Your website already runs a database. It takes payments, stores customers, tracks orders, logs form fills. Then your team ignores it and retypes the same facts into email threads, spreadsheets, and sticky notes that die on monitors like moths.
That underused MySQL database is a working engine. Treat it like one.
A common small-business workflow looks like this:
A customer fills a contact form. The message hits an inbox. Someone copies it into a spreadsheet. Someone else pastes it into a CRM. Then the lead sits, because nobody remembers the spreadsheet exists.
Your database could have held the lead the whole time, cleanly, with timestamps, ownership, and status. Email is great for arguing about lunch. It is a weak system of record.
Two facts worth keeping in mind:
Most websites use a database. W3Techs reports that a database system is used by 95.8% of all websites it surveys, and MySQL leads among those sites. Source: W3Techs, “Usage statistics of database systems for websites”.
Manual work is expensive. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists median pay for “Data Entry Keyers” at $17.70 per hour. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Data Entry Keyers.
If your staff retypes orders for an hour a day, you are buying a small, silent subscription to drudgery.
Turn the database into a system without a rebuild
InfoLobby connects to your existing MySQL or MariaDB database and gives it a front door for humans.
No migration. No rewrite. No new “platform initiative” that sinks the summer.
1) Write to tables from your website, on purpose
InfoLobby web forms embed on your site and write directly into the tables you already own.
That means:
- Contact forms that land in
leads, not in Debbie’s inbox - Order requests that land in
orders, not in a PDF attachment - Service requests that land in
tickets, not in an email titled “URGENT!!!!!!” that nobody opens because it looks haunted
You control fields, validation, and layout. You stop losing data to copy-paste and autocorrect’s thirst for chaos.
2) Give staff a workspace instead of a shared spreadsheet
A database without a usable interface turns into folklore. People know it exists. Nobody wants to touch it.
InfoLobby adds a visual layer over your data:
Grid views for scanning. Forms for editing. Search that works. Role-based permissions so the wrong person does not “clean up” a pricing table at 4:55 p.m.
Workspaces let you group related tables and keep teams in their lanes.
Sales sees leads and follow-ups.
Ops sees orders and fulfillment.
Support sees tickets.
Admins see everything, because someone has to suffer.
3) Trigger work the moment a record changes
Database records change. People forget. That gap is where revenue leaks and customers get edgy.
InfoLobby workflows trigger on record changes, schedules, or webhooks. Practical uses:
- New lead created: send a fast confirmation email via SMTP, assign an owner, set a follow-up date
- Order status changes to “Paid”: notify fulfillment, generate an internal task, send a receipt
- Ticket marked “Resolved”: email the customer, log resolution time, nudge for a review
- Nightly schedule: archive old records, export a report, ping a manager only when numbers drift
No ceremony. The data flips. The work fires.
4) Add AI where it earns its rent
Some tasks are small but relentless: categorizing inquiries, summarizing notes, translating messages.
InfoLobby can call OpenAI/GPT inside a workflow.
A lead comes in with a messy paragraph. GPT tags it “commercial,” “residential,” “urgent,” or “spam.” A support ticket gets summarized into a clean internal note. A bilingual customer gets a reply in the right language without someone playing translator roulette.
5) Integrate outward without duct tape
InfoLobby can hit any REST API. So when a record changes in MySQL, your other tools hear about it.
Update your CRM.
Create an accounting entry.
Push inventory changes.
Or post to Slack so the team stops treating the “New Orders” inbox as a community bulletin board.
Getting started, fast
Connect your database. Whitelist IPs if needed. Enter credentials.
Create a workspace.
Configure the tables you need first, not all of them.
Invite team members with permissions that match reality.
Add one trigger that removes a daily annoyance.
Embed one form that stops one stream of retyping.
The database is already there, quietly doing its job. Put it to work where your people are.