How CKEditor helps revolutionize workflows of companies from all over the world
Kanbanize is a global leader in the area of Kanban software. By utilizing it, expanding to thousands of teams and scaling up is possible fast. The platform is used by various-sized companies from all over the world - ranging from smaller teams comprising of 15-20 members to whole enterprises with thousands of active users.
Kanbanize helps managers align the planning of big projects with day-to-day execution, prevents teams from being overburdened, and allows them to set clear priorities while preserving the transparency of the whole organization. This is done by having a dedicated Kanban board where a team can have multiple workflows, depending on their use cases and needs.
The workflows themselves encompass several stages (Backlog, Requested, In Progress, Done, Archive) where work items (Cards and Initiatives) flow from left to right. The work items contain different properties and allow users to add information about a certain small task (Card) or a bigger project (Initiative).
One of the main work item properties is the description field – this, in most cases, is the place where users store the details of a given task that needs to be completed. In addition to the description, users can communicate with one another from inside a given work item and this is done by adding comments to it. Both the Description and Comments sections require the usage of a powerful text editor, so that information can be made available in the most effective way.
Challenge: A simple and easy-to-use text editor for Kanbanize users
The main challenge that the company had to face was that users needed a simple and easy-to-use text editor to format the text inside their Kanbanize work items (Cards/Initiatives) and make it look like it was written using a dedicated text-editing application. Simple functions, such as creating lists or to-do items, adding images and tables, and structuring text inside the work item’s description field were needed to allow users to quickly understand what a given work item’s goal or objective was.
“We first heard about CKEditor when we were looking for the right solution for our needs - we simply found CKEditor on Google. The decision to choose it was quick - after we stumbled upon CKEditor, our developers went through the editor’s code and documentation and decided it was just the perfect match and the proper tool for the job. We didn’t even feel the need to explore other options as we immediately liked what we saw.” - recalls Ventsi Lyaskov, Head of Support & KB at Kanbanize.
Before upgrading to CKEditor 5, Ventsi and his colleagues were using CKEditor 4 and were pleased with it, but they wanted to take advantage of the Comments and Track Changes plugins available in version 5, so they made the switch to it in 2021.
Solution: A complete single editor, no need to switch between applications
CKEditor 5 helps Kanbanize’s users by allowing them to collaborate (and stay) inside the Kanbanize application, without the need to switch to another application. If they want to share images (e.g. design/drawings/artworks/charts/diagrams, etc.), they can add them directly inside the work item’s description. And if they need to make the text stand out, they can use the basic formatting available, as well as add headers, paragraphs, and quotes – no need to do that in MS Word or a similar tool separately.
One of the main CKEditor’s advantages is that it helps users stay inside the Kanbanize application and not feel the need to switch to another one. This saves time, prevents distraction, and therefore eliminates waste.
If Kanbanize’s users need to create a simple table, they can do that utilizing the editor immediately, without the need to fire up MS Excel. If the table is more complex, they can work on it outside of Kanbanize, but when they paste it back to the work item’s description or add it in a comment, the table gets automatically recognized by CKEditor and formatted accordingly.
The CKEditor 5’s Comments feature allows users to create annotations on a specific part of the text inside a work item’s description field. This is useful whenever multiple users are collaborating inside the same work item and want to input their remarks without modifying the original content. This also eliminates the need to switch between Kanbanize and another application, thus saving the users’ time and helping them focus on the task at hand. CKEditor allows users to customize their messages using basic text formatting (bold/italic/underline), add images and tables, as well as bulleted, numbered, and to-do lists - and utilize the code snippet.
Among other CKE5’s features that enhance Kanbanize, customers who are in the software development industry especially appreciate Markdown support - it was a highly requested functionality among some of them. The code snippet functionality (or Code blocks feature) is another great addition for IT teams as it allows them to insert small blocks of code inside a work item’s description.
Result: The solution that the company and its customers can trust
Making use of CKEditor 5 has let Kanbanize stand out from competitors and still gives it an immense competitive edge on the market. For instance, Kanbanize receives signals that users who are utilizing the Comments feature, implemented back in April 2021, are happy with it. By offering its clients such enhancements, the company can provide a truly seamless user experience. And what customers give it in return are trust, fondness, and gratitude.
But there’s a space for more. The Kanbanize team believes that listening to all customers’ feedback is what makes it unique and lets it move in the right direction. All feedback received is carefully sorted, categorized, and prioritized. If the customers require any changes to its current implementation of CKEditor to be able to achieve something specific, Kanbanize is confident that CKEditor 5 will have the right solution to help them address their customers’ needs.
As for the support provided by the CKEditor support team, due to CKEditor 5’s detailed documentation and ease of use, Kanbanize did not have many support requests up to now.
Whenever we needed any help, the CKEditor support team was always there for us. We were able to get the answers to our questions and the requests were handled in a timely manner so we would rate the support as outstanding.
Implementing CKEditor 5 has definitely changed the Kanbanize application for the better, but the company is hoping to incorporate CKEditor’s Track Changes feature by the end of 2022, bringing even more value to their platform’s users. It will further improve collaboration between users, as they will be able to trace all changes that were made on the description field of a given Card/Initiative in Kanbanize. This should work well with the existing implementation of the CKEditor’s Comments feature.