MightyData

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Far Beyond Data Entry

March 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

Milex Southern

Milex Southern

Milex Southern, a family-owned distributor of medical supplies for women’s healthcare based in Weatherford, Texas, decided to completely overhaul and upgrade its UNIX-based accounting system. And for good reason. Saddled with a menu-driven, non-intuitive, text-only configuration, it became increasingly difficult to process orders as the company grew. Milex knew it needed to go beyond the entry-level productivity of UNIX to a more versatile and highly intuitive Mac-driven system—FileMaker.

“In our business, we must be able to track lot numbers carefully and expand the number of fields we utilize. FileMaker Pro is very open, user-friendly and lets you work the way you want to. It’s also reasonably priced,” explains Bob Jenkins, Milex general manager.

Technology

As part of a multiple phase rollout, MightyData was tasked to build a comprehensive data management system in FileMaker. The customized application was designed to perform all order entry, order processing, accounts receivable, inventory control and reporting functions. However, there were some potential challenges for Milex that needed to be addressed.

The FDA requires that all medical products be issued in lot numbers, which can take endless hours to track. Plus, certain states have a complex sales structure, with a separate sales tax rate for each municipality. Both required too much time and effort. To solve these challenges, MightyData built an automatic tracking capability into the system to speed up lot number verification and streamlined monthly tax reports to generate accurately calculated rates, quickly and efficiently.

MightyData helped us get the exact reports that we need, says Bob.

Transformation

Milex has seen significant increases in productivity with the newly installed entry system. For example, online access to accounts meant that file folders no longer needed to be stored and re-filed manually. The program also keeps both sales reps and office staff apprised of important data.

Now our reps get their sales totals each day, so they know exactly what products have been sold.

“They are also tracked through each product category, so they can focus on which products are selling well and which are underperforming.”

When Milex added four more states to its existing service area, it was able to seamlessly ramp up with its existing system by adding a faster server. In fact, staffers were able to input and set up all data from the new states in just 15 minutes!

With innovative solutions from MightyData, you’ll always go far beyond entry level. Just ask the mighty Milex family.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

Rapid Performance Gains

February 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

Lettermen Sports

Lettermen Sports

MightyData developed an order management system for Lettermen Sports several years ago. Lettermen Sports is one of the premier sports apparel production companies in Minnesota with locations in Blaine and Plymouth and a large production facility where it completes nearly 300 orders per week for sports apparel screen printing, lettering and shipping.

The primary purpose of its FileMaker application is to manage the flow of orders through its production facility. A core facet of the solution is its interface with the SQL-based point-of-sale program, CounterPoint. The FileMaker solution was developed by MightyData to import orders and order detail from CounterPoint.

Performance of the import/update process began to lag behind the increasingly fast pace of the business as the record counts in some of the FileMaker tables grew to over 300,000. With the update process taking an average of 23 minutes, the in-house FileMaker server performance was being compromised by the load. Employee productivity was reduced by having to wait for orders to be imported, and by the performance hit to the FileMaker server.

Lettermen Sports’ management approached MightyData to re-design the order import process to accomplish the following:

  • Reduce the time required to import and update orders from CounterPoint to FileMaker
  • Automate the import process
  • Eliminate the 24-hour delay for new and updated CounterPoint orders to be created/updated in the FileMaker database

Technology

MightyData’s technical team arrived at a solution to redesign the import/update process to more closely match the current needs of the business. The original import/update process involved importing data from the point-of-sale solution using FileMaker’s import script step to update matching records and create new records that were unmatched. Import subscripts were then used to import data from across the CounterPoint solution so that data required for shop floor production was available in the FileMaker database.

This approach was very effective at ensuring that all data was successfully imported as the solution would import across all orders and line item detail each time the update was run. As the business rules evolved, however, the update process became more complex. Combined with high record counts, a new approach was required.

The new design was based on only working with new and changed records in the CounterPoint system. In so doing, the number of order records that the scripts were required to process was reduced dramatically, to just 3 or 4 at a time. Conveniently enough, CounterPoint provides an order creation and update timestamp which is updated any time an order or its line-item detail is changed. This allowed for a complete overhaul of the scripting process that simultaneously accomplished all three of the customer’s goals. Furthermore, all script execution was moved to the server, allowing staff to focus on order production and not on managing the update process.

Transformation

This project is an excellent an example of how value is driven by the interface of a customer’s need with great technical planning and execution in a spirit of partnership with the customer to get the job done well. The new solution reduced the update execution from an average of 23.4 minutes to just 2.5 seconds – a 99% performance gain.

While technically impressive, the real value comes from production staff getting new orders and updates no longer than 30 minutes after they are recorded in the point-of-sale system. If even that is too long, the update can be run manually in a few seconds, giving the team immediate access to new order data.

As an added bonus, MightyData also gets to work with some really good people at Lettermen Sports. They help us help them. And that partnership makes all the difference.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study, Performance

A Welcome Insurance Policy

January 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

Willis of Texas

Willis of Texas

Willis of Texas is a leading insurance broker and part of Willis Group Holdings, one of the largest insurance brokerage firms nationwide. Ron Moore, Managing Director, developed a basic FileMaker system more than a decade ago to keep track of vital client data such as employee coverage plans, deductions, premiums, and other administered programs. “We deal in group health, life and disability benefits plans,” explains Ron. “Clients must maintain data on all their employees. FileMaker Pro is a tool that allows us to help our clients to manage this data.”

As the scope and complexity of business increased, Ron knew it was time to renew the insurance policy on the system he built years ago. That meant leaving the system upgrade to the professionals—”to take it beyond what I could do,” says Ron.

The Technology

Ron turned to Mike McAbee, Willis’s Senior Systems Analyst, and Kirk Bowman, Visionary of Value, of MightyData. These two technology-driven powerhouses were the welcome insurance policy Ron was looking for to transform a basic FileMaker Pro system into a mighty, but versatile, data management tool for those keeping track of employee benefits programs.

“The system has seven to fifteen tables to manage the various components that determine in which benefits a person can enroll, the payroll deductions for employees, and the premiums owed to vendors,” explains Mike. “We have modules that allow us to do direct imports from human resources, exports to payroll, and exports to files for carriers.”

The Transformation

Willis of Texas introduced a Web interface that was designed by MightyData. The Benefits2000 interface lets employees enter their benefits information.

There’s no need to go to Human Resources and fill out a form, comments Mike.

“And there’s no need to send that form to us to be entered into the database. With the web interface, the information comes directly from the employee to us—and we can send it on directly to the insurance carriers. That capability allows us to provide even more personal, more accurate service to our clients and their employees.”

Because of this technology transformation, clients of Willis of Texas and their employees are benefiting every day from the power of FileMaker Pro—not only an award-winning database software application, but also a welcome insurance policy.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

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