The Solution for Data Management
and Custom Reports
Database Engineers, Inc. is your friend in data management.
We provide personalized business software, customization to existing software applications, and generation of reports from existing data.
We combine our computer knowledge with a background in marketing, business management and statistical analysis to bring to your business a development team with true business understanding and real life business experience.
Our goal is to design software and database applications that fulfill your company's exact needs and at prices that are typically 1/3 to 1/5 the cost of off-the-shelf software packages.
Off-the-shelf databases and software packages provide a combination of functionality and features often very broad and extensive.
A marketting approach that's used by the vendors is that the package price will typically reflect only about 50% to 33% of the cost if these features were to be purchased separately.
However, it is also usually the case that your company will only be making use of about 10% of the total features and functions.
That means you are paying 3 to 5 times the cost for what you're actually making use of.
By focusing on your company's exact needs, we provide you with software at prices that are typically 1/3 to 1/5 the cost of off-the-shelf software and databases, and that are already customized to your business’ exact needs thus eliminating the need for further customization.
Our code is written in standard syntax that any qualified technician could easily follow and maintain or enhance or make additions to.
Because of such it eliminates the need for maintaining a professional on staff for a particular software or hiring costly specialized contractors for a proprietary package or paying for expensive customer support on an annual basis.
Our applications are designed using a coding approach which minimizes usage of your servers by passing the work to the users computer.
In this way, the users computer performs the work, and does not make trips back to your server several times, as the dot.net approach does.
Not only is there less network traffic to and from your server, there is less CPU overhead in performing the tasks.
We design our applications to have the same look and feel as favorite and familiar software packages that users aready feel comfortable with, such as Excel and Access.
The data input interfaces and reporting interfaces are customized to your company's personal and specific needs.
All of the database TABLE structures, design architect, and the ability to access and review your raw data for backup or transference needs is enabled to your system administrators via a portal that offers a direct connection.
To wrap up our applications, we add any charts, graphs, or other reports as may be needed per the different departments of your organization that will be making use of our application(s), typically using "Crystal Reports", the industry standard in reporting tools.
Finally, all necessary end-user training for your software applications and database designs is free for the first month after installation.
| All work is performed in the United States by U.S. citizens. |
Schedule an Appointment
Please call us at (813) 957-7599 to discuss upcoming projects for your company, no matter how small or large.
We look forward to hearing from you, and providing your company with its data needs.
Applications
Most of the applications require a
login and password. A prompt message box will appear to inform you
of the needed information when you first click to view it. Once
inside the application, you are free to play around and test it.
Some features are intentionally disabled because they were custom
designed for a specific client. Such features can be enabled, but
are often features that require customization and therefore are left
disabled for demonstration purposes, and to protect the
customization of the client who paid for it.
Employment Agency
This application has many
features built into it:
- Security Login
- Security Access to different applications relative to the group the
user belongs to and their individual profile
- The ability for each user to customize their work environment to a
custom font family, color and background color
- The ability for an administrator to customize the lookup lists
without any programming
- A security time-out of the session if the user is inactive for more
than 15 minutes (this can be adjusted).
When logged in as User "Gregory Hart", you can notice that you will not
be able to access the [Offices] submenu item under [Corporate]. The user
"Gregory Hart" is granted privilege to view and modify all other aspects
of the application. If a user is a member of a group which has access
rights, then they will automatically receive them, but; they can also be
defined for their own rights or lack of. This is because the user has
been denied access to this application by the administrator. The company
which this was designed for made the choice to make it so a warning
message appeared; other possible security approaches would be to merely
not display the items that the user does not have access rights to.
The database design is highly normalized, and hierarchal in construct.
It is structured by Job Types (the general skill category or profession
that a skill may belong to) and then by associated skills. Clients are
the companies that are represented by the employment agency. When they
have positions available, they are listed in the [Job Postings] portion of
the application. Clients are categorized by Industry Type (i.e. ...
farming, technical, retail, ...). Candidates are potential employees for
the Clients.
