Maintain, develop and modernise your existing FileMaker system
The most common call I get goes like this. You have a FileMaker system that has worked for many years. The person who built it has left, retired, or was never a developer in the first place. Now nobody dares to touch the system, and every change is put off. In the meantime, it is the users who suffer.
There is no need to be embarrassed about your system
Many people hesitate to show their file. It has been built in stages, by different people, with solutions that work but are not pretty.
I have opened hundreds of files like that. I am not there to judge whoever built it, but to find out what works, what is costing you money and what should be done first.
How I work
First, a review of what the business does and what the system is used for. Then I look at the structure, the relationships and the scripts — what is actually in use and what is leftover clutter.
You get a written picture of the situation: what is urgent, what can wait and what should be rebuilt. Then you decide the pace.
The review is quoted according to the size of the system, so you know what it costs before it starts. You own the report whether or not we continue working together.
Modernising rarely means throwing everything away. Most often it means fixing the underlying structure where it chafes, replacing what was done the long way round, adding mobile work with FileMaker Go, connecting integrations and tidying up the access privileges. Your users will still feel at home.
Taking over from another consultant / developer
I have done it many times. One of my clearest examples is a Swedish fashion brand with an extremely complex system, built by another consultant over many years.
During my first meeting with the client, his phone rang. He answered, said he was in a meeting with an IT consultant and that it was the first time he didn't want to kill the consultant. It is still one of the best reviews I have ever had. I took over the maintenance, support and further development.
With FileMaker 2026 and today's AI tools, that kind of takeover is faster than ever. Mapping an unfamiliar file used to take weeks. Today it takes days
Maintenance and support
I make sure the system keeps working, that security updates are installed, that performance is monitored and that documentation is written where it is missing.
You also get something that is harder to put on a list: a partner who stays. My longest client relationships go back more than 26 years.
Support and maintenance agreements are available if needed. The price depends on the scope and the response times.
The first step is a conversation
Tell me what is not working. A short call is enough for me to understand whether I can help you and what a review would cost.
Peter Watz, FileMaker developer since 1989. More than 200 solutions built, three of them in daily use for 26 years.
