Chickenlip's Programming Group specializes in creating custom software solutions using a variety of development tools both for the desktop and for the internet.

There are many 3rd party software packages available for organizations to use in their day-to-day business.

It is impossible for the developers of these 3rd party software packages to anticipate the needs of every organization that will be using their software. Each organization is different in one way or another and shouldn't be forced to change its business practices drastically in order to use pre-packaged (3rd party) software.

Chickenlip prides itself on being able to understand business practices of organizations in order to develop software specifically for the organization. This software enchances, not hinders, the organization. This is the basis of custom software.

Depending on the nature of the software, it is possible that the price for developing customized software will be greater than that of a 3rd party software package. This may be a mitigating factor in purchasing pre-packaged software instead of developing a custom software, but consider this:

Custom software is designed specifically to meet the business requirements of the organization. The processes and functionality in the software are designed in such a way that the organization does not need to drastically change its business practices in order to use the software.

In some cases, however, the process of developing software actually forces your organization to implement policy for specific tasks. For example, the software being developed needs specific customer information in order to work correctly, but the organization wasn't using standard forms for getting data from customers. Because of this stipulation in the software, the organization was forced to create and use a specific customer information form to get the customer information required. This form became part of the company policy and has increased the productivity of the organization.

Another benefit in choosing a custom software solution is that the software can be expanded with new functionality as the organization grows. Pre-packaged software is often rigid in its feature list, and unless the developer of the software decides that it is a benefit to all users of the software, changes will rarely be implemented.

Custom software can be a considerable investment, but in the long term, the investment makes the organization work smarter and harder than before.

Databases can be a tremendous asset to an organization - if it's designed well for reliability (maximum up-time) and scalability (maximum growth).

Chickenlip has an extremely solid foundation in Database development. We've successfully deployed many database solutions developed on a variety of platforms including Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL.

Situation 1: Client A (a business with under 20 employees) is currently swamped with piles of paper (invoices, work orders, customer notes, and a lot of little pieces of paper with information scribbled on them).

Solution: Chickenlip initially created a Microsoft Access database to store customer information and we designed a custom Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module for the client's salespeople to track phone calls and follow-up dates. Over the next 12 months, the system was expanded and upsized to Microsoft SQL Server in order to allow salespeople to create quotes for customers and to turn those quotes into invoices. An inventory system was implemented to track and alert staff about low and high-stock items. Through the whole process the client's Management group got custom reports created for them that listed top salespeople, inventory statistics, client lists, and salesperson-to-invoice statistics.

Situation 2: Client B has several departments and each department stores their own data in their own databases and spreadsheets. A lot of duplicate data-entry occurs and causes confusion within the organization.

Solution: The first step Chickenlip performed was to collect the data from each department, analyze the data and determine what information each department required. Once this analysis was performed, we discovered that each department was basically storing the same information with a few differences in the details. We created a Microsoft Access database that incorporated the set of information that was common throughout the organization, and then proceeded to create separate modules for each department to extend the useability of the core database. Though each module was part of a single database, security was implemented so that information between departments could not be shared (a violation of Alberta's Privacy Laws). A system of tracking updates to records was implemented so that disputes between which department made which modification could be resolved easily and so that the record could be returned to an earlier state.

What's your situation? We can help.