Author: Justin Hesser

Since the first film hit the big screen in 1977, the Star Wars universe has expanded through sequels, prequels, books, video games and all manner of additional merchandise, making it likely the most extensive universe in fiction. Among passionate fans, a continuity error between two different episodes can lead to “Han shot first” levels of controversy. In order to avoid such contradictions, since 2000 Lucasfilm has maintained a vast database of characters, languages, planets, races, vehicles and weapons since the turn of the century.

The Holocron, named after a Force-powered repository of Jedi knowledge, is in fact a FileMaker database operated by Lucasfilm employee Leland Chee. Its full contents are strictly private, since it includes information on works that are in development. It goes into astounding levels of detail, such as providing names to characters who were never named and had but a single line in the films.

“A lot of that information, like naming of background characters, especially from the films, came from that Decipher collectible card game,” said Chee to NPR. “Most of their card sets were pre-Episode I, so it was mostly classic trilogy material, and they were naming every single background character. They were also pulling from the Star Wars Holiday Special as well, because they had image reference for that. But yeah, if someone wasn’t named, they would name them.”

Every character and location in the extended Star Wars universe are accounted for in the Holocron.

Chee points out that the database is “not that complex,” just extremely comprehensive. Indeed, FileMaker development can provide businesses with similarly detailed looks into their operations. Whether the subject is intergalactic warfare or something more mundane, a relational database can help keep track of essential information.

For 130 years, Akubra has been manufacturing and selling felt slouch hats that have become synonymous with the Australian Outback. In 2014, the hats remain iconic, but until recently the company was operating on a DOS-based system that also belonged in a museum. The system was essentially a computer version of a previous manual reporting method, which required employees to enter information on the hats that were produced.

The system was highly inefficient, and new operations manager Ron Palin set about looking for a replacement. He found that available off-the-shelf solutions were not comprehensive or customizable enough to handle the highly specific needs of a textile manufacturer, and eventually settled on a FileMaker database. Palin says that the new system has made basic operations exponentially faster.

"We're shipping same day, and we've never done that," he told ZDNet. "The supervisor said, 'I can't remember a Christmas where all the orders are out before January or before we went away.' It's not like we're late, but the factory is now so on time that we're delivering faster, and we know where things are."

FileMaker allows Akubra to track shipments for the first time.

Palin says the ability to track packages has been a boon to the company and to his own schedule, since he used to spend several hours each week attempting to obtain information that is now available at a click of the mouse. The company has also installed new hardware to match the software upgrade.

Certified FileMaker developers can help companies in all industries create and customize their own relational databases. With this tool, businesses can improve their reporting and obtain valuable insights into their own workflow.

Since May 2013, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has sought to prevent tragedies like the building collapse that left more than 1,100 fatalities at a garment factory last year. About one third of the country's textile factories are covered by the agreement, which was signed by labor unions, non-profits and the international retailers that outsource their manufacturing to Bangladesh.

One of the stipulations of the accord was the performance of comprehensive safety inspections to detect construction and fire hazards that may need to be addressed immediately. Baltimore-based Hughes Associates has carried out over 1,000 such audits over the past six months, and it has done so with the help of a FileMaker app developed by fellow Maryland company Anvil Dataworks.

Like Kyo Logic, Anvil is a member of the FileMaker Academy, serving the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas and with additional offices in Melbourne, Florida, and Seattle. Their experts created the app for use on iOS mobile devices. It allows inspectors to easily note the condition of the buildings, upload photos and generate reports to send them worldwide.

"We didn't have time to report using handwritten notes and disjointed photos," says Hughes' director for codes and standards, Brian Rhodes. "We needed much more efficiency and consistency to handle a task this large in such a short time frame. I don't believe that we could have completed this critical project on time and within budget without our FileMaker solution."

The seven members of the Academy assist businesses with FileMaker development and training, helping them streamline operations and improve data gathering. A customized relational database can save hours of work and simplify previously complex processes.

Last month, this blog reported the story a Mississippi dentist who used FileMaker to develop a database to make up for the lack of records in developing countries, including Haiti. Now, that country is benefiting from another FileMaker app designed by three IT support consultants at the University of Iowa. The app, called TEBOW as a portmanteau of the names of developers Steve Bowers and Ted Fitzgerald, helps track HIV patients.

