What seems like many years ago, a consultant at the United Nations, where I used to work, introduced me to FileMaker. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought FileMaker was an “old database” as that was my only recollection of FileMaker.
However, over an hours discussion with Andrew LeCates, Director of Platform Evangelism at FileMaker I was pleasantly surprised to learn that FileMaker is alive and well and in fact powering the database needs of many growing businesses.
Sure, FileMaker is a great relationship database, able to connect simple tables of information to each other. But it does so much more. Its base of loyal customers (and new ones) are using FileMaker to take their data and connect it to IoT devices, other datasets via API calls and more.
It’s companies like Tucci Lumber Company whose founder Pete Tucci needed a solution to track the sales of his baseball bat business. He worked with a developer to custom build a solution using FileMaker.
“Today, every order entered into Tucci’s custom app is tracked using QR codes. From the moment a bat is lathed to when it’s painted and engraved, every bit of information is stored on a FileMaker Server and made available on the iPad. An employee using an iPad (one of five in the company) tracks each bat is it flows through the rest of the manufacturing process. Orders are never lost, and customers never wait on the phone while an order is tracked down.”
Another example is Tasty Fresh Food. They started building a custom mobile app to help their drives get food to customers as FAST as possible. While building this custom app, they discovered FileMaker. Doug Newman, Tasty Fresh IT Manger, tinkered with FileMaker and over a weekend he was able to build his own mobile database connected to Google Maps. This saved them time and thousands of dollars in development costs.
Business owners who leverage the power of databases in their business are able to compete FASTER, more EFFICIENTLY and serve their CUSTOMERS much better. If you’re using spreadsheets and static files you’re not able to share information, see information or make decisions as fast as you would be able to with a custom database built for your business needs.
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