mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Productivity

5 canned reports that take the reporting burden off of IT

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analyticsIf end-user reporting is a burden on your IT department, you’re certainly not alone. The question is…how can you reduce the amount of time your IT department spends creating end-user reports?

One way to fix the problem: Create canned reports with run-time options for end users. This lets your users quickly access the data they need, while reducing the time your IT department spends creating reports.

Here’s how it works: Your IT department creates the initial reports with run-time filters for the users. The users can select which data to display, or filter their data however they wish when they run the report. With the right run-time filters, users can use a single report in many different ways. …

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How to create a custom budgeting & forecasting portal

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developmentWhen it comes to budgeting, one size rarely fits all. Most businesses want budgets that work the way they work, rather than trying to adapt their processes to fit within the constraints of their budgeting software.

The problem: Creating a custom budgeting solution is time-consuming and expensive…so they make do with tools that don’t exactly fit their needs. Or, they just fill the gaps with spreadsheets.

But…what if you could create custom budgeting software easily? It’s not as difficult or time-consuming as you might imagine, and we made a video to show you how it’s done. In this video, we’ll show you how easily you can create custom budgeting and forecasting applications…without coding. In just 15 minutes, we’ll create:

  • A multi-department budget that lets department leaders add and maintain their quarterly budgets. We even add multi-tenant security so each user can only see the data they’re authorized to see!
  • A sales forecast that lets you add and maintain quarterly sales estimates by salesperson, category, and region.
  • Reports that display all budgeting and forecasting data in an easily-digestible format.
  • A secure portal where users can login and manage their budgeting and forecasting data.

This video walks you through the whole process from start to finish and explains each step along the way. Watch it below to learn how easily you can create custom budgeting and forecasting tools for your business.

Want to learn more? Set up a demo here: Set up a demo.

How to Create Composable Business Applications

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developmentComposable applications are business apps that are made of reusable, modular components. They use ‘building blocks’ which can be reused across other applications.

Now, this isn’t a new concept. The idea of modular application development has been around for years. But, why is it so important right now? Why are analyst firms like Gartner pushing the composable concept recently? According to Gartner, it’s so important because “Composability helps you keep up with the accelerating pace of business change.”

They’re absolutely correct. We’re living in a time of rapid change. Agility is more important than ever. A ‘composable’ approach to application development helps businesses adapt to change at lightning speed. It helps your business deliver new applications in hours/days instead of months/weeks.

The next question: How do you create composable applications? Is it difficult to build all of those reusable blocks? Rather than try to explain it to you, we just put together a new video that walks you through the whole process from start to finish. You can watch it below:

Want to learn more? Set up a demo here: Set up a demo.

How to modernize a legacy application in 5 minutes

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developmentLegacy modernization. It’s such a daunting task. You must take your outdated (but functional) applications and turn them into modern web applications…without disrupting the business at all.

On top of that, many legacy applications have been in use for decades. They’ve likely been maintained and altered by different employees over the years…each with their own way of doing things. The result: Legacy applications are often a jumbled mess of spaghetti code.

Once you look at the challenges of modernization, it’s no wonder why so many organizations put it off.

The good news: There’s an easy way to modernize, using the “extend-and-surround” approach. This modernization method delivers a few huge advantages:

  • It’s fast: You’ll have modern applications faster than you thought possible.
  • It doesn’t touch the legacy applications: There’s no need to alter your existing applications, or even touch them at all. But, it still lets you include custom business logic from your legacy applications if needed.
  • There’s no business disruption: Because you’re not changing your legacy applications, you don’t need to worry about breaking anything or disrupting the business.
  • You can use your existing skills: You don’t need to be a web developer to create modern versions of your legacy applications. You can use the skills you already have in-house.

Want to see this modernization approach in action? We created a video that walks you through the modernization process for a simple legacy application. The best part: You’ll see the whole process in just 5 minutes! You can watch the video here:

Do you want to see a solution like this in your company? Setup an m-Power demo here.

How to integrate cloud data into a dashboard (using web services)

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developmentDo you remember back when cloud computing was a new trend? Back then, most businesses ran their software on-premise. Cloud computing was viewed as a security risk and many doubted whether or not it would ever see mass adoption.

Fast forward to the present and cloud computing has most definitely experienced mass adoption. Most businesses these days use multiple cloud services/applications in their day-to-day operations.

In fact, businesses rely so heavily on cloud apps and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) they now face a growing challenge: Their data resides in multiple places. How can they pull data from their disparate cloud apps into a single place for reporting and analytics?

It’s easier than you might think. We just created a video that shows you how quickly you can integrate cloud data (from multiple sources) into a single dashboard using the m-Power Development Platform. In this video, we show you how to:

– pull data out of cloud applications (using web services),
– create web apps and reports over that data,
– and combine those apps and reports into a dashboard.

You can watch the video below:

Do you want to see a solution like this in your company? Setup an m-Power demo here.

How to create actionable business intelligence (in 10 minutes)

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developmentWhat’s the difference between traditional business intelligence and actionable business intelligence? Let’s break down each one:

Traditional BI: Traditional BI and reporting applications deliver data in an easily consumable format. They display key business metrics using charts, graphs, and tables. If done correctly, traditional BI and reporting apps deliver data that decision-makers need to take action.

Actionable BI: Actionable BI takes things a step further. It offers everything that traditional BI offers with one key difference: It lets you take action on your data from within the application. It lets users analyze their data, update data, and trigger workflows. Rather than simply displaying data, actionable business intelligence also lets you do something about it.

If you think about it, this is incredibly useful in all types of situations. Just imagine what you can do with a report or dashboard that also lets you take action on your data and trigger workflows. The possibilities are truly endless.

The big question: How do you create an actionable BI application? Is it more complex than a traditional BI app?

We just created a video that walks you through the whole process using the m-Power Development Platform. You might be surprised by how easy it can be. You can watch the video below.

Automate a workflow process in 7 minutes

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developmentThese days, every business wants to improve productivity. For many, the answer lies right under their nose. While they may not realize it, they’re wasting hours of time every week completing manual tasks that could (and should) be automated.

What types of business processes are ripe for automation? Here are a few of the most common processes that you can automate:

– Invoice processing (from paystub generating to all tax forms)
– Employee onboarding
– Approval processes
– Support ticket applications
– And much, much more.

How can you quickly automate processes like these? We just released a video that walks you through a simple workflow automation process in just 7 minutes. While we demonstrate a support ticket application workflow, the same process can be used for any type of workflow process. You can watch the video here:

How to create a custom, web-based scheduling calendar in 10 minutes

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developmentLet’s be honest: There’s no shortage of web-based calendar tools these days. You’ll find dozens of off-the-shelf scheduling calendars that you can set up and deploy in your business.

The problem is, they’re all generic and every business is different. While these off-the-shelf scheduling applications might fit most of your needs, they won’t provide a perfect fit. They might do some things very well but lack key features in other areas.

But, what if you could create a custom scheduling application…faster than it takes to deploy a generic solution? What if you could create a data-driven, web-based calendar that was 100% tailored to your business…in 10 minutes? It’s possible, and we’ve created a video to show you how it’s done.

Want to try it for yourself? Set up an m-Power Test Drive.