Building a completely new FileMaker system
Do you want to digitise something that today lives in Excel, in binders or in someone's head? Or do you have a system that has reached the end of the road?
If you already have a FileMaker system, it can often be extended with another file, reusing the old in the new. Sometimes, though, it is better to start from scratch.
Needs analysis and architecture
Before a single line of code is written, we look at your needs, the problems you want to solve and the processes that are to be digitised.
Building an IT system is like building a high-rise. The drawings come before the first spade goes into the ground. If we discover that the basement is missing when three floors are already standing, it costs far more than if we had built it from the start.
I draw ER diagrams and flowcharts of the processes involved and check them with you. Only when the picture is right do I start sketching solutions.
A prototype instead of a requirements specification
A requirements specification forces you to describe in words something you have not yet seen.
I help you through that process by building a prototype that uses your own terms. It is usually much easier to look at a screen than to read pages of text in a report.
Built to last
A new system scales from ten to hundreds of users without redesigning the architecture. It is not tied to any one consultant, because you own everything. It follows a development standard that any FileMaker consultant can pick up, and it is documented continuously from day one.
The staffing company Poolia had just over 200 employees when I built their business-critical system. They grew to 4,600 employees in 36 locations across four countries, on the same basic architecture, for more than ten years. Three of my solutions from the turn of the millennium are still in daily use after 26 years.
What it costs and how long it takes
That cannot be answered until we know what is to be built. So we start with a fixed-price pre-study, which gives you a description of the solution, an architecture sketch and an estimate of time and cost.
You own the pre-study whether or not we build the system together. If you choose another developer, they can carry on from it.
Peter Watz, FileMaker developer since 1989. More than 200 solutions built, three of them in daily use for 26 years.
