Geckoboard

The implementation process for Geckoboard software typically involves several key steps, each designed to ensure that users can effectively set up, customize, and utilize their dashboards to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics.

1. Setting Up Data Sources

The first step in implementing Geckoboard is to set up and connect your data sources. Geckoboard supports a wide range of integrations with various services and databases, allowing users to pull data from over 90 different sources. This includes popular SaaS products like Zendesk, Salesforce, Freshdesk, Google Analytics, Jira, Mixpanel, Trello, and New Relic. Users can connect their data sources with just a few clicks, without needing to write any code, thanks to Geckoboard's 'code-free' integrations. For more technical users, there is also the option to use the Datasets API to send custom datasets directly to Geckoboard.

2. Designing Dashboards

Once data sources are connected, users can begin designing their dashboards. Geckoboard offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to select and visualize the metrics that matter most to the user. Users can choose from pre-built data dashboard templates or create custom dashboards tailored to specific business needs. The platform provides various widget types to display data effectively, and users can customize these widgets to match their branding or presentation preferences.

3. Sharing and Displaying Dashboards

After designing the dashboards, the next step is to share and display them. Geckoboard allows users to create sharing links, display dashboards on TV screens, view them on mobile devices, or schedule snapshots for email and Slack. For displaying dashboards on digital signs or TV, Geckoboard can be integrated with digital signage management software like Screenly, which facilitates the display of dashboards on larger screens.

4. Managing Access and Collaboration

Geckoboard also supports collaborative features, allowing team members to access dashboards. Users can invite others to their Geckoboard account, enabling them to view or edit dashboards. This feature is particularly useful for teams, as it helps maintain alignment and ensures that everyone is aware of the latest data and insights.

Implementation Duration

The duration of the implementation process can vary depending on several factors, including the complexity of the data sources, the number of dashboards to be created, and the specific needs of the business. However, due to Geckoboard's user-friendly design and extensive range of integrations, the initial setup process can be relatively quick, often taking just a few hours to a few days to get a basic dashboard up and running. More complex implementations involving extensive customization and multiple data sources may take longer.

1. Custom Widgets and APIs: Geckoboard allows the creation of custom widgets using its APIs. Users can develop apps that request data from various sources, transform it to fit Geckoboard's format, and then push it to the dashboard. The platform supports both 'Push' and 'Poll' methods for updating widgets, providing flexibility depending on the user's technical environment and preferences.

2. Developer Tools: Geckoboard includes a developer console and offers a powerful API that enables developers to integrate their own data sources into the platform. This is particularly useful for businesses that need to incorporate data from systems that are not natively supported by Geckoboard.

3. Customization of Widgets: Users can customize widgets by adjusting their colors, images, and even adding custom HTML or JavaScript. This allows for the creation of unique dashboards that align with the company's brand identity.

4. Flexible Data Integration: Geckoboard supports integration with over 90 different data sources, including popular tools like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Zendesk. It also offers integration through Zapier and Make.com, which can connect to thousands of additional services. For data sources not directly supported, users can use Google Sheets or Excel as intermediaries.

5. Visualization Options: The platform provides a variety of visualization options such as number, line chart, column chart, bar chart, leaderboard, and table. Each visualization type can be customized further based on the data configuration.

6. Alerts and Notifications: Geckoboard’s alerts feature allows users to set up notifications for specific events, such as changes in key metrics or achievement of goals. This helps businesses react quickly to important changes.

7. Advanced Dashboard Theming: Paid plans offer advanced theming options where users can customize the dashboard with specific colors and logos to match their corporate branding.

These features demonstrate Geckoboard's strong customization capabilities, making it a versatile tool that can be tailored to meet a wide range of business requirements.

There is no mention of any additional costs such as setup fees, maintenance, or support charges associated with Geckoboard. The focus is primarily on the subscription pricing for different plans, which range from $0 to $559, with specific features and capabilities outlined for each plan. However, it's important to note that while direct mentions of additional fees are absent, this does not necessarily mean there are no potential extra costs involved.

For instance, some software platforms may include additional charges for premium support services, custom integrations, or extensive data processing beyond standard usage. Geckoboard mentions a large data volume add-on for connecting data sources containing large amounts of data such as tickets or transactions, which suggests there could be extra costs depending on the volume of data processed. Additionally, while not a direct cost, the need for custom development work to integrate specific data sources or to create custom widgets using Geckoboard's APIs could incur indirect costs in terms of development time and resources.

It's also worth noting that Geckoboard offers payment options via debit card, credit card, PayPal, or manual invoicing via wire transfer or bank transfer for the 'Scale' plan, and provides a 20% discount for non-profits on any of their plans. These details indicate some level of flexibility in payment and potential cost savings for certain organizations.

For a comprehensive understanding of all potential costs, including any setup fees, maintenance, or support charges, it would be advisable to directly contact Geckoboard or consult their official pricing and FAQ sections on their website.

