Category: Custom Applications

In some ways, technology has had a negative impact on the environment. The inexorable march of mechanization hasn't always been kind to the earth or to the other animals that live on it. Now, however, Hewlett-Packard is focusing its managed IT services software on mitigating or reversing those issues entirely.

The company announced "Earth Insights" on Tuesday, a program that seeks to apply the analytical power afforded by Big Data to help aid in environmental efforts. 

"HP Earth Insights uses our products and services to deliver near real-time analytics to provide scientists with more accurate and more actionable environmental information," HP president and CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement.

The software can identify trends in animal endangerment in real time. This capability creates a sort of "early warning system" for threatened species: rather than being reactive, and attempting to save an animal after it is already too late, conservationists can address threats before they become catastrophes. What used to take a team months to gather and analyze can now be done by a single person, in just a matter of hours.

So far, about 1,000 cameras and sensors have been installed in forest areas around the world, providing a wide range of information, including vegetation, precipitation, temperature, carbon stocks, humidity and solar radiation. This data is then distributed to area managers, governments and researchers for analysis. Working together, they can help not only protect animals, they can also develop policies that best support their habitats.

HP has already reported valuable insights. With all of the negative effects innovation can have on the environment, it's heartening to see it used to protect it. 

Have you ever managed to kill a fake house plant? Never been able to make your flowers flourish? Just don't have that green thumb?

You're in luck. Now, all you need to know for a wonderful garden is how to use FileMaker.

Setting up a custom database is easy with FileMaker. You can input the type of plant, the light requirements and how much water it needs and when. Then, you can easily mark off when each plant has gotten exactly what is required, which can take the guesswork out of gardening. It's even simple to add a category that tracks weather patterns, so you can easily remember which days have given your buds the most sunlight.

If you use FileMaker Pro for iPad, uploading pictures is a cinch. You simply take a snapshot of the flower in question, and it can be immediately uploaded into your database. This functionality makes real time tracking a possibility: you don't need to rack your brain to determine how your garden is progressing, you can just scroll through a series of pictures. Any wilting or drooping can be caught early, before it becomes a serious problem. 

Maybe the best part of all is the opportunities for analysis. The software allows you to sift through a ton of information and organize your plants by which need the most attention. Not only will you have a better garden, you'll become a better gardener by being able to look back and correct any previous mistakes you might have made. With FileMaker, you just might have more of a green thumb than you ever realized. 

At the highest levels of basketball, every player is fast. Every player is strong and talented. What sets the truly great ones apart is how well they use the information provided to them on a day to day basis.

Mike Procopio is the man who provides that information, and FileMaker is what lets him do it with ease.

Mike is the founder of The Hoop Consultants, a basketball strategy firm that has helped NBA players like Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant hone their games throughout the year. A former scout, he watches hundreds of games a year, taking meticulous notes and gathering as much intel as he can possibly get on everything he sees. Typing and entering all that information to create a composite profile of  player would take up to six hours.

Until he got FileMaker support. 

By creating a custom database, he was able to streamline the entire process. Rather than having to build his profiles manually, he can capture and sort large amounts of data in a flash: everything from a player's age, statistics, height, weight and salary information is gathered for convenient analysis. This information is valuable not only to players themselves, but also to scouts looking to find the next big thing.

"As I'm watching college players, I can automatically pull in profiles of every player in the NBA at his position with the same height and overall profile," says Procopio. "In 10 or 15 minutes I have examples that tell a scout whether we've found a new Kobe clone or other great player that could be a tremendous asset at the professional level."

At the elite levels of basketball, every advantage counts. With FileMaker, Mike Procopio helps provide that edge. 

One of the major challenges in caring for any animal is that they can't communicate in the same way as a human might, and horses are no different. While a person might have their own health records (or at least a strong memory of recent illnesses and treatments), it falls onto an horse's owner to store all of that information and deploy it in a conscientious way. Especially over long periods of time, or if multiple horses are involved, memories can be inaccurate. That's where the FileMaker service can be vital.

While keeping important health records for a horse can be as low-fi as using a notebook, creating a custom database in FileMaker offers several crucial advantages. First, horse care can be complicated and deeply involved. Not only will you need to store information about routine health and oral exams, you will also want to have a log of farrier procedures (those related to hoof care), workout and competition notes, results of lab tests and any illnesses or abnormalities that might arise. Being able to store all of that information digitally can save time and space.

Additionally, FileMaker pro allows to analyze patterns in data over time. While a paper log might tell you when one thing happened, using database software allows you to look at a lot of data at once and organize it to reveal any underlying causality. Additionally, you can sync it to wireless devices, so you can actually thumb through the information while you interact with your horse — something that isn't easy to do with dozens of sheets of paper. The more you know about your horse, the better care you'll be able to provide for it, and a healthy horse is a happy one. 

There are few industries more straightforward, fundamentally, than trucking. You have a product and a destination, and you have to figure out the best way to get those two together. In an increasingly competitive economic landscape, however, this once-simple process could benefit from some complicated analysis. That's where custom web application development and big data could come in. 

A lot of companies already have business intelligence tools, which can effectively monitor past and present situations. The problem is, these sorts of tools are backwards-looking: They're very good at describing that a problem has already happened, but can't provide much predictive value. That's where large-scale data analysis comes in. 

Custom database models can be built to give past events greater forecasting value. Analytics can help determine the most fuel-efficient ways to travel, which in turn can give companies a better understanding of how fuel performance will affect their bottom line. Jeff Foster Trucking, a 225-truck carrier based in Superior, Wisconsin, is considering this variable heavily as it plans its purchase of 50 new trucks.

