"Sometimes a solution has side effects. Like when you create a way for users to do new kinds of searches and reports from old data and right off the bat they find a bunch of errors in the data that needs to be cleaned up. Then after the clean up the whole system starts to run better with less errors and failures. I call that 'collateral benefits'."

30 Years is a Long Time

In the World of Computers and Software, Especially

When I mention that I wrote my first program thirty years ago many of my peers look astonished, some laugh, and others think I'm bragging. No need to be astonished, programmers have been plentiful since the 1950's. No cause to laugh, I know I'm pretty old for a web app developer. And I'm not bragging. I was fifteen and the program was just a variation of a twenty questions-type game done in Basic. Since then I have worked in Cobol, JCL, Perl, Bash, DosShell, Java, SQL, VBA, JavaScript, XML, XSLT, PHP, HTML, XHTML, CSS and jQuery at various times. It may sound like alphabet soup, but it gives one a certain amount of perspective.

The benefit of having the seasoning of thirty years pays off when evaluating possible solutions to customer needs. For instance, just because a legacy system is long in the tooth does not mean that we start by scrapping it to bring in the newest, bleeding edge technology. A lot can be done to extend the life of legacy systems. Many times bridging old and new systems is the best solution for both the work flow and the bottom line. I've seen too many months long, nightmare implementations for new systems. Sometimes just the cost of rewriting and implementing procedures doubles the realized price of upgrading, especially in ISO 9000 and ISO 13485 companies. And retraining workers can be tougher than retooling an entire plant.

A Couple of Examples of Recent Solutions

We're going to share a couple of recent, quasi-related projects with you below. They are related in that one led to the other and they share some aspects, including connecting to a legacy ERP that still thinks in DOS. Yet they are different in that one has a narrow focus and wider audience, while the other does many things but is heavily customized for a single customer.

Evo2Web - Enhancement Module for Evo~ERP

Evo~ERP is not a household name. Neither is DBA Manufacturing, the software on which it was built. There may be 600 to 1000 companies using this manufacturing software, but the company supporting it, IS Tech Support, is still publishing updates three times a years and giving excellent customer service to the small manufacturers and job shops that count on it. We recently created a browser-based interface for reporting, data drill downs, and order entry that enhances the feature set of this software and extends its usefulness in an economical way. We divided the features into various tabs that are divided up like the features in Evo~ERP's modules. However, extensive hyper linking allows the users to drill down, up, and sideways across modules to follow data and create reports. Plus, every page has a printable view available or can be linked into emails, reports, or other systems.

Clients with Evo2Web can use it as it comes or can have as many minor or major enhancements as they require. Part of our contract with IS Tech Support is that we maintain records of each client's enhancements to be sure that future upgrades of the products do not interfere with customizations.

Multi-System Data Mining

This is the forerunner of Evo2Web, but it is a completely custom solution. It has all of the features in Evo2Web, plus many more hooks into the data for special reports, sales data, RMA, medical device queries, and management oversight. In addition, we tied in several other legacy systems, such as their previous ERP from Macola and their corrective action tracking system. Then we created two new solutions, one for keeping and auditing their ISO training records and another for tracking use, service and field actions on the company's flagship product, which used in operating rooms during brain surgeries.

This series of solutions is an extreme example of custom applications, but it has actually helped the company improve both their customer service and their ISO required record keeping, which saving a lot of money compared with off-the-shelf software packages that would likely never meet their needs or fit in their processes without major compromises in compliance or customer service.