Candidates are evaluated by several
criteria:
- The Skills that they list for themselves and the level of
proficiency they indicate for the skill
- Their "Primary or Preferred Job Type"
- Their exposure to the skill sets of a job posting
- Their chronological experience from employment within a skill set
So, ..., when an Agent wants to find a candidate for a particular
posting, the database evaluates the resume and compares the length of time
using a skill set and multiplies it by the percent of usage while at that
job assignment, and compares it to other candidates with the same skills.
The candidate with the highest calculation will return to the top of the
list as the best qualified. Additional search criteria can be performed
based solely on the skill sets listed by the candidates relative to their
proclamation of their level of proficiency.
Any of the pages which prompt to a message "Pending Development" are done
so because the specific company which this was developed for wanted to
protect their customization features. All functionality can be added,
and can be modified and customized for specific needs.
Auto Dialer
This application was originally designed for a company which hosted a membership
for users to upload a prerecorded message to the business server, along with a
mailing list. The message would be associated with an application which would
perform automatic dialing from a phone station to the list of uploaded phone
numbers. The company which this was built for specialized in promoting
telephonic messages for political purposes, namely campaigns that were to be
promoted. After the member has uploaded their files, an eMail is sent to a
sleected person or persons of the company.
Follow the insturctions of the screens. All facet of this application should
be fully functional.
Gas Station
This application was designed for a business man who owned multiple gas
stations and convenience stores, and within each sore location had
multiple registers. Additionally, there were 3 shifts per day to
consider. A final concern was that gas was delivered at a point during
the day that was in the middle of a shift. The gas company would deliver
may be 8000 gallons, while there would be a remaining 2000 gallons in the
tank. The remaining 2000 gallons was purchased at a certain price, while
the new 8000 gallons of gas was purchased at a different price. The
business man's
concern was to be able to accurately calculate his profit based on
gallons sold and true purchase price. This was accomplished by using the
previous price times the gallons remaining plus the new price times the
new gallons, and dividing by the whole to derive a new price for the
whole.
The application is fully accessible from the internet and has different
login parameters relative to defined security levels. Some features of
the application are disabled to protect client lists or vendor information
or custom features for the client.
Restaurants
Tools That Can Be Integrated into Applications
The Spell Checker
The Spell Checker has the ability to check for misspelled words within a
web form. It also "remembers" words that the user may want to accept as
they are spelled.
At the top of the Spell Checker window is a reference to symbols and
special letters for foreign languages (ń,é,÷,®,©,…). By clicking on a
symbol, it will br added to the form window below. Most of our
applications offer a pop-up window with the functionality of the symbol
insertion, and also the Spell Checker on data entry forms.
Calendar Choices
Nine different types of calendars for managing
data entry. Includes calendars in different languages, Monthly,
Quarterly, and reservation calendars, along with calendars that can be
modified to fit certain styles or data selection needs.
Measurements Application
A single page application that will convert
virtually any measurement to any other measurement. It is
completely driven by client side scripting, and therefore does not
make trips to the server for each calculation, and also responds
more quickly as a result.
Example of Different Data Graphs
This page displays a Bar Graph on the
bottom, with the ability to mouse over the bars to display the
statistics relative to that bar. The code that renders this is
completely HTML driven, and requires no plug-ins.
An additional feature is our custom "Hover Charts". These can be
viewed by placing you mouse cursor over any of the blue bands on the
data chart, and a pie chart of the statistics for that group heading
will appear. The data columns on the page can be sorted ascending
or descending by clicking on the column name header. Also, the
drop-down lists within the column header name will limit the
selection criteria to the choice on the list.
Data Entry Screen
An Example of a basic Data Entry Screen that has the Look and Feel
of Excel and Access Combined.
