Series Outline

kintone Plaform Part 1 - Business database apps creation platform without coding kintone Plaform Part 2 - Using Plug-in to extend your platform features kintone Plaform Part 3 - Plug-In development Tutorial kintone Plaform Part 4 - Plug-in List

Introduction

Database Administrator is always a hard problem with every-scaled organization. No matter what your company's realms etc: Business, Logistic, Tourist or High-Tech ,... Especially with companies are not operating in Information Technology field, to run a Database Administrator System requires a lot of not only money but also time charges. kintone appears as a ideally solution for that problem. Additionally, you do not need much knowlegde of specialized technique, if you can use Excel, definitely you will be familiar to kintone. kintone Platfrom provides a friendly UI with end-user, accompanied by the tool allowing teams to collaborate and solving business problems.

What is kintone

kintone is a business database creation platform. This software allows businesses to build database apps and business applications at speed, without having to write complex programming codes. kintone was introduced in 1997, and in the period of 20 years, it has become the favorite tool of several well known companies. Along the way, it won international recognition and awards which speak much about the credibility of this software. Recently, kintone has arrived at Vietnam and gained highly reputation from local enterprises. kintone offers open APIs that allow businesses to connect their existing tools with the newly created apps. This provides users a centralized view of the entire organization. The solution offers reporting features that use real-time data to show graphs.

Links

https://www.cybozu.com/jp/ - Cybozu Japan Official Website.

Overview of kintone features

Mapping from Excel to cloud quickly, easily

It is very easy to import customers information list, error reports created on Excel to kintone cloud database by simple operations, even sharing with your team.

Statistics organizability

Data has been registered to kintone will be accumulated overtime and transformed to cloud database.

Simple manipulation

You can simply manipulate your app with mouse. Free mapping to fullfil desire of customer.

Optimizing for mobile

kintone is completely compatible with your mobile devices. Access and manage your team’s kintone applications quickly, securely, from anywhere.

Quick started

Contact to Cybozu at the below URL for a 30-day Free Trial request or kintone inquiry. https://www.cybozuasia.com/contact-us/

Manual book

kintone has releashed a manual book, which was composed carefully. You can download it as a PDF file, it is very useful for any kintone beginners. https://www.cybozuasia.com/service/

Main components

Firstly, we will get to know with most important components of kintone. After logining to kintone, you will see an interface as below image. It's called Portal, it runs like your desktop/phone homescreen.

Anouncement

Anouncement is where your team's statement will be broadcasted, only somepeople who have permissions can change these statements. Generally, each Spaces has an Announcement field and admin is in charge of writing statements.

Notification

Use the Notifications page to select which notifications you want to view. Depending on the portal settings, notifications might display on the portal Home page.You can think it as notification feature of Facebook.

Spaces

A space is a workspace created by you or others, where you can add apps and collaborate with team members by viewing common information and discussion threads. Use the Spaces page to show all workspaces you can access and create new spaces and new guest spaces

Apps Or Application , it is the most important feature of kintone. With apps, you can manipulate almost everything in your database. We will be back with Apps in details below.

Spaces Screen

Only permission member can edit the announcements in a Space. All team members can see this announcement. Team members cannot edit this announcement unless they have been assigned Administrator privileges in the Administrator app.

Threads

Threads are forums that live inside kintone. Team's members can create, edit and discuss together in a thread.

Apps

There are apps in a space.

People

Space's member.

Related App & Spaces

There are related Apps & Spaces (Eg: Marketing Space will be related to Sales Space and Customer List App).

App or Application in kintone

One key feature of kintone, is "kintone Applications". Applications or “apps” are customized online databases that users can build using simple drag & drop, without needing to do any programming. Users can create different apps to fit their different business use cases - Sales CRM, ToDo lists, Project Management, HR Recruitment management and so on.

There are 3 ways to create an app:

• Option 1: Excel import

Import excel file to become an App

• Option 2: Add an app from the Marketplace

Apps in the Marketplace can be downloaded and used for free.

• Option 3: Create an app from Scratch

You can create an original app fit for your business. Click on the "..." on the top right hand of the page, and select "Add App" > "Create App from Scratch". Follow the Steps that appear. You can always change any of these settings later on. After all steps are done, click on "Apply Changes" to create your new custom app to your workspace.

Continue...

Through this article, I have introduced to you kintone platform, i believe that using kintone will help your organization reduce time and effort of building database system. It is not only administors but also every member of your organization will receive benefits from kintone. Moreover, kintone has a huge eco-system which is called Plug-ins. Plugin is an extension that spread out kintone features and improve end-user experience. Consequently, what exactly is Plug-in, How can we use a Plugin and even create a Plugin? we will answer these questions in the next part of this series !