The Primordial Spark; Information Management Evolution (1 Viewer)

[jsanders]

I’ve switched this thread to this section, because it is theoretical in nature.


As companies grow, key employees in the rapid growth years, from micro business to emerging business, usually have a large autonomy in the organization. This is necessary because the principles are extremely busy implementing plans and dealing with adverse conditions.

Companies at this stage will not grow without significant delegation by top management. This creates an entirely separate issue which is usually ignored until it is a major problem. This is good for us…The Access Developers.

Hello All,

So much has been discussed on the main boards about the techniques available to solve technical problems.

When you read books on data base design; much is discussed on the structure of databases and much more is left out concerning how people actually work. A properly designed data base enhances work flow and changes workers bad work habits into useful and efficient ones.

My primary market is emerging small businesses. Typically my customers have been using spread sheets and Quick Books to keep track of ordering, scheduling, resource allocation, and accounting.

As you can imagine it’s a disaster. Individuals in the company have spent much time working out their problems in Excel. This poses a real challenge, many of the user are very emotionally attached to the existing non-system, and they are often determined that the “new database” will function in the same way as their tried an true spread sheets.


So to open the discussion.

I’m curious. What do ya’ll do to ameliorate this and what is the general theme you prefer when creating a system for people that have never had one before?

Personally, I test every GUI on my wife. She is not shy about telling me that something is not 'intuitive'. She will also find holes and glitches for me...(not knowing anything about Access makes her uniquely qualified to do so.)

I'll be sure and check this thread often. I have just such a project coming up in the next week or so. The nursing director just approached me this morning about a db that could work like Excel...
jim

If they want it to work just like Excel, you might suggest that they save their money and stick with Excel. Once past that, you need to examine very carefully what they are doing with the spreadsheets. In most cases, even though the Access solution may not look like their spreadsheets, it takes so much less input and maintenance than their current solution that they are ultimately won over.

I am currently involved with an interesting project. I thought that there was no completely unautomated business left in the world but my present client is the exception. They are wholesale florists so they sell to florist shops rather than to the consumer. Their order takers sit in a very large room which is about 30 x 20 feet. Almost the entire length of the 30' wall is covered with whiteboards where they keep track of their inventory. After someone takes an order, they walk up to the whiteboard and update it. When inventory comes in, they update the whiteboard.

They hired someone to build an Access application to automate the process but the developer completely botched the job and I got to pick up the pieces. I replaced 12 forms with 3 - a main form and two subforms and 2000 lines of code with 600 and that was just a start. There were 2 to 4 ways to do everything, each with their own complicated code modules and never did the various methods produce the same results!!! The client couldn't figure out how to use the application, it was so complex. Rather than understanding what the client was asking for, they simply did exactly what they asked for. The client said that sometimes the pickers discover that the ordered flowers are damaged and so they have to substitute something else so rather than allowing the picker to go back to the order and modify it, the programmer created a whole separate set of forms/subforms to add/modify an order. And on it went.

 

[JoeComputer]

Too stale thread?

I was going to add my two-cents to this post until I noticed it was a bit stale (Jan26'06). If you're still interested in your original content, reply here and I'll contribute.

 

[jsanders]

I was going to add my two-cents to this post until I noticed it was a bit stale (Jan26'06). If you're still interested in your original content, reply here and I'll contribute.

Morning Joe,
I've been away for awhile.

Please continue.