Saturday, October 22, 2016

We're modernizing again.



I spent a good bit of time and a great amount of thought into building an Access database to keep track of all of our stuff. Stuff. I know that's not very technically savvy. And there's a good reason. I have guess at most of it. Learning as I go along. I was pretty sure that I needed to keep track of money, time, customers, inquiries, equipment, and some other things that I haven't thought of yet. I'm pretty good at building databases, too. Since I have a background in Information Systems and I currently work as a Simulations Operations guy the database is pretty easy.

That's not to say that I didn't run into problems. I'm not willing to buy the new version of MS Office because there are a number of other programs that we use for document processing and we have multiple platforms in the house. And since I don't really want to buy anything new I didn't get to use the cool new connectivity features. Strike 1: I had to maintain everything because it the database lives on my computer. I was able to export all of the cool report in PDF and send them to Marie. But she didn't read them or tell me when something happened that needed to be recorded. Like an inquiry or consultation.

Not knowing what I need to know from the beginning is a pretty common problem in database development. It seems pretty easy with relational data to add a field here and there and to make modifications. But, who want to do that all the time? Strike 2.

I can't think of a third strike but there was one.

Anyway, I got the notion to look at Honeybook. I got it from Marie, as it turns out. Bit U looked at it and they have some of the features that I couldn't get at. And some that I didn't know I needed. Can I sum this up by saying that these guys have thought way further ahead of me in this photography business management? They have. And it is pretty good.
I recommend it.

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