Just curious. What tools do you use (i.e. email software, communication software, task management/CRM, etc.), why do you like them, and what's the most important feature you wish it had?
Built my own task and staff management tools with Wappler the way I need them. As for Email we use Outlook. Not sure how that is set up, we have an IT guy on staff to manage that. We also use Teams for communication.
But as far as staff management, client dashboard and task management, it's all built with Wappler.
I wish I had Sockets for live data updating .... still using PHP.
What features did you want that weren't available in other tools?
Just the 'simplicity' .... no specific features. Just works with only what we need and not what the software thinks we need. It's also cheaper ....
Also, job security. The more I develop custom for them, the more secure my contract is with my one and only client.
Ha, good reason! How large is the company?
About 45 staff members in six different cities/offices. Thousands of clients including job seekers and employers. We are a government funded job placement agency.
My answer to the above is our own suite of tools combined in to our own unified application, entirely bespoke from top to bottom. We had to build it as nothing even came close, and what was available had a monthly subscription or annual contract (and not one option covered all the bases), which mounts up in fixed costs and overheads which can be better spent elsewhere in our opinion. The most important thing is clear and concise communication of tasks and responsibilities (total clarity). Accountability for the task or assignment, tracking of tasks and assignments, and delegation of tasks and assignments. Real-time data is essential (arrival, departure, contracts, quotes, meetings, schedules, etc). We need to act fast, our whole team acts fast. We need to react and we need the data that allows us to react and make those decisions right in front of us (as they can costs tens of thousands of Euros if there is a mistake), we can not afford mistakes. Our whole suite of tools link in to our platform in real-time. From our desktop tools, to our online Client dashboards, and our mobile tools for our field agents. They all share the same data and update each respective user (across all our platforms) immediately (if they are included in any loop). The worst thing is when 'Users' all operate on a different tool-set, just not good enough and we simply don't allow it. Any communication within our company can be seen by those assigned the permission to oversee it (including email, schedules, documents, the whole nine yards), and not only that they can make changes in real-time on top, which are instantly made available to anyone involved. Time is money in our business, and mistakes, like I mentioned, can cost a significant amount of money indeed.
I must add. Function over form all the things. Yes it must look nice and be responsive but if it doesn't work what is the point of bells and whistles if nobody can hear them...
We currently have three locations our team operates from, essentially three companies (each serving a specific requirement). We have anywhere between 20 - 30 staff, speaking a multitude of languages, and we have many international Clients spread across the world. Much the same as @brad I depend upon this 'work' for my income and selected to work exclusively for the Client who is also one of my best friends (we have known and worked together on multiple Projects over 25+ years).
Exact same scenario for me .... I work for solely one client who has been a friend and client since 1999. Finally in 2016 I was asked and given a good contract to work solely for them and Wappler came along at the right time and made that happen ever since.
We are incredibly fortunate Brad! I never take it for granted just how lucky I am to be in the position I find myself in. Job security and satisfaction can never be under estimated.
I use Trello…
What do you like about it?
You can build pretty well anything with it and their customise fields.
We use it to track sales, software releases etc.
It is just the most amazingly flexible information organiser!
Notion
I wrote a CRM, Quotations, Proposal, Knowledge Base and Task Management system for the company I work for as a sideline project originally in Wappler 3. Someone convinced them 12 months ago to move to Monday.com as it was a "proper system" that had things such as drag and drop and they would be able to configure all the functionality themselves. 1 year later they never managed to migrate await from my system to Monday and effectively wasted money and time and have now dropped Monday completely. Some of the reasons for moving back were:
- Too much customisation available, people spending more time managing the system rather than using it
- Lots of out of the box integration with main stream applications but expensive for custom integration with other applications
- Whilst Monday may advertise itself as many things using the same interface for different applications was difficult for many users, a CRM designed as a CRM is generally going to be easier to use than a task system being used as a CRM.
- I had a philosphy of only entering the data once , information entered into the knowledge base is also linked to the quote builder and proposal system, the CRM details are available in Tasks so it operates like a workflow system not a collection of disconnected boards
- As mentioned by others function over form is key but I would caveat that is easier when you are developing a system for a client to focus on function as opposed to a public SaaS where there is I high expectation around look and feel.
Best of look with your application, looks good.
Yeah, this is one of the areas I've struggled with. Is it better to limit the functionality so the focus is on getting work done or allow for maximum flexibility? I'm starting with limited functionality, but, coming from an Enterprise SaaS background, I know larger companies generally want to change parts of the system to support their unique business processes.
Github projects for task management.
Discord/slack/teams for chatting, internally we use discord. Slack/teams is with different clients.
For invoicing and client management use a combination of msft excel and zoho books.
I would limit customisation options to a role that can be assigned so companies can allocate responsibility to certain individuals rather than a free for all