Can we get Podio off line?
Answered
Our clients are increasingly asking about this when we encourage them to work more collaboratively and its is becoming a critical factor in their adoption of the platform
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For me, no offline app is no dealbreaker, though I'd certainly like to have it.
Maybe it would be smart to break it down into two user stories:
1. "Podio offline" means having a comprehensive backup on my hard disk
I want to have every field content and every comment and every uploaded file in a local copy, ideally pressing one button per organisation (not per workspace). I want this because then I can "time machine" all the inline stuff - when some bloke deletes the content of a large text field it is gone forever, given the status quo of no "Podio offline"! For this user story an Excel backup would do the job. A cool implementation would e.g. let me create a backup scheme, like I'm told every x days "Hej, it is backup time! Where do you want to save me?", or even do automatic backups on Dropbox.
2. "Podio offline" means a desktop app syncing up when I come back online
Sara, I get your point that this would split up Podio usage more and more, the more real time features you go for. Plus a full-fledged app would be exponentially more difficult to realize than a "stupid" regular Excel backup for the whole organisation. Whether or not the priority of real time features over a true offline app is the smart choice is a complex issue.
Conclusion:
User story 1 takes one day of coding, user story 2 takes half a year, and it clashes with the real time path, which you will, I understand, not give up. My take: build 1 today and put 2 into cold storage.
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Hi all,
What Sara is trying to communicate is that because we are focusing on making Podio more real-time, it makes offline capabilities a bit impractical. For this reason it is unlikely that you will see offline capabilities in Podio.
Think of it this way - if you're working on an offline version of Podio and make changes to dozens of app items before you connect to the internet, how do you know someone else from your team hasn't already made changes to those items while you were offline? Do your changes overwrite what your colleague just added? That could cause either one of you to lose hours of work, and really just creates a complicated mess and makes it feel like you're not actually working together with your team.
Things like that make it an unrealistic option - we can't have everyone working together, separately. Hopefully that can help you understand the difficulty.
Fritz - a backup solution is definitely something we're looking into, and plan to implement in the future. Thanks for breaking that down :)
/Jacquelyn - Podio
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Jacquelyn, thank you for the response. That does clear up the issue and gives me a more defined reasoning. Now I can take a hard look at the features vs benefits and make some decisions. One question I have is about back up. If my client uses a custom App to conduct a meeting, or to document an audit, how to we retrieve that information from back up? Some apps I create are used for document storage, others collect data (through webforms or user input directly through mobile devices.)
I have not inquired about backing up workspace content yet and could definitely benefit from a one on one conversation about the topic. Who should I be speaking with about this question?
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Thanks for making a bottomline on this question Jacquelyn. I gave Podio a look some time ago and had been using it until no offline access became an issue. Then I ditched it for my original system and have been periodically checking this thread for news. Now I know you're not going to be what I need.
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I think the lack of any off-line functionality has killed Podio for me, we work in rural NSW with no phone or internet connection and need to record customer info as a record or to look up customer info before doing a call.
i understand the project and general communication issues about real time but contact details & notes shoulf not be affected by this and should be available off line.
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Considering the detail with which you can customize your workflow in Podio, having a conflict resolution and merging scheme for all cases would be tricky. I guess asking for offline capabilities here is a bit like asking it from Facebook.
After having read this thread, I don't consider the lack of offline to be a deal breaker any more and will continue using Podio. I guess it works for me as I am in an office most of the time. And i too am spoilt being in Tokyo.
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PODIO is both DATA management + COLLABORATION support.
I understand collaboration becomes poor without real-time conversations, but using data can be possible offline, with a multidevice sync mechanism (a-la dropbox).
This kind of integration could help making available relevant data (the podio spreadsheets) offline:
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@leonardo - If you and 5 other people all change the same data while offline then synchronise, who's changes should be kept, merged or ignored though?
There's also the case of what to download to your device for offline use. Would you want to be able to edit everything offline? For larger users this would be impractical if you have hundreds of items, images and files in Podio.
If Podio do ever add any offline functionality there will have to be compromises.
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You are right, Craig.