Click on a name from the list above, and the detail information will
appear below. The toolbars across the middle of the screen
function just like in Access or Excel. The Record navigation
allows you to move between records for Next, Previous, First, and
Last, while displaying a count a reference pointer. The data columns
on the page can be sorted ascending or descending by clicking on the
column name header. Also, the drop-down lists within the column
header name will limit the selection criteria to the choice on the
list.
Help Application
An Example a Help Application that is completely driven by a
single SQL Data table that can be easily maintained through a simple
User interface. Click on the tree items at the left pane, and the
results are displayed on the right. All the code is generated from
an SQL table, so it is dynamic, but it interacts client side, so
that once loaded, it does not make additional trips to business
server.
Color Chart
A List of all Major Color Names, generated by an SQL stored procedure.
How This Web Site Functions
As you navigate between the pages, you may notice that the transition is instant.
This is because you are not moving back and forth to our server that is hosting this site, you are executing code on your local machine to display the different pages.
Once you come to the site, you download code that totals approximately 50 kilobytes, about the same amount as some of the slowest connections download in one second.
From that point on, you don't navigate away from the page, but merely execute from within the code that is already downloaded.
To demonstrate this, navigate through the site, then click the [Back] button on you browser.
You will notice that you go back to the site that you were at before coming to this one, and not the previous navigation within this site.
This is a small example of our application approach.
Why Our Business Is Growing So Quickly
We are focused on providing businesses with applications that satisfy their data collection, storage, and reporting needs.
Our approach is to not sell any software packages, but to custom design applications exactly as a business needs them for its data management purposes, and to design them with a user-friendly interface that the staff is already familiar with, hence creating a virtual zero-learning curve.
These applications can be designed for a single function within the company or to integrate all of the company's data management into a cohesive and interconnected repository for cross-referencing and integrity.
The end result of these applications is to make it easier for staff to perform certain tasks, or for the purposes of staff reduction by automating processes that are currently performed manually.
We also provide customization to software packages that you may be currently using, such as Timberline or Great Plains or Small Business Manager.
History
America has evolved technically to the point that computers are not a luxury, they are an integral part of our daily life, both personal and business.
Many government agencies are making the move to requiring electronic submittal of critical forms, and making it clear that using computer software to generate the forms is by far the fastest, most accurate, and most cost efficient.
In short time, it will be a requirement of businesses to maintain certain information and records in a computerized format.
New businesses, both large and small, are recognizing the benefits of using computer applications within their office environment.
Existing businesses are looking for a centralized data repository and application so that a centralized server can be managed and backed up regularly. This is a big step and a breath of fresh air for companies that have become virtual prisoners to their own Information Technology growth, which often includes disparate Access databases, run-a-muck Excel spread sheets, proprietary software that holds critical data information but only has limited canned reports and is not able to be connected to, and folders that contain hundreds of Word documents with different time-stamped dates.
The reason many businesses currently feel entrapped by their data and IT growth is because, although it is all collected and stored, it is in different formats and it is therefore not possible to cross reference or generate reports easily.
Often is the case where the office person who is in charge of maintaining a set of data will have to open multiple applications at the same time and copy information from them into another application which they use to generate a report from.
With all the copying and manual intervention, the openness to human error is present along with the time and efforts necessary to accomplish such tasks.
Differences that Make Us Stand Out
As companies nationwide are building their infrastructure for their information technology needs, three approaches seem to be dominating the market.
One is for the company to hire a full time developer to create applications for the company, and then once created, maintain them.
A second approach has been to contract with an external company to outsource IT needs, and to pay such a company monthly or annual fees for their services, or contractual hourly rates per service calls.
The third is to purchase a software package with its pre-packaged capabilities that often far exceed the real-time needs and almost always requires customizations and sometimes fail to address or have the ability to customize to be able to address specific specialized needs of an organization.
We have come up with a fourth and most novel approach.
We perform data needs on a project basis, and once the project is complete, because the code is standard in language and therefore portable to any computer, and also based on existing error-free code, it requires no maintenance.
