Repeat after me: Excel is not a database.

I’m sorry to deliver the news like this. I know it may be a tough pill to swallow for some of you. Many folks in your department will likely argue that we’re wrong, that Excel can be a database, but remember: denial is just the first stage of grief.

The good news is, it’s all going to be okay.

Excel is a very powerful program, and there are more than a few straight up warlocks out there who can work its black magic, using the interface to create presentations, dashboards, and analyze…

To build or not to build? For any business looking to scale up, that is the question. When a company moves beyond the capacity of consumer software, choosing between enterprise-level point solutions and holistic custom software becomes necessary.

Enterprise software can be overly-complicated and cumbersome for smaller businesses, requiring hours of training for employees who use it. But building software from scratch can seem equally daunting. Full-time employees with the chops to do it are expensive and sometimes hard to find, and often there just isn’t time for development cycles.

Think of it like building a house-you can buy a…

In the past twenty-five years or so since the first dotcom boom, the general approach to business software has largely been the same: more, more, more.

Software has transformed the way we live-and it’s fundamentally changed the way we do our jobs. But are more business apps really what we need to do our best, most collaborative, and most profitable work together?

We doubt it. Today, organizations are working with a gigantic toolbox of apps-all specially designed for specific tasks-and all living in disparate, disconnected systems. We don’t just have more software, we have too much. …

In our last piece, we explored why software development is 1) becoming an increasingly important skill for all business professionals and 2) is easier to learn and master now with the development of no-code tools.

In part two of our We’re All Software Developers Now series, we’ll focus on what makes no-code platforms so valuable to your path as a software developer, and how that might look on a more practical level. If you haven’t read part one, we strongly recommend starting there to get the full picture!

When you think of software development, you probably picture coding interfaces filled…

No matter what industry you’re in, your job title, your specialization, or educational background, software is likely a fundamental part of your daily life. But getting your software to deliver better workflows, automation, and data often requires more time, money, and trial-and-error than most tools let on.

A subscription that was intended to make life easier makes it more complicated, and teams are left with tools that just sort-of work rather than fit exactly what they need.

Enter: no-code/low-code programming.

With the advent of no-/low-code software development, people don’t have to commit to out-of-the-box software tools that just-sort-of fit their…

Even before the Covid-19 lockdowns, digital communication tools were gaining popularity in the workplace for keeping productivity humming along.

What is the appeal for built-in chat tools versus a standalone app? Can too many communication channels hinder workflow? And what does the future of work look like, now that a global pandemic has permanently shifted how and where work happens?
First, let’s look at some numbers.

Mio’s survey of chat and messaging apps reports a staggering 91% of companies are using at least two chat apps for work. On average, respondents are using 3.3 chat apps to communicate with colleagues.

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Drag-and-drop interfaces aren’t new. But their usage has rapidly expanded since their original role of file manipulation and clipboard actions. Now, drag-and-drop interfaces are used to give the average non-coder the freedom to build a wide variety of products, from websites to movies to video games to business software.

While drag-and-drop is old news in website development, its role in software development is only just emerging. But before we dive in, let’s take a brief look at what drag-and-drop is:

What is drag-and-drop?

Drag-and-drop is a type of interface called a graphical user interface (or GUI). GUIs rely on the use of visual…

With the introduction and proliferation of visual programming , the problem-solving capacity of custom-built software is now well within anyone’s reach.

No-code application builders have made it so that anyone can develop custom software to manage every kind of workflow, tasks, and conversation-instead of subscribing to expensive, single-duty enterprise apps which can easily cause two headaches for every one cured.

The key to success with no-code application builders is asking questions and experimenting with the tools available to see what solutions will work best for your team. In this article, we’re going to look at seven specific ways that no-code…