I was thinking offline mainly as a read-only mode, to allow project members to take decisions based on PODIO managed data, even on disconnected sites. But I think PODIO could implement a locking mechanism, and leave to the Podio administrator the choice to allow offline mode, and if allowed, , with which locking or reconciliation rules.
When I was using Microsoft Project Server, I remember something like this.
It all depends on the actual concurrency neesd of each specific project.
In my workflow, items updating is often in charge to a single responsible, and tasks assigned to a single resource: so the need for reconciliation is limited.
Another problem could be the PODIO members authorization architecture: because every workspace member has full rights... everybody can make a mess of anything. The simplified authorizatioin model of Podio is often a limitation for me and for my project and contractor management needs.
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Giving priority to development of new real-time capabilities at the exclusion of developing basic offline capabilities might prove in the long run to be the demise of this otherwise awesome product. Thinking about it from a busy, traveling user's perspective, why are you polishing the experience for the always-online comfortable user and ignoring the rest of us who travel too much - on planes, trains, ships, and are otherwise often too remote to be connected - but not to stop working.
Why not develop and implement a "staged" capability, being capable of making full edits offline that go to a staging area for semi-automated integration with the latest versions next time we connect. We don't seek a perfect solution, just some progress now on a workable solution. If all I edit while offline is my own content, integration is a snap when reconnected. If I run into some conflicts with other's edits that happened while I was remote, we can resolve the differences - after all we're grownups, and busy ones at that. Even if this capability were limited to new data entry and current task reviews/edits, I'd be a happy camper and be able to implement Podio for use in all our companies. As your product stands now, with no offline capability and no meaningful plans to develop offline capability, we can't commit to have all our people learn and use your product.
Please continue to think creatively and then act swiftly to solve user needs, just as you did when you created Podio in the first place. First good collaboration tool like yours that implements this offline capability is going to become great and take over this market in a big way.
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After endless research in trying to determine the right match for my growing small business, I was elated to find Podio, and then so sad to find that it cannot function offline! This is a dealbreaker for me, and unfortunately my search will have to continue! Does anyone have strong suggestions for alternative programs/apps/software while I wait for Podio to develop this capability? Thanks!
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I think certain offline features can definitely be provided, without making conflict resolution too complicated.
1) You could start with allowing only new entries into apps and task completion and not allowing deleting or editing anything. Anything that changes the workflow of a workspace, e.g. changing the structure of an app is also not allowed.
2) Then, if that works, you could allow editing of existing content and manage conflict resolution using git as a backend. I understand this is difficult because you would have to create a conflict resolution front-end interface for every type of entry in the apps. It is tedious, but not impossible.
Incorporating git will also immediately give you a comprehensive backup mechanism, at least a backend of one, which addresses Fritz's Podio offline type 1. Again, how the user is to view, interact with, and retrieve the backup is more complicated.
Just having 1) would be great already!
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+1 for offline feature.
Can't have my team becoming unproductive when offline on the field.
- If limited to only ADD items/messages when offline out of the office -> big step forward.
- if able to READ reçent information offline -> Huge step forward as you carry your information with you all the time.
Without offline capability we can't make podio a critical tool for a professional team. -
This would be a great update. Especially when operating in other countries when wifi access is not always available or when it is, the costs are high. It would be great to fill out an app such as inventory reports while offline, and have it upload automatically during the next wifi connection.
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A stepwise process for doing this could begin with exporting templates of all needed apps. An option would appear in the list below "modify this app" - for each app needed.
An option to include "selected records".
Of course we could do that ourselves, but stay tuned. . .
If the template format is retained, Podio should be able to batch import, as it will code the worksheet to match the app during import, in the same way it codes a single record to be updated during an import. Thus we set in motion a series of imports for the workspace with a single keystroke, rather than importing from individual apps one at a time.
Once users get used to using templates offline & importing them once online, the exporting of individual templates would be uograded to export All related apps at once. This could generate multiple excel spreadsheets or pages within a spreadsheet.
