Low Code Tools To Love – Airtable

Low Code Tools To Love – Airtable

I’ve worked in the tech industry a long time. I’ve worked with enterprise applications, oen source applications, productivity applications, and a million plugins.

Recently, as the low code movement gains steam (and I lead the Roadmap To MVP Programs for women entrepreneurs with regional Innovation centers WEtech and Haltech, some notable software players stand out. Today, I need to talk about my conversion to Airtable.

Their slogan is:

Build A Better Way To Work
Airtable’s intuitive yet powerful platform gives everyone the flexibility to create their own solution and make work flow faster.

5 Things I Love

  • It’s like Excel on steroids. It is a database, but instead of having to write SQL code and queries, you add your column headers as fields, enter your data in rows, link records in different tables, and then organize it in every way possible. I am realizing sometimes now when in Excel or Google Sheets – I’m getting frustrated that I cannot view my data in single record, kanban, or cards views. Sometimes, I find myself copying excel data into an empty Airtable table just so I can really interact with the information and understand it.
  • Gather data through Airtable Forms in minutes. It’s just another view. Just like above, create your column headers as fields in your main table, create another view called Form – and add your logo. Drag and drop any fields in the form out that you do not want to show, share the form with a link or embed it, and Go! It takes mere minutes.
  • Automations and Extensions greatly improve workflow. When a record is added, send an email, or send a slack message, or append a row in Google Sheets. So many ways to improve workflow, simplify life, and try new processes in very little time. 
  • On a Pro Plan, one year of backups. Well, that is a no brainer. You can always pull a snapshot back into your database if something goes wrong. However, I do keep the schema backed up separately.
  • Airtable integrates with everything. It has some great pre-built out of the box connectors, but with Zapier or Make – it can integrate with a lot of other software. Currently, it seems to be leading – with a ton of companies vying to show they integrate with Airtable.

Give it a try. The Airtable Community is great. Lots of help.
www.airtable.com 

Roadmap To MVP – Cohort 2

Roadmap To MVP – Cohort 2

Excited to be kicking off Roadmap to MVP with RISE (RISE Windsor-Essex), WEtech (Windsor Regional Innovation Center), and Haltech (Halton Regional Innovation Center).

Roadmap to MVP is a 10-week program to help you build your minimum viable product (MVP). The program aims to give woman-identifying entrepreneurs the opportunity to define and develop their MVP in a supportive and collaborative group environment. Participants will gain access to a community of other women founders and will receive 1:1 mentorship from program facilitator – Reema Duggal – President of Sitaran Group and Co-Founder of Silicon Halton.

The program modules included:

  1. Understanding The Product Development Lifecycle
  2. Defining Your Minimum Viable Product Features and Functions
  3. Developing Your MVP With Low Code / No Code Applications – Part 1
  4. Developing Your MVP With Low Code / No Code Applications – Part 2
  5. Developing Your MVP With External Help

Plus, there will be 5 Office Hours Sessions to ask questions and get help.

 

 

 

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone a very happy 2021 holiday season. May it be full of warmth and cheer.

And let’s all hope the new year is full of peace and joy!

As we enter 2022, the impact of COVID-19 is that businesses of all sizes are going through Digital Transformations. Developing a digital business roadmap and framework that aligns with your business goals is one of the most important things you can do. Customers everywhere are expecting to transact online with you at every level. Are you ready?

If you’d like to chat about what it means to build a roadmap and framework so you can plan your projects and budgets – let us know. We can help guide you.

Roadmap To MVP

Roadmap To MVP

Over the last seven weeks, it has been incredibly rewarding to lead the Roadmap to MVP Program – a partnership between Haltech and Silicon Halton.

The goal was to help female entrepreneurs who may not have the technical skills required to develop a minimal viable product (MVP). This can delay entry into the market or cost female Founders more dollars up front to contract development leaving them short of funding to drive other needed activities of early stage start ups. Haltech in partnership with Silicon Halton created Roadmap to MVP as a way to accelerate through this milestone.

