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Business Management

By Garry Thompson CEO of FileMaker Services Ltd – FileMaker Developer for 17 Years

Manage your customers well, or.... someone else will!

In these extremely difficult times, the relationship between your business and your customer is extremely important. If you do not manage your own business and its resources in an efficient manner, how can you expect to be able to manage your customers and provide the level of service they require? After all, “The Customer is King”. Never has this been a more accurate statement!

With every sale being fought for, there will always be someone waiting in the wings to take advantage of your mistakes.

For any tradesman to execute a task correctly, the right tools must be used.

This is just as true for your business. You must have the right tools for running your business. I’ve listed a few pointers below, which hopefully may prove useful. I apologise to those of you who take these things for granted, but if any of these elements prompts a small change that results in a successful sale, I’ll accept a large G & T at the next FileMaker Devcon! ?

Use the right tools for the job

As we’re all reading this because we have a mutual interest in FileMaker and its associated technologies, there must be an assumption that we would like a solution that encompasses these fundamentals.

If any of you are sceptical that FileMaker has the wherewithal to provide everything you need, there are hundreds, nay, thousands of voices out there that are ready and willing to convince you that it has!

Yes, the many flavours of SQL based databases are extremely powerful and there are many vendors who would willingly extol the virtues of Microsoft SQL, MySQL and Oracle, but are they really necessary and do they provide you with the value for money and flexibility you require?

There are several questions that must be asked, to ascertain the value of these propositions.