The most typical request is for new additions and/or alterations to existing functionality.
Our response to such requests are fast, especially relative to the same time expectancy of any of the alternate approaches to information technology needs.
Our applications are developed using an SQL database to hold the information that is entered, therefore making it all searchable.
The information resides within the database and can be cross-referenced with any other relative or similar information to generate any report imaginable.
These reports are the end product of data tools, because they inform management what they need to know to make critical and daily decisions based on the data.
The method to enter the information into the database and the applications is secure "ASP" pages.
Automation occurs within our design wherever possible, either by linking it to other data sources or by data transferences or trigger updates.
"ASP" is a Microsoft protocol, and is enabled to be served from any Windows based server without requiring the install or purchase of any additional software.
Because they are web based pages, they can be viewed on any computer that is connected to an internet or intranet and is granted access permissions.
This allows companies the option to enable the pages to be available on the World Wide Web internet, so that employees can perform work from their home or while on the road on a business trip.
Backups and integrity checks and data-optimization routines are scheduled, for purposes of disaster recovery and automated maintenance.
This also allows for time slicing of the data if needed to refer to how it was positioned at a different point in time (this is a complex data concept, the management of 3-D cubes of data reference as opposed to the more traditional 2-D spreadsheet-style view).
After the application is designed and loaded and running, and the end-users are satisfied that every aspect of the application is doing what they were expecting it to do and that it is doing so in a user friendly manner to make for a virtual zero learning curve, then the financial costs are complete.
There are no annual license fees, no maintenance agreements, no hosting or server fees, and no service contracts to be married to.
There are no upgrades or patches or newer version releases.
When there is a need for something to be different or added to an application, or a need for a new application design, then we do so, and integrate it with any existing applications wherever possible and needed.
An additional service that is performed by our company is the transference of existing data from virtually any legacy application (i.e. ... Excel, Access, Main Frame, Btrieve, FoxPro, QuickBooks, collection of Word documents, ...) into the SQL database.
Because the SQL database is industry standard in its design, once the data is transferred, it is accessible by hundreds of other applications for many purposes and will never require "interpretation" again.
Pyramiding Our Experience
While our customers reap the benefit of our years of our code development, each new customer represents growth, and most of our new customers have been from word-of-mouth.
It seems that company owners get so excited about having everything that is data related within their company fully working, not to mention that they love to brag about the low cost and their overall company gains and savings, that existing customers do much of our advertising for us by word-of-mouth.
Our Data Design Approach
Our data designs can be complex,
but they always remain logical
and practical in nature.
| N
| We understand business processes and how technology enables those processes
|
| O
| We are attentive and meticulous when it comes to gathering, understanding and documenting end-user requirements
|
| @
| We will design and develop reports and data conversions to support existing business applications and our applications
|
| _
| We custom develop multi-tiered web and client server based applications and databases
|
| C
| We make use of a combination of business education and experience and computer programming to fully understand the needs of YOUR computers within YOUR business
|
| v
| We use a code design that is completely portable
|
|
|
|
| Extensive Experience With and Awards In:
|
| %
| Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5 through 2000
|
| &
| Informix Data Server
|
| &
| Oracle Database
|
| &
| Pervasive Btrieve Database Server
|
| &
| FoxPro
|
| &
| MS Access
|
| %
| Crystal Reports version 6.5 through 9.0 and Crystal Enterprise
|
| %
| Visual Basic, ASP, DHTML, and JavaScript
|
| &
| MS Excel, MS Word, Adobe Acrobat,
PhotoShop Imaging
|
| %
| DTS, TSQL, PL/SQL, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Views, Table Constraints, User Defined Functions
|
| %
| Backup and Disaster Recovery
|
|
|
|
- About Us
- Examples
- Applications
- Business Tools
|
- Web Sites
- Fun Stuff
- Links
- Contact Us
|
|
 |