Geckoboard offers a variety of training and support options to assist new users in effectively using their dashboard software.

1. Geckoboard Academy: Geckoboard provides an educational resource called the Geckoboard Academy, which covers key steps to building dashboards. This includes getting started with popular data sources, dashboard design tips, and sharing dashboards.

2. Support Team Availability: Geckoboard's support team is available to assist users with any questions or issues. They offer support via email, live chat, and phone. The support team is described as friendly and knowledgeable, available 24/5 to help users succeed with their dashboards.

3. Online Resources and Guides: Geckoboard has a comprehensive help center that includes guides to popular data sources, tips on dashboard design, and details on how to share dashboards. This resource is designed to help users quickly and securely connect to their everyday tools without needing coding skills.

4. Video Guides and Tutorials: Geckoboard provides video guides that walk users through the essential steps to build a dashboard, including how to connect data sources, create widgets, and customize displays. These videos are available on their website and YouTube channel.

5. Customer Service Dashboards: For specific applications like customer service, Geckoboard offers the ability to connect tools such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Klaus in just a few clicks, and guides users on selecting and designing dashboards tailored to their needs.

6. Interactive Learning: Users can also learn by doing through the interactive features of Geckoboard, such as setting targets for metrics, creating visual alerts, and arranging widgets to show relationships between metrics.

7. Community and Blog: Geckoboard maintains a blog that provides additional resources, including best practices for dashboard design, tips for onboarding customer support team members, and other educational content.

These training and support options are designed to ensure that new users can start using Geckoboard effectively with minimal learning curve, enhancing their ability to monitor and analyze key business metrics.

Geckoboard employs a comprehensive set of security measures to protect data, ensuring the safety and privacy of its users' information. These measures include:

1. Encryption: All communication between the user's computer and Geckoboard is encrypted using HTTPS with 128-bit TLS encryption, the same level of encryption used by banks and financial institutions. This encryption is designed to prevent third parties from seeing sensitive information sent to or received from Geckoboard.

2. Physical Security: Geckoboard uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting, which provides a highly secure and scalable cloud computing platform. AWS data centers have strict access controls and are monitored with security guards, fencing, security feeds, intrusion detection technology, and other security measures.

3. Password and Credential Storage: Passwords for Geckoboard accounts are one-way encrypted in the database using bcrypt, and login information is always sent over HTTPS. Credentials for third-party services connected to Geckoboard are also encrypted before storage.

4. Role-Based Access Controls: Geckoboard provides a role-based administration system for user accounts, offering different permissions for owners, admins, organization view-only users, and dashboard view-only users.

5. Dashboard URL Security: Dashboard URLs are generated using a cryptic hash, making access to publicly shared dashboards virtually impossible without explicit access to the dashboard link. Private dashboards can be shared with a specific set of people using the Share feature, and access to dashboards can be restricted to specific networks and devices using the Allowed device IP addresses feature.

6. Credit Card Security: Geckoboard is PCI DSS compliant, ensuring that credit card processing is handled securely. Credit card data is not transmitted through nor stored on Geckoboard's systems; instead, it is processed securely by Recurly.

7. Data Redundancy and Backups: Customer account and dashboard data are regularly backed up, with access to these backups tightly controlled and audited.

8. Monitoring and Vulnerability Management: Geckoboard employs a wide range of monitoring solutions to prevent and eliminate attacks. The software and its dependencies are kept up to date to eliminate potential security vulnerabilities. Geckoboard also conducts third-party penetration tests annually to assess the security of its application.

9. Business Continuity: Geckoboard has developed a business continuity plan to ensure that critical business functions and technologies continue to operate or are recovered to an operational state within a reasonably short period in the event of significant business disruption.

These security measures demonstrate Geckoboard's commitment to maintaining a secure environment for its users' data, leveraging encryption, physical security, access controls, and continuous monitoring to protect against unauthorized access and data breaches.

Geckoboard releases product updates regularly to enhance user experience, introduce new features, and improve existing functionalities. The updates are managed and communicated through their "Product updates" section on the Geckoboard website. This section provides detailed information about each update, including descriptions of new features, improvements, and how users can benefit from them.

One notable update mentioned is the introduction of "KPI notifications" (Beta), a highly requested feature that allows users to receive notifications in Slack when key metrics hit 'success' or 'warning' values. This feature exemplifies Geckoboard's commitment to providing real-time data monitoring and communication tools that help teams stay informed about their performance metrics.

The updates are designed to be seamless and require minimal to no action from the users, ensuring that they can continue using the platform without interruptions. Geckoboard's approach to managing product updates demonstrates their focus on continuous improvement and responsiveness to user feedback, as indicated by the development of features like KPI notifications based on user requests.

Geckoboard's policy on data ownership and portability is aligned with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, emphasizing the rights of individuals to control their personal data.