The program modules included:

  1. Defining Your Minimum Viable Product Vision / Scope
  2. Defining Your Minimum Viable Product Features and Functions
  3. Developing Your MVP With Low Code / No Code Applications
  4. Developing Your MVP With An Application Development Company
  5. Selecting An MVP Hosting / Cloud Computing Platform
  6. Testing and Launching Your MVP, and a
  7. BONUS Networking Session

Having spent a few decades in the tech industry in Marketing, Sales, Consulting, Project Management, and Practice Management – it gave me a chance to impart a significant amount of knowledge to the Founders. It also helped them understand that technical development is not as difficult as one might think.

 

Ecommerce Journey: Package, SAAS, or Custom

Ecommerce Journey: Package, SAAS, or Custom

One of the most important things that a business owner has to decide in their Ecommerce Journey, is the route they are going to take in their application strategy: package implementation, SAAS, or custom implementation. There are really important differences in all three – and the right solution depends on you and your company.

Package, SAAS, or Custom – What Do They Mean?

A Package Implementation means you’re going to:

  • Use an application that has been built for your industry that has all the business functions, data constructs, and workflows built in.
  • You’ll have the  opportunity to configure (no coding) the application with your data so the applications works for you.
  • You’ll also have the opportunity to customize (coding involved) with your specific workflows / data requirements by purchasing plugins or hiring a developer to customize the application.  Although, every time there is an upgrade from the application vendor, the customizations may need updating also.
  • Host the appication on your servers or in a shared hosting environment
  • Typical platforms can include WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart

A SAAS Implementation means you’re going to:

  • Use an application that has been built for your industry that has all the business functions, data constructs, and workflows built in
  • Have the  opportunity to configure (no coding) the application with your data so the applicatiion works for you.
  • Have the ability to purchase approved plugins that can add functionality.
  • Not have the opportunity to customize (coding involved) with your specific workflows / data requirements  – as source code is not changeable.
  • Subscribe to the platform by paying a monthly fee to run and host the site for you – generally worry free.
  • Typical platforms include Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento

A custom implementation means you’re going to

  • Build an application with the business, data constructs, and workflows exactly as you need them for your business
  • Hire a team including business analysts and developers to design and develop this custom application
  • Customize the application to your heart’s content
  • Update and upgrade with new features whenever you want
  • Typical application development platforms could be Azure, Ruby on Rails, PHP

So, How Do You Decide?

Reasons to go with a Package Implementation:

  • Process – Your business can fit into the package.
  • People – You’ll have access to a talent pool with skills in that package, and to a community of users and support forums that discuss business and technical issues
  • Technology – You are comfortable maintaining the application and the hosting environment
  • Money – There are open source application like woocommerce that free.  But learning curve and plugins will add dollars.  Other applications charge a monthly licensing fee on a per seat basis.

Reasons to go with a SAAS Implementation:

  • Process – Your business can fit into the package.
  • People – You’ll have access to a talent pool with skills in that package, and to a community of users and support forums that discuss business and technical issues
  • Technology – You are NOT comfortable maintaining the application and the hosting environment.
  • Money – For smaller companies with limited inventory and limited orders, SAAS is a godsend.  For a fixed small fee per month + a per transaction fee – one can get started. However, when your volumes go up, and customer complexity in contract pricing comes into play, SAAS can become expensive.  Also integrations to inventory management systems become expensive. Understanding total cost of ownership at every order volume / revenue level is really important.

Reasons to go with a Custom Implementation:

  • Process – Your business cannot fit into a package or SAAS implementation
  • People – You have an in-house or outsourced IT team that is capable of building, documenting, hosting, and supporting the application
  • Technology – You are comfortable with all aspects of designing, building, and maintaining the application and the hosting environment
  • Money – More money spent up front on people, processes, and technology.  Licensing costs will be less.  Transaction fees will be less.  Maintenance and updates will be more.