The lead developer, Stephen Yagla, began working on TEBOW after a trip to Haiti with Chris Buresh, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Iowa. There, they observed a rudimentary and ineffective system of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and paper records being used by health workers, often visiting volunteers like Buresh.

TEBOW has the dual aim of being functional and very easy to use by health care workers with limited IT knowledge. Patients are photographed with an iPhone, their name and phone number are recorded and they are assigned a unique ID number. Workers can track specific patients and analyze the data to draw useful conclusions, such as how much medicine to bring on each trip.

“It’s amazing how powerful it is and how much it helps,” said Buresh to The Daily Iowan. “It’s critical that we can prove to ourselves and everyone else that we’re not wasting our time and money. It has definitely changed the way I look at what we do and changed the way I look at people in IT.”

Certified FileMaker consultants can help businesses achieve similarly successful results by building customized databases and teaching employees to maintain and update them over time.

In the corporate aviation industry, operators use safety management systems (SMS) to ensure their compliance with national and international standards. However, the frequent updates made to those standards make the job of cross-referencing an SMS a time-consuming and complicated one. Now, thanks to a former corporate pilot and current auditor who used FileMaker to simplify the process, there's an app for that.

iIS-BAO is designed to the requirements of the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO), which is maintained by the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC). It also conforms to the U.S.-based National Business Aviation Association and runs on FileMaker for both Mac and Windows as well as on FileMaker Go for iPad. Operators, SMS services providers and auditors can all use it to check compliance.

"Now IBAC is requiring cross-referencing in all its audits," said Phil Fountain, the app's creator, to Aviation International News. "I've included a place for operators to cross-reference each of their requirements to the manual. They can export it to an Excel file and email it to the auditor. The auditor can [input] all his questions and comments… and when he gets into the audit he can have all his questions prepared."

The new app makes it much easier for all parties to conform to business aviation safety standards.

Connecticut FileMaker developer Kyo Logic helps local companies create their own customized business solutions using this highly versatile software. FileMaker's relational database capabilities simplify the process of cross-referencing large volumes of complex information. With professional instruction, users can easily learn how to manage and update their own apps to ensure that they're always keeping track of their business data.

Connecticut continues to be a national leader in technological innovation. The Milken Institute think tank ranked the state ninth in its latest State Tech and Science Index, a biennial evaluation of all 50 states according to their tech-driven economic development. It is the sixth straight edition in which Connecticut has been inside the top 10. The state received an average score of 65.5 out of 100.

In Connecticut's case, the high marks are a result of a steady influx of capital and a focus on research by both private and public organizations. Of the five indices that make up the average, the highest ranking was in human capital investment, where Connecticut was third nationally with a score of 75.9, followed by a tenth-place ranking in research and development inputs.

Not all the results are positive, however, as Connecticut fell in four of the five indices, and dropped out of the top 20 altogether in technology concentration and dynamism. This data should drive state leaders to continue investing heavily to ensure that the Nutmeg State remains in the top tier two years from now.

Connecticut has been ranked in the top 10 in every edition of Milken's index.

Unsurprisingly, the Northeast region has a strong presence at the top of the list, with Massachusetts, the overall leader for the fifth straight edition of the index, and New Hampshire both joining Connecticut in the top 10. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont are all ranked between 11 and 18.

Managed IT services software developers can help local companies thrive and keep Connecticut in its rightful place as a national leader in technology development.

The number of countries and industries benefiting from FileMaker software continues to grow as more companies learn to adapt the database tool to their specific needs. Vinepower Limited, a contracting firm for the viticulture sector based in Blenheim, New Zealand, is furnishing its employees with iPads to keep better track of its operations.

Vinepower provides vineyards with workers for year-round tasks such as pruning and thinning and employs up to 250 during peak season in the Marlborough Region, a well-known producer of Sauvignon blanc wine. The company used FileMaker to build a database they affectionately call “Vinny.”

For field work, supervisors carry iPads where they enter information on vine rows and workers, and later sync all the data in the Vinny database. This work used to be done manually in a much more time-consuming and tedious process. The new solution has had both operational and financial benefits.

“We’ve got better knowledge of our production and how workers are performing,” said Vinepower director Jono Bushell to The New Zealand Herald. “It’s also allowed us to do invoicing before we even do payroll, which improves our cash flow.”

