We’re in busy period at Datasplash and therefore I thought it would be both courteous and good for communication if I posted a brief outline of what is in the blog pipeline and some general news about the site.
Extending Our Service Line-up – Web Services (WordPress)
Datasplash will soon be extending our line-up of services to include web development, specifically using WordPress and predominantly using the Thesis Theme, although we are happy to work with any premium theme our clients would like. We use the Thesis Theme on this website, we love its flexibility and extendibility, pretty much the same reasons that we love FileMaker Pro.
We have recently completed a first custom site for our first web design client, even though we are still going through some polishing – which will take several weeks – you can see our client’s site here: Lean QCD – Lean Consulting Experts
They are more than happy for you to contact them if you would like to ask them about the service, the responsiveness or any other aspect of working with us. I believe that this is a better approach than simply posting a testimonial, which we will also be doing, but for prospective clients I feel direct testimony from an existing client is by far the best type of feedback you can get, that’s certainly how I personally like to recruit services and products for Datasplash.
Who our web design services are aimed at:
- Companies getting their first web presence.
- Companies wanting to move to a WordPress/CMS style web site.
- Individuals looking to start a blog.
- Entry level sites for companies and individuals wanting to get a high quality, initial entry into web presence.
Datasplash Site Redesign
Partly due to our extended services and partly because, well umm.., it needs it. Our current site was originally put together quite quickly, and we haven’t really done much with it since in all honesty.
So we are starting a redesign of the site, however it will more than likely be close to the end of the year before it goes live. We will be posting some snippets of the design and look/feel of the site as and when we have something that we want to show you, or more importantly, for you to give us some feedback on. We really hope that you will engage us in this process and give us the feedback, good, bad or indifferent.
Apart from the look and feel of the site we hope to also be structuring the content a little better also. We want to have a clear flow to the site so that newcomers can start in an appropriate place for them and work through a body of content that will hopefully answer questions or issues that they are having. I still want to primarily focus the blog help at total beginners with FileMaker Pro, this is an important aspect to me due to my own experience when starting out with FileMaker Pro.
If you would like to make any requests or recommendations for the site then please feel totally free to do so in the comments, below. You can suggest anything that you like, a topic, a series, a focus on a particular problem area – it’s your choice, just write it out-loud in the comments, below.
FileMaker Pro Cheat Sheets
Over time I have developed a ton of “cheat-snippets” for FileMaker Pro. I have found some very good stuff out there in the FileMaker world, however, we’re talking about comprehensive cheat-sheets here – I’d like to get your input into these too. I’d like to go through an iterative process with these once they are going, with your help I’m sure we can get something that is helpful for everyone.
I’m thinking of doing just one at a time, in the areas of calculations/functions, script steps, menus, and so on, you get the idea.
If I’m honest I’m middle-of-the-road at putting things like this together, so I’ll definitely be asking for some input.
Products
Education sector
For a while now I’ve been working on products of my own. Like a lot of developers, I guess, we get an idea and then scope it out, work feverishly on it for a week – and then we have another idea which cuts the last one dead, and it goes on the back-burner.
Well just occasionally the opposite happens, I work on something and think “mmm.. that’ll be worth doing something with one day..” and then someone comes to you (on that one day, except it’s a few hundred days later..) and says can FileMaker do this? and you say: do you mean like this? As you pull out your dusty old file prototype. Well, you know how the rest goes..
So, this led to our developing a product for the education sector, in collaboration with the education sector, and we hope it’s going to be a hit. I perhaps shouldn’t try and jinx it beforehand by talking about it too much – so I’ll shut up for now, but lots more to come later.
Business Management
We’re also working on another product offering using FileMaker for a modern business management system. It’s not a CRM or invoicing system, god knows there’s enough of those in the market. With my background in senior management and many years in business management and administration, we are compiling a metrics and goal cascade system for established companies that have, or want, a globally recognised standards based management cascade system.
Linking all the subordinate goals within an organisation to top level goals, ensuring that the correct measures are in place. Measures are crucial for practical and progressive management teams, but get the measures wrong and you get your results wrong. Measures are a behavioural tool if nothing else, the saying: tell me how I’m measured and I’ll tell you how I’ll behave is testament to that.
Including tools to help with the management of those core goals and performance metrics. It’s more a core management tool for management, rather than an administration tool, although there are elements of administration within it. This will be a good product for businesses with a developing management process or an established management process, and will help with goal alignment across the entire business.
This is another collaborative effort, working with some highly experienced and very senior level leaders from the business world. If you’ve ever heard of the EFQM, Excellence programs such as Advantage West Midlands or similar, along with companion methodologies such as Lean practice, Six Sigma and TQM – these are all profoundly tested and respected tools within the business leadership world, and we have taken the essence of all of these tools to embed within this solution. It is still very early days with this particular project and we will be releasing extracts of it as the development process gets under way. We should have some interesting articles to publish on the back of this development process also, so keep your eyes on the blog here.
The Blog
I will be continuing with blog, even as we start to test and launch the new site. What I will say is that the frequency will not increase (or decrease) in the short term. I still aim to put out 1-2 good articles per week, or more with time permitting.
Plus I also plan to start blogging about other aspects of life/business life as well as FileMaker, although FileMaker will always be the main point of focus for the site. It’s nice to mix it up a bit. As an ex-colleague of mine pointed out recently, I have a wealth of general business knowledge, experience and other tools apart from database stuff, why not share that? So I will start to share some other aspects too. And, please give me feedback too, if you don’t like something/topic let me know, conversely if there’s something you’d like me to touch on then let me know what. I’m often good at requests 
About the Author: Darren Lunn is expanding his horizons, but needs to get out of the development chair before his waistline expands at the same rate. You can connect with Darren on Twitter
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