Your Web Software Developer Makes A Difference

I cannot tell you how many people have come to us after hiring a web software developer that have nothing to show for the money invested. Their online system (which represents a large investment) is worthless. It doesn't function properly. The web software developer cannot fix the problems so they abandon the project. Developing Web software is difficult and not every web designer can do it. It takes years of practical Web programming experience to develop web software that actually runs a company. These are the things you need to be aware of before you start development of an online system on your own:

1. Web software is fundamentally a good idea. Your concept about deploying a database can be done. Your vision of delivering data in real time throughout the world actually works. The investment, should the software come to fruition, will pay off again and again.

2. Not everyone can do this work. Yes, it's true that with the tools available today almost any mid-level design can whip up a database. The problem comes from three things:

a. Not knowing how to design the underlying database. Industrial databases are not single tables. They have multiple tables, some of which are relational. It takes experience to know exactly what is needed BEFORE you start work. If you get into development and discover you can't do what you need to do because a table isn't relational is a budget buster.

b. You need to start with your reports first. In other words, you need to know what data you need to see and how you want it organized before you start programming. For example, if you need to see orders broken out into groups, you need to develop a drop-down list for of your groups. Don't rely on a text field. You are not going to be able to reliably pull out the data you need. What you'll have is orphaned data that won't show up anywhere. This is just one example of a pitfall.

c. Usually, when there's a budget, people show up to do the work. When it comes to developing databases EVERYONE is an expert. Most of the time the programmer is using a tool or another programmer (subcontractor) who is using a tool. Only pros write the actual SQL statements that interact with the database . Relying on someone using (database programming) tools for development is a bad thing to do. It is a crutch intended to get around the lack of knowledge required to do this work. Yes, you can whip something up quickly in the beginning. It looks impressive up until you need a change. Then what? If the programmer doesn't know how the system works (at the code level) what are they going to do? What they will do is stall, make another attempt with the tool, and charge more money. This is why we write our code longhand.

It is a natural tendency to believe that if you control something it is safe. Having an application on your network makes it FEEL safe. However it does NOT insure its safety. For example, we back everything up every day. Maybe you do, maybe you don't - but it's nice knowing it is done for you.

The decision to go Web based is a big one. Web based systems work great. Whether you want to go with a Web based software system or not, know this: your competition will. The business benefits to using these systems are overwhelming. So much so that if you don't have one, you're competition will put you out of business. We'd much rather see you put THEM out of business. You can do this. All it takes is a decision.