Regardless of an organization’s size, effectively executing on business processes such as sales cycle and customer relationship management, human resources and procurement tracking, supply-chain management and more, requires reliable, instant access to a broad range of corporate data—and the ability to collaborate and communicate, in real time, with internal and external stakeholders in geographically and technologically diverse locations.Realizing this promise, however, has proven difficult.
Maximizing the Power
of Your Desktop Database:
Top business advantages of moving your data online
WHITE PAPER
Intuit QuickBase http://quickbase.intuit.comEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The desire to manage information Successful businesses have long understood that managing critical data-and as an asset is a common principle transforming that data into usable information-is key to informing the business but is dif?cult to achieve. intelligence that enables productivity, agility, and competitive advantage. Many of these organizations have traditionally relied upon desktop solutions to house such data, but are Gartner Business Issues: "Best Practices growing increasingly frustrated with their lack of ?exibility, scalability, and security-as for Managing Enterprise Information" well as the administrative headaches and costs of supporting them. Online databases D. Newman, September 2008 offer an attractive alternative to desktop products, combining speed of implementation and ease of use with the collaborative functions required to inform and power organizations' unique business processes and performance.
INTRODUCTION
Regardless of an organization's size, effectively executing on business processes such as sales cycle and customer relationship management, human resources and procurement tracking, supply-chain management and more, requires reliable, instant access to a broad range of corporate data-and the ability to collaborate and communicate, in real time, with internal and external stakeholders in geographically and technologically diverse locations.
Realizing this promise, however, has proven dif?cult. Business and IT professionals alike Insignia Research reports that the are engaged in a constant struggle to identify a demonstrated solution that not only average 1,000-employee enterprise provides a single, consistent, accurate version of data-but also that supports easy access can lose nearly $13 million a year and interaction with this data from anytime, anywhere. The evolution of data-especially solely as a result of being unable among rapidly growing organizations-also requires a ?exible solution that can adapt to communicate and collaborate to changing circumstances. And-money is unfortunately an object. Today's economy with others in real time. translates to plummeting IT budgets and the need to prove higher business value Computer Weekly.com, "Non-Uni?ed with fewer resources. Bridging the gap between business and IT has never been more Communications Can Cost Millions." important; both constituents must be able to access, use and to some degree, manage data-else it will languish under the pressures of higher IT priorities and lack of technical November 7, 2007 acumen.
Despite these realities, many organizations have traditionally relied upon-or are considering implementation of-desktop solutions to address their database needs. At ?rst blush, traditional desktop databases like Microsoft® Access® or Filemaker®-or even spreadsheets being used as databases-promise a foolproof, risk-free, low-cost approach to effective data management; experience, however, has proven otherwise as business needs have evolved and these go to tools are becoming more of a hindrance than an asset.
Why desktop databases fail Expanding upon Sir Francis Bacon's famous axiom, The Economist once observed that "Knowledge is power-but only if you know how to acquire it." In the case of your business, knowledge is indeed power-but only if you can access, manipulate, and leverage the data that informs it. While desktop databases perform well for certain discrete functions, they fail to address the above business challenges and imperatives-and thus fall short of meeting the demands of an evolving organization. Here's why:
1Intuit QuickBase MFraoxmim Dizeinskgt othpe D Paotwabear soef Ytoo uthr eD Wesekbto: p Database: TWoph yb umsoinveinssg aydovuarn dtaatgae os nolfi nme oisv ibnegt tyeor ufor rd yaotau ro bnulisnienessThey impede-rather than enable-collaboration Imagine you're a software manufacturer. Perhaps your engineers work on Linux "Knowledge is power-but only if workstations, your product managers work on Windows-based desktops (though some you know how to acquire it." of them carry iPhones), and your marcom group uses MacBooks. In order to manage the product development cycle and speed time-to-market, you'd like all three teams to tap Economist.com i... [download for more]
