Six ways to automate your database applications using Zoho Flow

Database applications have become a fundamental part of data management today. They let you store, organize, and share data across your organization efficiently. These applications also enable businesses to view the stored data in different formats like boards, lists, charts, and more—offering different perspectives to help measure your productivity and efficiency.

However, using these tools effectively demands consistent transfer of data in and out of these database applications. Done manually, this mundane task takes up a huge amount of time, keeping you from doing more productive work.

With Zoho Flow in your corner, these repetitive and time-consuming tasks can be automated. Zoho Flow offers you a seamless transfer of data across applications that not only saves you time but also helps you enhance your database applications' efficiency with workflow automation.

Here are some of the most common and efficient ways to automate database applications using Zoho Flow.

Upload issues and developer commit information to your database automatically

Developers and quality analysts must consistently track every issue or developer commit that they address. A record of these issues needs to be stored in a sheet or a database for verification and accountability. Traditionally, this required manually copying and pasting the details in a sheet or a database every time they address an issue.

Given the number of issues a developer or quality analyst resolves in a single day, a considerable chunk of their time needs to be dedicated to logging information in a database. Zoho Flow can help you automate this process by letting you integrate database applications like Airtable or Knack with developer tools like Mercurial SCM, ensuring that every time an issue is resolved and updated, the relevant information will instantly be uploaded to your database application, saving time and effort that can instead be spent productively.

Add form entries to your database instantly

Forms are one of the most efficient ways of collecting lead information for any business. Be it websites, or social media, or webinars, forms should be your go-to means of gaining lead information. Relational databases like Airtable offer numerous ways to view this information, making it easy to analyze and organize the data the way you want.

This is where integrating your form applications with your databases can help you. When you create a new form using an application like Zoho Forms, you want to bring the information from the filled-out forms into your database application. Using Zoho Flow to establish a simple integration between Zoho Forms and Airtable can move the data to Airtable instantly, every time a form is filled out.

Make your data more accessible

CRM is the go-to platform for storing lead information. Every piece of information about your leads goes into your CRM, but different departments need to be able to access and use that data, especially the sales team.

Relational databases offer additional tools for organizing and analyzing those leads, which can help sales personnel understand a particular lead they hope to convert into a deal. Integrating your relational database with Zoho CRM will ensure that, when a lead's information is updated in the CRM platform, a new record will be instantly created or updated in your database application.

Get notified of database entries

Notifications offer an effective way to stay on top of new information and updates. Since your database handles large volumes of data about your business, you might miss out on new and important entries that come into your database. Getting notified in your main messaging system can help keep you updated about everything from hot new leads to a major sale.

Zoho Flow makes it easy to integrate your database application with a messaging platform like Slack or Zoho Cliq. With this integration in place, you'll receive a message whenever a new entry has been added to your database, helping you keep an eye on what's new in your business.

Analyze your business information efficiently

The best thing about having a relational database is the ability to view, organize, and manage your business information more accurately. Database applications like Airtable offer you numerous ways to view your data, helping you get a better understanding of business conditions, generate new insights, and provide proactive, strategic leadership.

While these applications can provide visibility, business intelligence, and analytics platforms can offer you greater insights and accurate statistical analysis, making it easier for you to get a clearer picture of how your business is doing. Integrating your database application with business intelligence platforms like Zoho Analytics can help you analyze your business information much more efficiently.

Back up business information consistently

Your database application stores a huge volume of information that is critical to your business's operations—so security is an important concern. Irrespective of the tools or applications you use, it is crucial to back up your business information.

With the help of Zoho Flow, you will be able to build a simple integration between your database application and Google Sheets, making sure that your business information is consistently backed up. With this integration in place, every time a new entry is added to your database application, a new row will be created in your Google Sheet, ensuring that your business information is backed up every instant.

Start integrating your database applications today

These are some of the most common ways to use automation and integrate your database applications with other systems. However, there are many different approaches that can help you organize and manage your business information efficiently. Zoho Flow integrates with many popular database applications, like Airtable, Knack, and Caspio. Check out the platform and start making better use of your database applications.