It would be fair to say that in all development and manufacturing projects, establishing a clear set of requirements and details is paramount to the project's success. If the scope of the work is not clear from the start or if the vision is cloudy, the final outcome will reflect this. In software development this is certainly the case and our first hand experience has certainly reinforced the message: The clearer the requirements at the start, the more smoothly the project will proceed.

Some clients have extraordinary clarity around their requirements - both in business system terms and in technical terms. They can tell you down to the rarest exception in Mary's job what may impact on her requirements, and visualise down to the finest detail what will be required for every screen and every report. While other clients only have a general feeling around what they need. Generally speaking, most clients fit somewhere in between these two.

Many clients find it difficult to clarify their needs because they cannot visualise the individual components of their system. They will need to interact with the screen(s) they will be entering data into, the application flow, and the format of the reported output. Our prior education and ongoing experience in software development have reinforced our need to use prototypes wherever possible to help clarify client and user requirements. These prototypes provide not only a visual representation of the final system, but they also provide partially working models that allow users to put hand on keyboard and mouse so they can interact with the various components.

One of the attractive features in using Microsoft® Access as a development environment is the speed with which a prototype or base working model can be prepared. This environment has allowed us to prepare base templates for many of the standard business functions including: customer management, quote & order management, suppliers & supplier orders, employees and timesheets, project & job management, managing meetings.

Where new corporate and/or business systems are required, we believe we can assist you in clarifying your client or user requirements. We have extensive project management and systems analysis experience. We develop primarily in Microsoft® Access and we have prepared a suite of business component templates - all of which allow us to develop on your behalf cost effective and timely business system prototypes.

Please contact us for your new corporate and/or business system.