We recently interviewed a longtime user of Quickbase. Learn more about the most interesting talking points, takeaways and use cases that were discussed.
In late January, we interviewed Robin Hall, the owner and principal consultant of VARC Solutions, LLC (a longtime parter of Quickbase). She has been specializing in Quickbase and Quickbooks for over 15 years. Robin has also been a longtime user of Juiced Add-Ons for Quickbase, not only for internal use, but for about 95% of their clients' applications as well. By the end of the interview, one thing was clear:
Robin has as strong an understanding of the benefits and potential use cases of pairing our Add-Ons with Quickbase as any Juiced customer in the world.
With the help of Add-Ons such as Exact Forms Plus, XL Docs, PDF Merger, DocuSign and Courier, VARC has helped to enhance their clients' businesses and workflow processes.
Why You Should Consistently Be Working Towards Automating As Many Manual Tasks As Possible
Before getting into the content of the interview, we do feel it's important to briefly explain why it's important that you're reading this right now. After all, you've made it this far with your current processes, how exactly can you be so sure that workflow automation is THAT much of a game changer for you and your company?
Automating workflows is crucial for increasing efficiency, productivity, and accuracy in any organization. By reducing errors and inconsistencies in your process, you'll both improve the quality of work and enhance customer satisfaction. Additionally, automation can enable faster turnaround times, reducing the overall processing time and enabling faster decision-making.
By using Add-Ons to streamline your Quickbase workflows you'll open up opportunities for cost savings and improved performance. By automating as many repetitive and time-consuming tasks as possible, you and your team can focus on more strategic and high-value activities that require human intelligence and decision-making, ultimately leading to better business outcomes.
The truth of the matter is that workflow automation is quickly becoming essential in today's rapidly changing business environment, where speed, agility, and accuracy are critical success factors. Now while that may sound a bit daunting, don't worry, there's good news, which brings us to....
Key Takeaways From Our Talk With Robin
1. You may be wasting significantly more time on manual tasks than you think
So here's something that we run into often - people can become so caught up in their current workflow that they often don't realize how much time they can actually save by simply using one Add-On or by pairing multiple Add-Ons together. Here's an example from Robin that should kickstart your imagination:
Use Case #1:
Reducing Onboarding From a One Week Process to a One Day Process
Robin had been working closely with a government contractor that hired across the country. Before they had a Quickbase application with Add-Ons in it, they were manually sending out paperwork such as the employee handbook, the company information sheet, the W-4, the insurance, etc. through FedEx.
This often led to a lot of back and forth, i.e applicants forgetting to fill out/sign certain forms. Couple this with the fact that they'd sometimes be hiring 50+ people at a time, and you can quickly begin to see where things could start to unravel.
To streamline the process, VARC built out a system that generated and filled out the necessary documents all in one go using Exact Forms Plus and PDF Stamper.
From there, they used our DocuSign Add-On to send the forms to applicants, supervisors, and the home office for signatures.
This new, automated system allowed for drastically quicker onboarding of new hires, transforming a process that was sometimes taking multiple weeks to complete into one that was able to get done in a single day - and that's not even to mention the savings from no longer having to pay the FedEx shipping charges.
2. Optimizing Your Workflow Can Improve Your Company’s Image
Consistent branding and company image are important for several reasons:
Consistent branding helps customers recognize your brand more easily, which builds trust and loyalty over time.
A consistent and professional image across all documents and marketing materials demonstrates that your company takes itself seriously and presents a professional image to customers.
Consistent branding makes it easier to expand your company into new markets or product lines because customers will already recognize and trust your brand.
While it may not be the first thing that comes to mind, your manual processes may be holding you back from improving your company's image. Below is a good example that Robin let us in on during our January interview:
Use Case #2:
The Importance of Consistency in Your Sales Process
Despite the fact that you and your team may be talented, even the greatest workers are prone to mistakes, inefficiencies and inconsistencies.
Robin shared a story of a company she was working with that had multiple different salespeople manually creating documents. Often times, they'd each be be using different templates and versions of logos, creating inconsistency in the company's image.
By centralizing the document generation process through Exact Forms Plus and XL Docs, the company is now able to ensure that all documents have the same professional look and feel, including consistent placement of logos and other branding elements, all in a fraction of the time it took them to do it manually.
Another point that was brought up during the discussion was the importance of using a central system to prevent individual salespeople from making mistakes or quoting different prices to different customers. By doing so, you can develop more consistency in the quotes/prices being listed on your sales documents, further cultivating the loyalty and trust from your customers that every company strives for.
3. There's more ways to automate your current workflow than you realize
Whether you believe it or not, it's more than likely that there are multiple things you are currently doing manually that can be done by an Add-On.
Whether it be that you simply have yet to hear about the Add-On that suits your current needs or just that you never considered the possibility of automating your current process, we tend to tell people to follow one simple rule:
If you're wondering if it can be done by Juiced, just ask us.
While each of our Add-Ons is intended for a specific purpose, there's been plenty of cases where we've tweaked/customized the functionality of an Add-On for a specific client's needs. As we continue to grow, our customers are constantly showing us new ways to make use of our Add-Ons in their Quickbase applications.
Are there any pieces of your workflow that you feel are taking you more time/effort than they should be?