Acquisition Drives Quick and Efficient Productivity, Removing Manual "Gray Work"

Quickbase, the application platform for dynamic work, today announced it is acquiring Merge Mobile, whose flagship product is FastField Mobile Forms, a mobile data collection and analytics platform for field workers. This acquisition supports Quickbase's larger corporate vision to unlock a more dynamic work force by providing better integration between field and business operations. With FastField Forms, companies will now have easy mobile access to critical workflows and applications for field teams and users on-the-go, ensuring seamless productivity anywhere, anytime.

Companies with back-office business teams and field workers have long struggled to effectively manage work that spans between them, limiting productivity and compounding risk. According to Gartner®¹, 75 percent of Field Services Management companies with more than 50 people need tools to go beyond basic data collection. Existing software solutions don't support the dynamic way teams need to work, in real-time coordinating from office to field. Therefore, teams resort to "gray work," or outdated and inefficient methods of getting work done, like pen and paper, phone calls, and other manual processes. The result is data inaccuracy, miscommunication, and massive inefficiency.

Together, Quickbase and FastField Forms can effectively manage projects and business operations that lead to enhanced visibility, streamlined communication, optimized resource allocation, and increased compliance and risk management.

"Instead of doing the work they're trained to do, frontline workers are wasting hours chasing information and plugging in data. That all adds up to billions in lost productivity, and our vision is to eliminate all that gray work," said Ed Jennings, CEO of Quickbase. "This acquisition is a big step forward toward the vision of combining field and back-office information so teams can get more work done and drive greater impact."

FastField Forms simplifies data collection and custom workflow automation that helps users build and deploy dynamic mobile forms to capture data in the field, in real-time or offline, manage tasks, and trigger workflow automation for things like inspections, work orders, on-site surveys, safety audits and more. Now, field workers, beyond just decision makers and business users in the back office, can capitalize on a secure experience with a built-for-mobile, intuitive solution to capture and annotate data while working in the field.

With the addition of FastField Forms, Quickbase is bolstering its mobile capabilities, specifically for those companies in industries with the added complexity of fieldwork and operations.

"The product fit with Quickbase is incredibly natural and we recognized the possibilities immediately. Quickbase provides critical downstream business workflows and robust data management that our customers are looking for," said Jeff Stay, CEO of Merge Mobile. "The combination of FastField and Quickbase will establish a holistic end-to-end solution to drive greater operational efficiency while ensuring quality, safety, and organizational compliance."

Both FastField Forms and Quickbase are designed to be customized for multiple, unique use cases, and for more complex needs such as safety and compliance, inspections, maintenance, environmental studies, and more. Ideal customers and use cases that will benefit from this solution focus on IT, operations, health and safety, quality, compliance, and maintenance management. Visit the Quickbase blog for more information on Quickbase's mobile vision and recent mobile upgrades.

¹ Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Field Service Management, September 27, 2017

About Quickbase

Founded in 1999, Quickbase has since become the leading application platform for dynamic work. Used for complex work and project management, the platform empowers more than 6,000 customers to see, connect, and control their people, processes, and data all in one centralized location. Named an Inc's Best Businesses of 2022, see for yourself why Quickbase is at the forefront of business-led innovation at Quickbase.com. Quickbase - All together now.