1. Data Ownership: Geckoboard acknowledges the importance of data ownership and ensures that users maintain control over their personal data. The platform's privacy and security policies are designed to protect user data and comply with GDPR.

2. Right to Data Portability: Geckoboard supports the GDPR's right to data portability, which allows individuals to receive the personal data concerning them, which they have provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format. It also allows them to transmit this data to another controller without hindrance.

3. Implementation of GDPR: Geckoboard has taken steps to ensure compliance with GDPR, which includes enhancing transparency about how user data is used and ensuring that data handling practices are secure. This includes encrypting credentials for third-party services before storage and providing a role-based administration system for user accounts.

4. Data Processing Agreement (DPA): Geckoboard has a Data Processing Agreement in place that stipulates that the processor (Geckoboard) shall act only on instructions from the controller (the user), provide technical security and organizational measures governing the processing, and ensure compliance with GDPR.

These policies demonstrate Geckoboard's commitment to data protection and compliance with GDPR, ensuring that users' rights to data portability and ownership are respected and facilitated.

1. Pricing Plans: Geckoboard offers various pricing plans, including the Scale plan, which supports up to 30 dashboards and 25 users, and allows content to be sent to 10 TVs. This plan also includes features like Single Sign-On (SSO) and advanced dashboard theming. These details suggest that Geckoboard provides options for different organizational sizes and needs.

2. Customization and Scalability: Geckoboard's platform is designed to be flexible, allowing users to create and manage dashboards that can be scaled according to the changing needs of the business. This is indicated by the ability to integrate with over 80 tools, which facilitates the adaptation of the dashboard as new data sources need to be included or as the focus of KPI tracking shifts.

For specific terms related to scaling subscriptions up or down, it would be advisable to consult directly with Geckoboard's sales or customer support team. They can provide detailed information on how to adjust your subscription based on your current and anticipated needs, ensuring that the service scales effectively with your organization.

Geckoboard's terms and conditions for contract renewal and cancellation are clearly outlined in their legal documentation:

1. Contract Renewal: Geckoboard agreements automatically renew at the end of each subscription period. The renewal can be for continuous one-month periods or continuous annual periods, depending on the payment plan selected by the client. This automatic renewal ensures uninterrupted access to the service without the need for manual renewal each period.

2. Cancellation Policy: Clients can terminate their Geckoboard agreement at any time and for any reason by clicking the relevant link to cancel their account on the website or application where the services are provided. This allows for flexibility and control over the subscription, enabling clients to opt-out without complex procedures.

3. Non-refundable Fees: All fees paid to Geckoboard are non-refundable, except as specifically set out in the terms and conditions. This includes the fees paid upon the initial registration and the recurring fees paid for the subscription-based plans.

4. Fee Changes: Geckoboard reserves the right to increase the fees for its services. However, any fee increase will be communicated to the client with at least one month's written notice, and the changes will take effect on the next billing date. This provides clients with advance notice to make informed decisions regarding their subscriptions.

5. Termination by Geckoboard: Geckoboard may terminate the agreement, which will take effect at the end of the then-current subscription period, by giving prior written notice to the client. This allows for a structured and predictable process for service termination initiated by Geckoboard.

6. Immediate Termination Conditions: Either party may terminate the agreement with immediate effect by giving written notice if the other party fails to pay any amount due on the due date, commits a material breach of any term of the agreement that is irremediable or not remedied within 14 days of written notification, or if the other party faces insolvency or similar financial difficulties.

These terms provide a comprehensive framework for managing the lifecycle of a Geckoboard subscription, from renewal to cancellation, ensuring clarity and predictability for both Geckoboard and its clients.

Geckoboard software meets several key compliance standards to ensure the security and privacy of its users' data. These standards include:

1. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Geckoboard has taken steps to ensure compliance with the GDPR, which includes supporting customers' compliance with EU data protection requirements. This involves transparent communication with data subjects about the processing of their personal data, ensuring data subjects are notified of their rights under the GDPR, and providing data subjects with the right to delete their personal data if the continued processing is not justified.

2. PCI DSS Compliance: Geckoboard is PCI DSS compliant, which is crucial for securely handling credit card transactions. This compliance ensures that Geckoboard adheres to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, providing a secure environment for credit card processing.

3. ISO 9001, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3, and the EU Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC): Through its use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting, Geckoboard indirectly benefits from AWS's compliance with a range of security and privacy standards, including ISO 9001, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3, and the EU Data Protection Directive. AWS's data centers employ extensive physical and electronic security measures, and AWS maintains a comprehensive list of reports, certifications, and independent assessments to ensure ongoing state-of-the-art data center security.

These compliance standards demonstrate Geckoboard's commitment to maintaining a secure and privacy-respecting platform for its users, adhering to both regulatory requirements and industry best practices for data protection.