FileMaker helps supervisors track their workers’ progress at the vineyards.

GE Capital says that the use of custom solutions is on the rise worldwide among mid-market companies. Software like FileMaker is more available than ever to businesses that don’t have large IT departments or budgets at their disposal.

FileMaker developers can help companies by creating and customizing databases to fit their specific needs. Training is also available for employees, even those without extensive IT knowledge, to learn how to update and manage their own systems.

The ease with which FileMaker can be used and customized is allowing health care workers to develop apps that make their jobs easier both in the United States and in underdeveloped countries. mHealthNews has the story of three such physicians that have used the software to build game-changing databases.

Patrick Singley, a dentist from Columbus, Mississippi, who regularly does work in developing countries, built an electronic health record system to gather data about patients in poor areas where no such records are kept. After coming up with the idea, he spoke to several programmers but ultimately decided to do it himself using FileMaker.

The app is currently being used in Haiti, and next year it will be deployed in a Kenyan orphanage and made available to non-profits. While this is one of the most remarkable cases, it's far from the only one.

"You have a lot of very smart people out there in healthcare whose time is valuable, who are increasingly tech-savvy, and who have specific needs," said FileMaker vice president Ryan Rosenberg. "Clearly, there are a lot of scenarios where mobility is incredibly important."

A doctor at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis designed an app that lets residents chart bedside ultrasounds on their iPhones rather than on paper. And an eye bank in Birmingham, Alabama, has developed a relational database to easily track available organs and patients waiting for a corneal transplant in order to easily find matches.

Users in a wide range of business areas can benefit from implementing FileMaker in their operations. Certified partners can assist with FileMaker development, customization and training to help companies make the most of this software.

FileMaker has joined forces with Network Rail, the operator of most of Great Britain's railroads, to help students at UTC Reading in southern England develop their design and other skills. UTC Reading provides technical education to teenagers as an alternative to a traditional high school, and counts Network Rail among its business partners.

Experts from both companies will be training students to code, design, draw and manage finances over the course of 14 weeks. During that time, the students will be working on designing a theoretical railroad crossing. They will use FileMaker to gather information on maintenance, terrain and traffic flow, among others, which they will then analyze to determine the ideal location for the crossing. They will create a model with a 3D printer and the best projects will be presented to Network Rail.

Network Rail's manager of education programs and the school's principal highlighted the value of projects such as this one to develop the STEM fields in the United Kingdom. With high-level technical education at young ages, they can ensure that their nation remains an engineering leader on the global stage.

"We're seeing students from the ages of 14 to 18 taking on and providing the solutions to everyday problems we face in our business, managing projects and teams of people of varying age and ability," said Filemaker's Northern Europe director, Tony Speakman. "The skills we are working with them on, such as report writing, are things that they won't learn from an undergraduate course."

FileMaker consultants can provide direction to businesses that wish to take advantage of the many possibilities this software provides, training employees to gather data and customize and update their databases to fit their companies' needs.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is one of the largest tech hubs on the East Coast but, despite the presence of IT companies of all sizes and leading educational institutions, the state is still not producing enough computer scientists to meet the ever-growing demand. The Bay State houses offices of tech giants like Google, Microsoft and the Oracle Corporation, not to mention thousands of startups, and the sector now makes up more than one fifth of the gross domestic product.

According to non-profit Code.org, only 2.4 percent of American college graduates are majoring in computer science these days, and the sector is rife with employment opportunities. Now, business and political leaders in Massachusetts are teaming up to raise that percentage.

Governor Deval Patrick launched the Innovation Schools program in 2012 to create special centers with a focus on IT where students in the eighth grade and up have access to cutting-edge technology. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is also in talks with groups to expand tech solutions to all levels of education.

Even MIT can't keep up with the high demand for tech experts.

"In the past few years we have introduced an introductory course for non-majors that enrolls over 200 students," said Worcester Polytechnic Institute computer science head Craig Wills to Boston.com. "We're seeing students recognize the value and importance of learning the material, but it's certainly not required. Courses should be so good that students see the value in taking them."

Software developing companies and other businesses with IT needs are hiring at a record pace, buoyed by the recovering economy and constant technological evolution. Politicians can help their regions become IT leaders by promoting tech education among the younger generations.