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For decades, spreadsheets have served as the go-to tools for digitizing operations. The often-used cliche of “data is the new gold or the new oil,” along with growing volumes of information and increasingly complex workflows, have made many businesses painfully aware that spreadsheets alone can’t keep up.
Spreadsheets are not databases.
While such applications remain a useful starting point, relying on spreadsheets as the sole system of record introduces scalability issues as spreadsheets are not designed to handle the amount of data that a database can host.
There are other issues such as integrating CRM or ERP platforms.
And then there are silos. Many businesses maintain separate spreadsheet files across the organization, which does not provide a holistic view of the company.
An important part of maintaining a database is the ability to collaborate with your colleagues. When different team members create spreadsheets based on their own formats and preferences, managers often spend significant time consolidating data, which can lead to manual errors and raise concerns about data accuracy.
So, what is the alternative?
Many of those who have been down the software package road will know that these solutions, especially for smaller businesses, can be hard to learn and costly to maintain.
Traditional SQL databases are painfully inflexible and require a lot of work when developers want to make a modification.
Ragic is the no-code intuitive database solution:
For small to mid-sized businesses of any industry, comes Ragic – a flexible and intuitive “do-it-yourself” no-code database program builder that allows users to design their system according to their workflow. Ragic offers a familiar spreadsheet-like interface (and looks a lot like Excel), and it is quick and intuitive to master.
Ragic ensures the experience of designing a database system is a lot like editing a spreadsheet, something everybody knows how to do.
Ultimately, Ragic is ideal for smaller companies that have outgrown basic spreadsheet applications and require something more advanced – the ability to build data relationships, without relying on complex formulas or scripting.
Additionally, Ragic is also suited for large companies that need to patch holes in their existing (most likely turnkey) database systems.
Who uses Ragic?
Do it Best Corp – Hardware store chain in the U.S.
The marketing team at the Do it Best Corp. hardware stores, which can be found in every state of the United States and 57 countries, is using Ragic to build and maintain a project management database. The executive overseeing this, John Sargent, did not have any coding experience.
Before Ragic, the entirety of data used in store design project management was stored in Excel spreadsheets, including member data, contact information, and pivotal project dates.
Store details that needed to be kept right from the very beginning of a phone call to the grand opening celebration of the new store were kept in disparate spreadsheet files. To generate reports, Sargent’s team had to merge dozens of spreadsheets each month—a horrendously long and error-prone process.
The marketing team required a more agile solution to store all this mission-critical information.
After trying other solutions, including a CRM platform, Sargent and his team landed on Ragic. It was the exact tool they were hoping to find: user-friendly, secure, sophisticated yet versatile—easy for modelling a database based on their needs. It checked off a lot of boxes like having a good support system, the ability to back up data, and being affordably priced. Most importantly, the tool would allow them to make any needed changes to the system without involving their busy IT team.
“The most striking change we saw after using Ragic is definitely the ease and the speed with which we could make changes [to the database system],” Sargent said.
The Abrolhos Islands Management Council in western Australia
The management council overseeing the Abrolhos Islands, a group of islands spanning between 60 to 100 kilometers west of Geraldton, western Australia, was looking for a new database system.
Initially, the Abrolhos Islands Management Council hired an external professional to build, design, and make changes to their database system. While this was convenient at first, as their data needs and requirements changed due to the new government lease agreement, the team decided to search for a new solution.
The team came across Ragic and everything just fell into place.
The team explained that as a non-profit organization, pricing is important, and Ragic’s cost-efficient pricing was perfect for their needs.
It was Ragic’s ease of use that the team found to be the winning factor. For instance, they were able to design and set up their notification system for the fishermen on their own, without an external professional’s help, in just a few days. From there, they were able to find more and more built-in functions within Ragic that were able to help minimize manual processes and improve efficiency.
Wishbone Site Furnishings, Canada
For over 30 years, Wishbone Site Furnishings has been designing and manufacturing municipal-grade outdoor furniture, using recycled plastic lumber and metals to create durable, sustainable pieces that shape public spaces across North America.
The company started in 1995, and in 2018, they realized they need to address the one thing that is holding them back: manual workflows.
The solution they found came in the form of Ragic.
Prior to Ragic, the company relied on static Excel sheets. There are different Excel sheets for Inventory, Purchase Order, Sales Order, Quote.
Data entry was a significant part of the workload for 2–3 full-time employees and the accountant had to manually tidy up the scattered data from many Excel sheets and transfer it into Sage. Additionally, the production team didn’t have a Bill of Materials (BOM)—they used a physical binder with handwritten notes.
And finally, the purchasing process required manually searching for product codes, old purchase orders, and previous invoices to check past pricing.
But Ragic’s accessible learning curve allowed their database builder to quickly build a prototype.
With Ragic now being the primary system, the manual Excel data pull out was also taken off the accountant’s hands. The accountant now has full visibility into historical pricing, incoming payments, and expected revenue over the next 60–90 days, all automated, without the inconvenience of two separate systems.
Ragic comes with these features and more:
- Mobile app access that allows users to stay connected with Ragic’s iOS and Android apps.
- Search and query: Precisely locate data even with limited information.
- System integration: Integrate Ragic using no-code tools like Zapier, IFTTT, and Make to boost productivity. Ragic also provides comprehensive API documentation for integration with niche tools and supports JavaScript Workflow for advanced integrations.
- Access rights control: Manage user data access and modification rights based on organizational roles and responsibilities.
- Reports: Gain clear insights into your organization’s performance with Ragic’s reports.
- Generate office documents: With Mail Merge, generate Word and Excel documents directly from your database.
- Excel integration: Sync, import, and export your Excel data to Ragic seamlessly.
- Approval workflow: One-click approval process through email or Ragic’s mobile app with the ability to adapt your approval workflow by configuring conditional rules.
Ragic’s founder and CEO, Jeff Kuo, says that a database should not be a perk only to organizations that can afford IT professionals and powerful databases, but to every business of every size that has a messy spreadsheet folder that nobody wants to touch.
Ragic is designed to simplify data management by providing an intuitive spreadsheet-style interface that transforms into a robust database system, enabling teams to create, customize, and scale their workflows with ease.
