The big picture

Hi all,

I had a good friend on phone last week. He has a successful post production company and he wanted to create a small web tool that will allow them to send clips to their clients.

Sound easy? It is. But…

I immediately spot something missing. I’ve asked him how they manage their projects. The obvious answer came. Excel… Ok I said, you need to change the way you think.

I’ve started to explain to him why he needs a database application that will run their company. I’ve started with the example of the clips that they wanted to send to the client. Let’s say you have an application with all the jobs you have. And under specific job sheet you can insert relevant information about the job. And when the clip is ready you can upload it to the client, from the job sheet.

Sounds complicated I know but it is quite simple. Just imagine that for each job you have a specific page where you can insert all the relevant information. Then I continue you can add costs and other financial info and in the end you can have reports that can give you an accurate picture of your business.

This was too much theory and I needed to show him examples.

The next week he came back with 20 pages document and forms and asked me to integrate everything into one web application. You can call it Intranet, Business database, business software you name it. The point is that every business needs one. So why not to put it on the web?

Assaf
S-Development ltd

How to start a business right?

Hi all,

It is well known secret that when you start a new business you need to be smart and find ways to be efficient and cost effective. This is very easy to say but not easy to implement. It is very confusing time that many companies offer you products that according to them will make you a successful business man.

Well… there isn’t even one software out there that can make your new venture successful. Even us can’t help. It is up to you and the way you set up your business. Set it right and your business will rock. Set it wrong and you will struggle to make profits.

There are many factors how to set a business right, but I want to focus on the web side (of course…). And it goes without saying that you need a good website. But you also need a good tool to track your business. I met a potential client the other day that wanted to buy a File maker database, because he worked with it in his previous work.

I asked him what does he need. It is quite simple – track orders, clients and supplier and to be able to generate invoices and job sheets. I gave him an estimated quote of £100-£150 (yes its that cheap…) and he replies this is the same of buying Filemaker.

Well my answer was it just look like the same price. Because when you buy the Filemaker or any other DB product you need to sit down and learn how to program it, so it will do what you want it to do. This can be a very tough time. Most of the people are not developers and to design a database you need to know what you are doing. So the learning curve can be very steep and you can end up spending weeks of something that is not your business.

I will try to emphasis this subject because it is important. Instead of focusing on your new business and how to bring more clients and develop your business your are busy on developing database. This is not your business and you should leave it to professionals.

Now even if you managed to set it right, you start to work with what you have created and you thing that if you can add a new button that will create a report of how many people from East London have had order your product your life will be easier.

You have two options:

1) If you asked a developer to develop you a tool, you call him or send an email with your request. Then they give you a quote. Now because you are already their client and they want to keep you, they will give you a cheap quote and they can do it fast.

2) If you bought the Filemaker you need to go back to the books ask in forums and pray. Again you will spend 2-5 days just to add a simple thing.

Did you save money? I don’t think so.

Hope my hope is clear,

Assaf Scialom

S-Development team

Online Database

Hi all,

If you run a search on Google for the term ‘online database‘ you will see many ads and sites that offer you to create a powerful database in 60 seconds or so.

This is really impressive and some of them are really good tools. But let me tell you this – Creating a database is a dame difficult job. I am doing it for 10 years now and it is really complicated thing. It is not a rocket science but it is not something that you can do without training and experience.

That’s why you need a developer (us!) that can do it for you. You should focus on your business and not on trying building databases. I have one client that was involved in the process to define the database and he swear to me that he will never do it again.

What we do is understanding your business and than design a database that is relevant to your needs. It may be a long process, but the end result is very good. And once you have a good structure it is very easy to add more things.

So if you need a database, don’t buy ready made one. Save your money and give us a call or drop us an email. We will be happy to assists.

Assaf

 
 

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