Very helpful and responsive customer support.

Inconvénients: Lack of very key and basic formula support such as If-else conditions.
Difficult to make apps talk to each other (app relationships) which leads to the need for multiple apps with duplicate data. It appears the only option available is the Lookup Feature, which works well for its purpose but is limited regarding true apps/database relationships. This limitation may be resolved by linking your apps through ODBC to a tool like a BI tool that supports database relationships.
Limited customization if you have no JavaScript expertise.
Lack of support for SQL

Commentaires: Transitioned a complex database with many "many to many" relationships which don't seem to something the designers at Kintone make a priority but thanks to experts and determined support from the team, we've figured most things out. We have a lot of work to do yet and it can feel daunting but thanks to the support, it is doable.

Avantages: The support. Figuring things out wasn't intuitive for me and without the support team, I'd likely not have seen the transition through. The team was unbelievably patient and kind and smart about ensuring we didn't get it fast...but correct. Support team truly was the best value and made all the difference in the world.

Inconvénients: Challenging to use and learn.
Lack of comprehensive tutorials.
I would always search first for help but only found very basic guidance which made me feel terrible for always having to turn to support team to figure things out. The product is great if you are very tech savvy and have advanced skills... or if you have the team for support. But if we had to go this alone, we'd never have endured.

Commentaires: Excellent ! While the self serve help center has its limitation , my overall experience is positive because when I reached out to someone in the Kintone team , I always got the answers that I was looking for.

Avantages: I like the fact that I was able to figure it out by myself , without the need to run to IT , as we all know that once IT is involved you usually get something that work for them and not for the end user.

Inconvénients: There is nothing I dislike , although I would want to see a more in depth self serve help center . In the current form when you search for solutions on how to solve a problem ( problem in terms of figuring out how to build exactly what you need, not system being down or the like) you might get lucky and find something that will help you. In my view , it would help if customer generated "help solutions" would be made available.

Commentaires: I am not a developer. I know how to spell HTML. The Kintone team took a concept I had and created a comprehensive client evaluation audit and scoring system that included multiple client support apps, like action planning. From day one until we were able to start testing initial versions was fast, fast, fast. The development time was a matter of months from start to roll out. The people we worked with were wonderful, honest and smart. The only challenge was that since I am not a "techie" - there were times their communications were a bit over my head. But they eventually learned how to communicate better with a novice like me. I was very, very pleased with Kintone and the platform they built and manage for us.

Avantages: The system is quite robust, has multiple applications (audit, reporting, support materials, action planning), and easy to use.

Inconvénients: Multiple clients cannot be working on their audit at the same time.

Commentaires: We needed a solution to house all of our client communication, customer contracts and unique services, equipment, billing information, CRM, document library, post inspections, and more. We are able to do all that and more and customize it exactly as we want it.

Avantages: The software is customizable to any need.
The apps are able to be tied together through related records which is vital to our business.
There are many standard apps that can be downloaded for free and edited and/or used as a model instead of building an app from scratch.
Customer service for Kintone if very responsive and able to send an app template to assist when a premade app is unavailable. The template can then be installed and customized to suit the unique needs of the user.
History is tracked in each app to show the changes made over time. This is an extremely useful feature.
The entire interface is user-friendly and easy to learn.

Inconvénients: I would like to be able to customize the portal and change the layout (such as move the location of the spaces and announcements).
While there is a lot of information in the help section, it could be formatted in a more user-friendly format.
I would like to be able to change the order in which the apps are listed in the apps section.