The thought of going to sea without Podio next fall makes me weak in the knees, as I know I'll have to establish something like this beforehand. I hope Podio will start the process so I can focus on data entry rather than database design!
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Look people, I'll give you an insight of how this literally keeps people from using Podio
I've spent 2 weeks getting into Podio and setting up Podio for a big fair.
I was very happy about it and began teaching the functionalities 3 days ago.
I never even thought about this could be an "online only"-App. Since there are many places without Internet coverage a CRM-App that works ONLY when you have access to a server somewhere in the cloud seems crazy.
Nearly every Global Player (even Salesforce, and they LIVE online!) makes their App usable offline.
So yesterday I got an email that due to technical difficulties there is no free Wi-Fi on the fair. So I called up my contact their and asked him to check the mobile connection on our booth. When he stated "No Network" I had to completely trash 2 WEEKS OF WORK! Not to mention the damage to my image in the company. I have to work the weekend to find another solution before the fair only because of the inconsistency in PodioCan you access your contacts while offline? NO
Can you see your Apps? YES
Can you view your App contents? YES
Can you edit App contents or add a new content while offline? NO and NO!So enables Podio to work everywhere? NO
For me right now Podio is a toy. I can't take it serious without adding the tasks into a queue and synchronizing it with the server when online again... Really folks, that's no hard task to code!
It seems like Citrix (they produce Podio by the way) just wants to keep all our data on their servers so they never miss a single thing. Do you sell our information? Is it that why it is free? Is it that why you have the fear of missing out some of the precious info? Or is it that the auto-sync feature with the NSA -Servers does not support this mode ;)? -
Mario I can empathise with you to some extent, you have invested considerable time in a project using a product that will not, it turns out, support you because there is no offline mode. I am not sure that you can attribute blame to the Podio platform however as you should really do your background research and trial the product before you commit considerable time to it. Had there been wifi at your event, I am sure you would have been delighted with Podio. I think that your post turned into a bit of a rant which will not do any good in terms of appealing to the Podio team. The comments about NSA and Citrix are totally unfounded. I have just become a Podio partner so I have a vested interest in Podio being an even greater success than it is already. One of the reasons that I decided to become a partner is because of the very positive community around the platform and the very responsive approach of the team at Podio.
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I DESPERATELY NEED PODIO OFFLINE.
It's bad enough that you don't have inline editing or mass editing, so entering large amounts of data requires numerous repetitive clicks, each of which is hindered by your web-based platform load time when switching between entries. Though it only lasts between 1-3 seconds, when compared to the action which evokes the load time (1-5 sec), I hope you see how your horribly inefficient web-based platform is to blame for wasting nearly 50% of my time while using it.
Freaking horrible. Data entry is a nightmare and hardly worth my time.
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John, for entering large amounts of data I use the Excel import function. In Excel you can recklessly use sophisticated calculation tools, intelligent copying and so on, and easily handle hundreds and thousands of lines and columns. Take care texts exactly match your Podio categories, and then you have entered large amounts of data in a better way than Podio can possibly ever provide for.
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I agree wholeheartedly with this comment and only want/need read only access through an offline backup:
"For me, no offline app is no dealbreaker, though I'd certainly like to have it.
Maybe it would be smart to break it down into two user stories:
1. "Podio offline" means having a comprehensive backup on my hard disk
I want to have every field content and every comment and every uploaded file in a local copy, ideally pressing one button per organisation (not per workspace). I want this because then I can "time machine" all the inline stuff - when some bloke deletes the content of a large text field it is gone forever, given the status quo of no "Podio offline"! For this user story an Excel backup would do the job. A cool implementation would e.g. let me create a backup scheme, like I'm told every x days "Hej, it is backup time! Where do you want to save me?", or even do automatic backups on Dropbox.""Conclusion:
User story 1 (above) takes one day of coding, user story 2 (I'm not really looking for offline integration) takes half a year, and it clashes with the real time path, which you will, I understand, not give up. My take: build 1 today and put 2 into cold storage."Personally I'd like to see a full backup solution to hold data locally and look it up when there's no Internet etc. I'm not too concerned with the ability to enter new info in offline mode.
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