Category: Filemaker Development

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."

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Relational database application FileMaker is helping businesses greatly reduce costs by allowing them to closely track and streamline their operations. British management services company Eversfield Consultants reports that its system development expenses were slashed by half by hiring a FileMaker developer. Eversfield specializes in providing cost and strategy support to construction and property management organizations, and uses databases to gather information about each building in its portfolio.

Eversfield attempted to create a FileMaker solution to enhance its property lifecycle management services by categorizing buildings by type, making it easier for employees to search through available assets.

"As we haven't got a lot of experience with FileMaker, it was very time-consuming for us to prepare our application," said Eversfield director Nick Woolcot of the process. "For this reason we couldn't focus on our core business. What's worse, we weren't happy with the performance of the app we created. Because of all that we began to consider hiring for this work a company specializing in FileMaker custom business solutions."

By turning to a certified FileMaker developer, Eversfield received expert services and an app that fulfills all of the company's needs, and they are already reaping the benefits. As well as being able to focus on core business processes rather than software development, it was of vital importance that the app be accessible from mobile devices, since many of Eversfield's business is done in the field during meetings with clients.

Custom database software can help companies in any industry by organizing all the information they need in a manner that is easily accessible. Developers can also provide instruction in how to use FileMaker so that IT managers can expand and update their own databases in the future as their business evolves.

A series of webinars and training sessions designed to boost the use of database application FileMaker will be hosted by St. Louis-based technology consultant Skeleton Key, a FileMaker Academy partner of Kyo Logic, between August and October. The training series was presented at the FileMaker STL meet-up on August 5, fresh off the 2014 FileMaker Developer Conference, which was held in July in San Antonio and saw Skeleton Key honored with two awards. The company received the Business Alliance Excellence Award for Leads, and in the DevCon Developer Cup Challenge, Christopher Schmitz took first place just ahead of Kyo Logic’s chief technology officer Tim Neudecker.

Neudecker himself kicked things off with a free hour-long FileMaker Academy Webinar for developers and IT and project managers on August 19, which served as a prelude to Skeleton Key’s two St. Louis training courses. Skeleton Key has spearheaded the effort to promote FileMaker among local businesses in the St. Louis area.

The Developer Essentials three-day course will be held August 26-28 with a second session October 21-23. Attendees will have a one-on-one interview before immersing themselves in learning the basic tools of FileMaker development, including data modeling, layouts, scripts and security. A final individual review will help would-be developers apply what they’ve learned to their specific area of business.

Path to Certification is a more in-depth five-day course, designed to prepare developers who already have an understanding of FileMaker development for the FileMaker Certification exam. Like the Developer Essentials program, this training series is book-ended by one-on-one meetings, where the conversation will be tailored to the needs of each aspirant, in order to address specific areas which may require polishing ahead of the Certification exam.

One certainty of technology is that at some point it will fail. Computers and mobile devices are machines that run complicated software solutions that require updating. Eventually that hardware will start to break down and a software upgrade will have a glitch that causes it to start acting screwy. In most instances they can be easily fixed and the impact is minimal, however, that is not always the case.

A recent article from RT covered a press briefing that was given by U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf. She spoke about the problems that the U.S. Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) at the State Bureau of Consular Affairs have had that caused consulates across the world to lose the ability to issue visas.

According to Harf, the problem was born out of a system update. For several months the database had been experiencing technical issues but remained functional. On July 20, 2014, a software update was issued to fix the problems but had the opposite effect. For the next three days, the database was completely offline and was only partially brought online.

"We believe the root cause of the problem was a combination of software optimization and hardware compatibility issues," Harf said. "We believe there was no malicious intent. It's hardware and a software issue that we are working to fix."

During this downtime, over 200 U.S. consulates from around the world were unable to issue visas. This impacted businesses, personal travel, vacations and much more.

It is critical for companies to find and deploy the right custom database software. With the help of a solution provider that can design and maintain the system, any company gains a hand to avoid potential glitches.

One of the biggest challenges of data management is creating a smart way to access it. FileMaker is one of the top solutions on the market, and the way businesses are benefiting from using it shows why.

A recent article from ITR News profiled transportation company Ninatrans. In an effort to improve its operations, the company deployed a FileMaker Pro solution to better track and plan its controls and routes.

According to Benny Smets, the director of Ninatrans, the company started using FileMaker as a bill and order tracking system. The system performed so well that when the time came to upgrade other systems, the company transitioned them to FileMaker. This led to the creation of a transportation management solution that is used for recording data on employees, fleet customers, maintenance and controls.

One of the benefits that made FileMaker the obvious choice as a backbone solution is flexibility. With FileMaker Pro and Go, the business can create an in-depth database that can be accessed in real-time from a computer, iPhone or iPad. Ninatrans was also able to create a customer goods database tool that was client facing. Now, any customer can log on to the database and see exactly where their goods along the supply chain. This is a level of customization most systems do not offer.

