We are happy to provide you with assistance, design and development for databases and business systems whether your business is large or small.
As you would expect many databases now integrate with web applications, yet there is still a great requirement for client based databases as well. Our main database tools of choice are MS Access, MS SQL Server, and MySQL - with each to be used for the right kind of applications.
Microsoft Access databases
Peter Graves has been developing in Microsoft Access since the mid 1990s, and is experienced with every version since about Access 1995. (Though you really shouldn't be using that any more!)
If you need a bespoke application written to help improve your internal processes, streamline some rather time-consuming paperwork, we have the ability to provide the analysis, design, development, testing and implementation as one seamless piece of work.
Access is renowned for its ability to reward you with a fast development cycle, as it includes all aspects of you data, forms, reports, and processing internally. It can be limited when you start requiring larger systems, but for a small business it is often exactly what you need.
Microsoft SQL Server Databases
Not only have we worked for small and medium sized companies in the past, but also designed database systems for some of the largest companies in the UK, and for a few in New Zealand. We have been delighted to help banks, insurers, pharmaceuticals, retailers, telecoms companies and many others over the years. Should there be the requirement for a larger number of users on your system, or for greater performance in your database application, then we would normally consider upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server instead.
Applications including our C-Trak vehicle management system have been designed and build using SQL Server and the Microsoft Visual Studio environment.
MySQL Open-source Databases
Web-based systems are often designed using different databases than those used on Local Networks, or stand-alone PCs. While Access is not really designed for use on the web, and SQL server is great for some large scale web-based applications, the open Source product MySQL is possibly the most common database in use on the web today. If you need a web-based database application there is a reasonable chance we will create it in MySQL, particularly if it is to be built in PHP, or integrated with one of our range of content managed web sites.
Now you may well not care how we build it, and of course the main thing is that your system is fit for purpose, reliable, reasonably priced, and easy to maintain in the long term. All these key business drivers are always built into our work.
Bespoke Development or Customizing existing systems?
It is also important to understand that writing a bespoke application of any kind can be quite a time consuming task. Where possible we are able to add value to the process by finding and customising existing solutions, rather than building something from scratch un-necessarily. We do not believe in "re-inventing the wheel" (sometimes at significant cost) where there is a suitable application or database that can be used, and this is one of the great strengths of the open-Source community.
What kind of databases have we built in the past?
Well quite a lot, and we'll be delighted to tell you all about them if you're brave. Some of our applications include.....
- Vehicle Management (C-Trak)
- Document management and indexing (Sovereign Insurance / ASB Bank)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Sales database
- Training database (Nokia)
- Tourist enquiries and bookings
- Publishing and subscriptions
- Jewellery orders
- Balanced Scorecard management Information System
- Data-Warehouse applications
- Data Mapping applications (Glaxo Smith-Kline)
- Wholesale grocery management
- Mining Searches
- Engineering Maintenance (Royal Mail)
- Management Accounting System (RMC Readymix)
The design and build process
The key to a good database is in having a process for defining and understanding the business drivers behind it - why it is needed, and what must it do. Other things to consider at an early stage are things like what is going to go into it (and how), and what to you want to get out! What kinds of information are you going to hold, and how does each part of information relate to the others. (For example One Company can have many one or many contacts, one company can have many orders, and each order can have one or many lines!)
Another key element in designing your system is to have a "design methodology". It may sound grandiose, but it really means working to a plan - and one which helps you to really distill what it is that is needed, agree the details in advance, build it successfully, refine and test it until its right, and then support it as required. Our design methodology is based around the "Agile" approach to project management, which recognises that many parts of the design cannot fully be anticipated at the start of the project. (Have you ever felt like you didn't know what it was the you needed to build until you had finished building it?) Agile includes the ability and likelihood of going through a number of design "iterations" or refinements. These allow you to - basically - build it the first time according to the understanding of the requirements, and then use and refine perhaps a number of times, until the end product is just right.
It all sounds like quite straightforward stuff, and it can be if its done well. We use our experience - and hopefully a bit of common sense to make sure that it is.
So if you are looking for an database or software application for your business, please feel free to give us a call and ask for a quote.