"In the purchasing world [0.1 to 0.2 miles per gallon] is a profound amount," says Dean Norrell, manager of operations and driver development in an interview to the Commercial Carrier Journal.

It can also help to map events. Knowing the likelihood of an outcome in a given situation could also prevent serious accidents. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, 456 truckers sustained fatal injuries on the job last year, the highest total of any single profession. While there is some danger inherent in any profession that involves driving, if companies can analyze patterns of when deadly accidents are most likely to happen, they can help to avoid them. 

Even for the most uncomplicated of tasks, the right application of big data principles can save time, money, and even lives. 

You might soon be able to help meteorologists as easily as you check your email. That’s the goal of the developers at OpenSignal, who have launched a new app called WeatherSignal that uses existing smartphone sensors to build a live map of atmospheric readings. The developers hope to use the application to eventually build custom database software that will be able to apply big data principles to weather forecasting.

There are some inherent drawbacks to using smartphones as weather sensors, however. People often keep their phones in their pockets, which obscures readings, and even the most advanced smartphones aren’t deliberately designed for meteorology. However, the first issue can be solved by using multiple sensor readings: The amount of light recorded can determine whether a phone is actually outside. The second issue can be alleviated through the power of big data.

One of the values of big data is that it allows imperfect data to be collected in large enough quantities to glean valuable insight. Smartphones are everywhere, and using them as weather sensors would mean millions of granular data points that could be used to derive correlative insight. Not only could such information be used to predict small shifts in daily weather, it could also help determine the probability of “outlier” weather events, such as hurricanes – knowledge that could save lives.

The next step is determining what role this massive amount of information can play when it comes to forecasting weather. The Birmingham University Climate Lab is working with the developers of WeatherSignal to determine the exact utility of this crowdsourced information. If successful, this would be a huge breakthrough for meteorology, and another example of the utility of custom database software.

There are many factors that go into determining the quality of an organization's information. In addition to following best practices in regards to acquiring data, systems must be designed properly so that users have easier access to it, thus enhancing their ability to report on it and make smart business decisions.

However, many companies have failed in this area, according to a new report titled "Global Risk Management Survey, Eighth Edition: Setting a Higher Bar." The study was conducted by Deloitte and found that only 25 percent of companies feel they have either extremely or very effective solutions in place to process information.

This is an alarming number in industries such as finance, where the ability to manage risk is crucial. Failure to properly assess data and determine any risks can lead to serious problems, as this was one factor that ultimately led to the financial crisis of 2008. To properly report data and make smart business decisions, information must be processed in a system that can give companies the best view of their information.

FileMaker development is an ideal solution in this case because it can give companies the ability build flexible and scalable solutions to manage their data. As volumes of information continue to grow, it's important to have a system in place that can grow as well. This will give organizations a custom database software solution that they can use to improve the manner in which they collect, process, report on and store valuable information. This will go a long way toward helping identify key risks and managing them appropriately.

The proliferation of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model is possibly the biggest business technology story this year. This blog touched on the concept of BYOD earlier this month, but some of the strengths and weaknesses of the strategy are becoming more apparent.

The shift from traditional desktop to PCs to modernized mobile devices began to take place a couple of years ago, but as the technology continued to evolve, many corporations began to realize something – consumer technology was outpacing business solutions.

Today, people stand outside for hours in line just to get their hands on the latest iPhone, Android or, if the folks at the company formerly known as Research in Motion have anything to say about it, the BlackBerry. The features and functionality of these devices have caused price tags to skyrocket, and many companies struggle to keep up. So, instead of deploying a few second-rate handheld devices to employees, many businesses have decided to optimize the resources at their workers’ disposal by allowing them to bring their gadgets into the office.

Doing so reduces spending and builds efficiency, perhaps the two biggest factors driving the majority of business decisions ever year. So, why doesn’t every organization adopt this policy? The trouble is, many companies have a difficulty entrusting employees to store data on their personal devices.

However, the benefits of using a high-powered personal device are too important to pass up. This blog’s aforementioned previous entry suggested building a custom database software system to help manage information on personal devices, and FileMaker is the program to help businesses get there.

In addition to providing the tools companies need to develop strong software programs to run on iPhones, Androids and any other personal mobile device, FileMaker can allow organizations to host their apps in the cloud. That way, individuals with powerful smartphones and tablets can use their devices’ internet capabilities to access information from the cloud. This is an ideal solution because it capitalizes on the advantages of using personal devices without damaging a company’s security efforts.

Business is constantly changing, regardless of the industry. Technological advancements have improved hardware functionality, which has benefited business operations. However, it has increased expectations and companies must ensure they can adjust and cater to new customer needs.

Since the development of the first software applications, businesses have been using them to improve operations. However, many apps are limited in functionality, which can hinder their usefulness. It’s up to businesses to optimize their application usage and get the most out of their solutions.

Custom application development can give organizations the flexibility and scalability needed to grow and adjust as needed. Companies that develop apps this way will not be confined by the restrictions of standard development and they will break through traditional barriers to achieve new levels of efficiency and productivity.

An article in ITWeb addresses the importance of application optimization and lists a number of benefits the practice can offer. One of them is the added value of new technological investments. Instead of holding back on new procurements due to software limitations, organizations can have the confidence to acquire new tools to really better their businesses.

“With guaranteed application performance and improved end-user experience, businesses will also have the confidence to evolve computing models by deploying other forms of technology that can positively impact on workforce productivity and business efficiency, like mobility, unified communications, software as a service and desktop virtualization,” writes Sean Nourse, the author of the article.

Improving traditional software applications can be accomplished a number of ways. However, FileMaker-based custom development can build applications that will truly deliver superb results. Organizations can benefit tremendously from their solutions created this method and many application development projects conducted in this environment are quick and cost-effective.