Initial consultation
If you decide to engage us to
develop your new database we are going to need to know what you want, so in our
initial meeting we expect to do more listening than talking.
You may have
already have some ideas about what you want, or you may need some help getting
started; either way we'll need to spend time with you exploring how your
business works to identify the fundamental processes and business rules which
need to be incorporated into your bespoke database. We'll discuss the
development options best suited to your needs and budget, and look at ways to
automate tasks and reduce data entry to streamline your administration process.
We'll follow up this meeting with a scoping report.
Draft project scope and initial costing
This initial scoping report is the first step in pulling together all of your
requirements for a database. This is not intended to be a detailed and
comprehensive project plan, but it will provide you with a structured outline of
the functionality you've asked for and describe how we will go about developing
and deploying the database in logical and manageable phases. It will also
include a initial estimate of cost for each stage of development.
Functional specification
The design process starts with the functional specification which is the
blueprint for your database. We need to refine your requirements, and pick out
the fine detail to make sure we deliver what you want. This is where we need to
spend time with the users gathering information and clarifying points. We'll
then produce a functional specification with development timescales and a
revised costing based on the final requirements. Once you have reviewed and
agreed the functionality we'll begin development.
Development and testing
During development we'll maintain close contact with you. All of our
customers are allocated a dedicated support website, where we post our progress
reports so you can keep track of development. It also provides an area for you
and your staff to share information about the project and provide us with
feedback on testing.
Deployment
Before we deploy any software we do our own in house testing, but once we
issue a first release we need your feedback, which means we need the users to
get stuck into to using the system in earnest to make sure it does what you
want. In these early stages we'll work to issue automatic overnight updates were
ever possible, and at each stage of development we'll compile help files to help
you with your testing. Once you are happy we'll move onto the next development
phase.
Support
The majority of our support is provided online though a dedicated support
website. When you first commission us to begin work on your database we provide
your organisation with access to a private support site where we can share ideas and information, you can track
development progress, log issues, download technical information and use the
site to manage your internal testing program.
Once your system is up and running users can report and track support issues
through the website, and access video tutorials designed to help users become
quickly proficient in the core functionality of the new system. All of our
projects include a provision for on site
training sessions at the appropriate development stages.
For the first 6 months after installation we provide online support at no
extra cost, giving you plenty of time to explore the benefits of your new
system, confident in the knowledge that help is at hand. Thereafter we offer
support packages that are tailored to your needs, with flexible payment
options - quarterly, annual, or pay as you go - you choose.
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