Think fast

8 Microsoft Access Alternatives

For a lot of businesses, finding a suitable Microsoft Access alternative for their needs is becoming pretty urgent. See, Access has been rumored to be reaching its end-of-life for a few years now - although Microsoft hasn’t unveiled any formal plans for a retirement party. Even so, in 2023, Access feels like a bit of a product of a bygone era. Not to be outwardly critical, but in the age of cloud computing, low-code development, DBaaS tools, and even AI, it’s tough for legacy platforms to keep up with the needs of modern businesses.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 29, 2023

What is a Transactional Database?

Transactional databases are some of the most foundational and ubiquitous tools around. In fact, for countless IT teams, this is the default model for data storage. But, in recent years, the size, scale, and complexity of businesses’ data assets have exploded. In turn, it’s become more important than ever to choose the right data management tools for specific applications and use cases. This means that we need to have a realistic, clear grasp of the respective pros, cons, and core tenets of different models - including transactional systems.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 29, 2023

What is PoC Software?

Building PoC for software development projects is an effective way to validate our ideas without going to the effort and expense of building the real thing. Not only does this enable us to prove that our approach to the problem at hand is viable - it also gives us a valuable opportunity to gather real-world input from potential users, developers, target audiences, and other business stakeholders. But, achieving this can be more challenging than you might think.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 29, 2023

How to Build a Sales Dashboard with Budibase

Sales dashboards are fundamental to how we track, monitor, and plan around our incoming revenues. Businesses today sit on mountains of data. But, when it comes to sales reporting - decision-makers often only need high-level metrics. So, the challenge is cutting through the noise and providing clear, actionable insights to the right people. Today, we’re exploring how Budibase can be used to build complex, custom solutions with all sorts of pre-existing business data.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023

How to Build Complex Approvals with Budibase

Managing requests and approvals is a fundamental step within all kinds of business processes. In fact, almost any internal task is going to require some element of sign-off or vetting. The tricky thing is that this is often tightly aligned to very specific policies and procedures within a particular organization. In other words, the specific steps required to gain approval - and the logic underpinning these - will vary across different businesses and individual tasks.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023

Prototype vs MVP | What’s the Difference?

The early stages of application development are critical. A huge part of this is gathering early user feedback. Today we’re comparing two approaches as we explore the differences between building a prototype vs an MVP. See, even the most basic application development projects can be expensive, drawn-out processes. From initial ideation, it could be months or even years before the final product is live and in the hands of users.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023

What is a Process Application?

Process applications are kind of the unsung heroes of digital transformation. These tools are the backbone of countless efficient, streamlined internal business processes. Despite this, they’re rarely at the top of anyone’s list of priorities. The reality for on-the-ground IT teams is that bigger development projects and maintenance needs for existing solutions often take priority. So, even though they have such a huge role to play in optimizing internal workflows, projects to create new process applications often go unrealized.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023

What is a Wide-Column Database?

Wide-column databases are one of the most important types of NoSQL data storage solutions. Countless businesses use them every day, especially in analytics and big data workflows. But, if you go searching for a clear, concise definition, there’s a good chance you’re going to be left disappointed. Unless you like technical marketing jargon. Today, we’re filling that gap. Specifically, we’re diving deep into everything you need to know about wide-column databases - including what they are, how they work, what they’re used for, and how they fit into the bigger picture of the data management landscape.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023