Every client wants to have access to their data, whether it’s in weekly reports or instant data. With FileMaker, it is possible to offer all of this and give consumers the experience that keeps them coming back.

With the help of a FileMaker developer, any company will be able implement the software in an effective manner.

When most people think about core business software solutions, one of the key systems that comes to mind is Microsoft Excel. This popular spreadsheet software has been in existence since 1982 and has become synonymous with business reporting since 1988. If you were to walk into nearly any company and ask to see a sales report, there is a good chance that it will be handed to you in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.

While this seems to make the case that every business should be working hard with Excel, there are actually other systems that should be deployed that can make running a business much simpler. One of the most common is FileMaker.

A recent article from the Santa Fe New Mexican features an interview with David Jondreau, a FileMaker developer who previously helped organizations run through Excel. Because of the number of issues that companies were having trying to use basic spreadsheets as a core business system, Jondreau searched for a new manner of doing business and found it in the form of customer FileMaker development. This was a way to cut through the headaches and alleviate some of the struggle that companies face when using just spreadsheets.

"FileMaker is more than a glorified Excel program," Jondreau said. "FileMaker can produce more specific reports, such as a list of which customers frequent a business and what they buy. It's possible to generate such a report via Excel but it's challenging and requires a greater time investment."

He added that FileMaker can seem like it is nothing more than a lengthy list of unrelated items, but to an expert like Jondreau, it represents distinct graphics and rows, tables and categories that are easy to manage and do not overload users.

Small businesses are perfect for FileMaker

When it comes time to upgrade to a new software solution, many smaller organizations may be hesitant to make the the jump. Because they have limited resources, justifying any kind of investment is difficult. This especially true when words like "custom database" are thrown around. Company decision makers hear it and immediately start to hear a cash register ringing which causes them to hold the wallet tight.

However, FileMaker is a perfect solution for small businesses. It is an easy investment for a system that is user friendly and provides immediate benefits.

Jondreau said that his ideal client to work for is a smaller, local businesses. In just a few weeks and with a moderate investment, he is able to create a database from the ground up that meets the specific needs of a company and helps push operations to a new level.

Making this decision to invest in FileMaker can be easier said than done. However, there are quality software development firms out there that make the process easier. These organizations audit the existing solutions and business needs, before laying out a plan that specifically addresses these areas, while also adding benefits to other processes that were not expected at the beginning.

The idea of going mobile with your business is something every company considers. While some may believe that only organizations comfortable with technology can truly take advantage of these solutions. Nothing can be further from the the truth. Whether you are a Fortune 500 company or a business that creates and hangs signs, operations can be improved with the use of mobile technology.

A recent article from Small Biz Technology features an interview with Dean Stallone, the CEO of PMD Promotions. The purpose of the conversation was how the company was able to use FileMaker Pro and Go to create a new database solution that helped the company save $40,000 by digitizing several previously manual processes.

The company has been creating and hanging promotional material for 125 contractors in 22 cities. Their work has been placed in more than 50,000 independent storefronts nationwide. A large chunk of this business happens on the road as technicians move between clients and businesses to display new content.

"Although our business is highly mobile, our business processes weren't – until fairly recently," Stallone said. "By replacing paper-bound and manual processes with a simple, custom-developed application that runs on the iPod touch or iPhone, and our back-end operations system, we cut $40,000 a year in administrative overhead and created more productive, motivated field personnel."

He went on to discuss exactly how this was able to happen. The company has display contractors that work as the organization's representative on the ground. These individuals must work within several standards to ensure posters are removed when a campaign is over and coordinate all activity within venue partners where they are displayed. Traditionally, they carried clipboards, paper documentation and a digital camera to snap pictures and create reports.

That means that individuals need to carry a substantial amount of  physical items when making their rounds. On top of that, transferring the photos needed to happen through emails and fax. This requires office staff on the other end to retype all of this information into the existing reports. All of this is labor intensive, requires multiple steps and is open to potential errors.

However, with the new system that is powered by FileMaker, a custom database was created which can be accessed from a desktop or Apple mobile devices.

How it works

Now, the entire workday is handled through the new mobile application. Contractors download the day's schedule over the Wi-Fi in the office before leaving for the day. This includes instructions for each job, maps and tips. During each visit, they are able to take notes about the job directly into the app and can also take photos that can also be uploaded directly through the app.

This information is also updated in real-time, meaning that immediately after completing a job where all the information has been entered into the database through the mobile device, a worker in the office can pull up the same data. In all, it cut report generation time by 80 percent and nearly eliminated errors.

This is just one example of how FileMaker can help businesses dramatically improve operations and cut costs. With the help of a FileMaker support service, any organization can start down this path.