• Are they powerful enough for my needs?
  • Almost definitely yes! These database engines can execute an immense amount of transactions per second.
• Do I need anything that powerful?
  • Well, if your organisation is large enough with perhaps a public web portal that is mission critical, and there is likely to be a very large user base with thousands of transactions per hour, then yes!
  • However, do not underestimate the power of FileMaker. We have a FileMaker database hosted on a single server at customer site through a 2Mb leased line. This is a B2B solution where we have built a custom web interface for more than 3000 users. These users include a large national UK supermarket chain (each store has its own login) and several other large companies with household names.
  • This system has been running for about 5 years now, with hardly a glitch. Admittedly, we have carried out several upgrades or alterations (purely functional and feature related) to the web site, but fundamentally it is using the same old FileMaker database originally developed in FileMaker V7. OK, it does not have the transaction rate of Amazon, but there are still many hundreds of separate orders / transactions per day, processed by the system. An order placed over the web is immediately flagged internally and is then processed by several departments, before the goods are put together and dispatched.
  • The host company is a large printing company who provide all the POS (Point of Sale) materials for their customers. There are also several other FileMaker databases hosted on the same server which have totally different functionality. The point is, Filemaker is solid, reliable and powerful!
• Is it reliable and easy to recover, should the worst happen?
  • Even the largest corporations have issues with reliability. I’m sure you’ve called your insurance company or bank with a query before now, and the operator has said “sorry, our systems are down at the moment, can I take your number and call you back, or can you call back later?”
  • As FileMaker is not really aimed at these large corporate organisations for front line use, we cannot directly compare the reliability and performance here. However, for the SME market, FileMaker probably is a viable alternative. Many IT departments either put FileMaker down as a “baby” database, with little capability, they couldn’t be more wrong! Also, I think some of them are a little afraid of the unknown. If they don’t know much about a product, they immediately go on the defensive about what they are currently using. Perhaps they also have a vested interest in keeping what they already have!
  • Backup of company data is probably the most important task of all. The company is the data itself, and would fail to function without it. Hardware and personnel can be replaced, but the data cannot!
  • How many database systems can you backup and restore onto a completely different system in minutes? How many database systems can you copy onto a memory stick or external hard drive and be up and running in a couple of minutes? You can copy your whole FileMaker database system each night onto a memory stick or external hard drive, before you leave the office and if you should be unfortunate enough to return in the morning and find your nice new offices laying in a pile of ash. You can wipe your eyes, go home and copy your database over to your PC / Mac and continue trading. (That is as long as you have enough room in your home office for all your staff and a willing partner to make the tea and coffee?). On a more serious note, you can find an office rental and without too much trouble, be up and running extremely quickly, much quicker I’ll wager, than if you had a complex SQL based solution!
  • Well I keep my business data “In the Cloud” I hear you say..... Well that’s fine and dandy, if you can guarantee connectivity! However, we all know, especially those of us who are not based in a big city, that Internet connectivity is certainly not what it should be. I must also admit that I’m a little old fashioned and am quite reluctant to have anyone else look after my company data! But that’s only my opinion. We have all heard relatively recently, that just because it’s kept in the cloud by one of the biggest manes in the business, it’s not always safe!
• Is the solution expensive to buy or develop?
  • With SQL based systems the answer is a bit "yes but no but yes but no....". With MySQL and other widely used SQL systems being extremely cheap or even free, (By the way, make sure you read the small print, as many of the so called “free” versions are not actually free to use in a commercial environment), it is easy to assume that they are going to be cheaper than FileMaker.
  • If you have the “in house” knowledge to develop your solution in one of the flavours of SQL, you may be able to convince yourself that it is cheaper.... Ask yourself this question, how long does it take to build a desktop interface to your solution in a flavour “C” or VB or any other relatively high-level programming language? OK, building a web based solution in PHP or ASP is pretty much the same development effort, but certainly not if you also need an internal environment with an extremely rich and flexible interface.
  • Most web hosting companies provide SQL databases free of charge, so if you have a database driven website, you have the option of using SQL for nothing! We have also taken advantage of this extremely valuable offering. However, many companies need an internal system to work in tandem and complement the web interface. FileMaker can integrate extremely well with SQL, either by embedding the SQL table into the FileMaker schema, or simply by providing live data interchange between the website database and the internal FileMaker database, using ODBC or XML technologies. We have done this on many occasions, where the company does not have the right internet infrastructure to support the hosting of their own website.
  • When it comes to developing your internal business solution, FileMaker really comes into its own. Having been working with FileMaker for 17 years this year (since V2 in 1993), I have always been on the lookout for simpler and more powerful environments to work with, but to this date I have not found one! Although it may initially seem expensive to buy FileMaker, as I hear some people say “but Access is free with Microsoft Office”..... Well Access should be free, because it is particularly awful to work with. Fine, for a couple of users, it’s OK, but when you have a multi-user system consisting of more than about two users, it would need to be a particularly simple system to continue to work convincingly! FileMaker is so easy to work with... (I know the most common reply to that is “anything is easy if you know it”), but yes, the time it takes you to get up to speed is really amazing. When I have a training session with a customer, especially in a one-to-one environment, where I actually work with them to build their own solution, they really are astonished how a basic working example of their needs can be demonstrated! Yes, of course there are more complex solutions that take many weeks and months to build, but the fundamentals remain the same.
  • The flexibility of FileMaker continues even after the solution has been delivered to the customer. To make changes to enhance the functionality is extremely easy, with many changes being possible whilst the database is actually in use by the customer! The degree of changes possible whilst the customer is using the database has to be measured and considered carefully, but experienced developers will know where to draw the line. We support most of our customers via VPN, where we can actually open the live database, make a change and deploy the change without the customer being aware of any interruption at all! Others we support using various remote access tools such as “Go to Meeting” and “TeamViewer”. Sometimes the different time zones that our customers are located, is an advantage. To the East, the customer has pretty much reached the end of the working by the time we pour into our office, and to the west, our customers have many hours in slumber before they start work, so we have plenty of opportunities to make changes when the system is not in use.
  • Because changes can be made rapidly, the cost of development and ongoing expansion of the system is extremely inexpensive compared to other database environments. Therefore, your business solution can grow with your business without too many “growing pains” in the wallet!
  • As FileMaker is so flexible and works with pretty much any other technology, you need not worry about “future proofing” your solution. Also, because there are so many FileMaker developers available and they form part of a particularly strong community, you should have no problems at all with gaining the expertise you need and also finding the right partner and solution for your business.
  • One more important note, is that you do not need a proprietary backup system to enable you to carry out you regular backup process, which can be extremely expensive.
• Make sure your business solution provides the right feature set
  • Is it easy to use?
    • Well only you can answer that... Many companies say their solution is easy to use, but you should be able to try it first or at least see it in use. Of course a solution that has many features will take a little more familiarisation, so when you examine the prospective solution, does it appear to have the right look and feel and do you feel comfortable with it?
  • Does it allow you to “see where your business is”, with respect to sales, purchasing and overall costs?
    • Are you purchasing from the most cost effective sources for instance? Can you see which of your sales people are converting the most quotes?
  • Do you know where all your resources are deployed?
    • You need to know who is doing what and when. Do you have enough resources for the work load? Are people forever being double-booked?
  • If you have to manage stock, how much stock are you keeping?
    • You may have stock that hasn’t been requested for some time, so can you move it our perhaps a little cheaper. Can you see which is you best selling product?
  • How often do your sales people talk to your customers?
    • When where they last called or when did you last let them know what you were doing? Do you have a database of prospective clients you can call or email.
  • Are your business processes easy to create and are they all recorded
    • For instance, can the sales teams get access to previous quotation or quote templates, so all sales persons can use the same quote and change fundamental details to save time.
  • Are you missing an important email that has come from a customer, because the sales exec / recipient is out of the office for some reason?
    • That could cost you a sale if the customer or potential customer has asked for a quote and does not get the rapid response they should have!
  • Do you actually know how much that job is costing you in time and materials?
    • Once you actually create the quote and get the order, do you actually know how much it really cost to supply and deliver that commodity or service?
  • Are you losing data, or are people changing things either by accident or on purpose?
    • Do you track / audit which new customers are being created or deleted from your system or even know if someone changes the content of a letter, quote, order, invoice or even a customer contact phone number?
  • Backup your data
    • Are you able to backup your data regularly?
      • With FileMaker, you can backup your database simply by copying all the databases that your solution may consist of, to another location such as a thumb drive or removable hard drive. FileMaker Server makes backing up simplicity itself by automatically taking a copy of your databases as often as you want. Every hour if you wish and it will also keep multiple copies of your database without overwriting the previous one. We advise our customers to have a minimum backup structure for every working day, an “AM” backup and a “PM” backup. The “AM” backup at 13:00 and the “PM” backup at 19:00. We also keep four copies within each folder, so in effect we have a month worth of backups, in addition to perhaps a tape archive. Disk space is cheap, so don’t worry about having too many backups!
  • With the cost of travel and the global 24 hour clock, can all your employees get access to what they need when they need it?
    • With the demand for flexible working ever growing, can your staff access the required data from anywhere? FileMaker runs particularly well over Terminal Services or Citrix and with the many remote access tools such as Log-Me-In and Teamviewer, plus many free versions, secure access can be gained to the rich interface of FileMaker. There are more remote access tools available for the Mac than ever before, albeit with a lesser feature set, so it’s possible to work from anywhere with FileMaker.
    • There is also of course the possibility of web access to your FileMaker solution, for both your staff and customers, which should be strongly considered. If your customers can see the status of their order, their account or their job, it certainly makes you more customer friendly!

In Conclusion

http://www.BusinessManCRM.com

Garry Thompson
CEO FileMaker Services Ltd.
A Division of Computech IT Services Ltd

http://www.filemakerservices.com

No part of this article may be reproduced without explicit prior written consent from FileMaker Services Ltd.