blog.hexner.co.uk

Many of our customers recognise that Microsoft Access has become a liability. It is not easy to move Access from computer to computer. New and more complex applications may not be so easily merged with Access. None of the versions of MS Access support up to date elements of user interfaces such as e.g. docking, floating windows, pictures in grid .

As we understand from the vendor Access relies on Microsoft Jet Engine to perform the data handling in the Access database files. There are no ongoing substantial improvements planned for Jet Engine. In addition, Jet Engine is not compatible with newer versions of windows from Windows 7 64 bit, and therefore it is becoming obsolete.

Microsoft has introduced the .NET platform as an alternative to write business applications. For data storage it is possible to use SQL Server. However this can require advanced database knowledge to configure and maintain the installation, and can be complex if there is another program which is using the SQL server.

VistaDB is addressing all of these problems making it a good building block for application development for small and medium enterprises. It supports single and multi user environments. It is smaller and easier to deploy than Microsoft Jet. In addition the Licensing scheme is very business friendly. Therefore solutions based on this database engine are becoming popular.

For more information click here.

Here is a presentation given to Torridge Business Network group.  It has been modified since then from useful comments and discussion afterwards.

Questions were generally raised regarding the comparison of internet hosted software & desktop applications.  Cost was the main area of discussion. The general conclusion was that the total cost over a period of about 3 years should be considered prior to purchase.

If you need advice or guidance in software purchasing please feel free to contact us.

TBN_Choosing_Software_3.1

Professional programming brings often challenge to sit straight and look onto the monitors at eye level. Not everytime this simple requirement could be achieved, which is amazing looking at the technology available to us today.

Having 2 monitors brings another little challenge and having 2 stands makes your table cluttered – at least this is what we think. So we went to look what is out there and since we have not find anything, we came with an idea to develop our own Dual Screen Stand.

And so here it is – we will be introducing this gadget during annual ACCU conference.

We have chosen best material – birch or black water resistant (coffee – resistant) furniture board with brushed aluminium legs and master craftsman locally.

The testing of the prototype went well and our programming productivity is raising, and we are on the road to better posture! Certainly it saves money spent with Spinal Therapist .

For more information download flyer and please contact us.

Sunny Ashburton on a Wednesday morn,
the Hexner team sped across Dartmoor, on a sunlit dawn.

Hot coffee greetings at the Lavender Hotel,
the A38 Networking Event went very well.

A two minute spiel, a boot filling breakfast,
Typical! I’m on the table with the competitor vendors!

Raffel ticket folding,  helping Families for Children,
the exhibitor tour, a head full of names, and cards to endure.

Well, I hope we made an impression, we tried very hard,

if you came over and chatted, we gave you a Mars

After a business lunch the other day the phone rang and a keen young sales man from a high street bank (one I dont have a public share in) offered me a fantastic new small business product,

‘Great’ I say ‘Can you e-mail me the spec?’

‘Er, its 500 pages’

Rapidly followed by the inspired follow-up bouncing back down the phone line

‘But it will ONLY take  a few minutes of your time to explain……’

The other day, on my  daily trip home, I  stopped at a pub I like in Halwill Junction.  The pub is great, a real fire always lit and fantastic service.   So, I did not mind waiting a few minutes in the rain for the pub to open.  The day had been quite busy, so I was hoping to get a few quiet minutes before arriving home.

Once the drink had been served,  I realized that it might be a good idea to phone home to let them now that was on the way.  After few chatty words with bartender I pulled out my mobile phone and realized that there was no signal.  (I won’t say which network I was on in order not to disclose private information from the network provider…)

So I asked for the phone behind the bar.   The answer was:

‘There is a telephone box outside the pub…’

Are they serious, that I should walk in the rain to make a quick call locally…?

I answered  – I am the customer and I want to pay for the service.  I am bringing business to you, since I stopped here for drink.

In the end I got the phone and rang home.  No answer.  However it make me think – is there any regulation that customers cannot use phone in the pub, or is it just Landlord discrescion?

Last week I was in London attending courses run by Tom & Kai Gilb.

Their ideas felt strangely familiar. Yet all around me attendees were complaining that they did not have the chance to work in this way.

This week my boss wants a blog article incorporating Agile buzz words.  But how to find a new angle on this is a problem.  I don’t want to to re define the well defined and documented, and I want to please Google with my dialog. So, I’m opting for the personal angle, the old write about what you know…..

I am not: a Programmer, a BA, a CTO or CEO. I have worked on an in-house LIMS project for a bio-tech company.  My role was to establish the laboratory support Requirements for my Group. This was a sub-set of the company whole. Each Group was to develop and role out their own end user interface. The pool of programmers was common, small, and fought over!

Back then, had anyone asked, to me the following definitions applied.

SCRUM, the quarterly Management Meeting, fighting for budget and programmer time to achieve the CRITICAL OBJECTIVES it would be clearly pointless not to reach. Most of our REQUIREMENTS were DESIGNS, and EVO was the evolutionary way you turned the project on its head to achieve VALUE MANAGEMENT when your budget was fast approaching the bottom of the pot.  STAKEHOLDER was a fork.  AGILE was what you were passing people in the corridor when you managed to keep your programmer longer than anyone thought was necessary. As I did.  :-)

That aside, I did have a programmer who was wise to the real meaning of these ideas, and of course I took for granted the way things were done.  We tip-toed, iteratively through the development mire. Gently my Designs were turned in to Requirements, and if it meant delivering the laboratory process backwards we did.  We delivered working features that unblocked bottlenecks. As Tom might say, we ‘Delighted the customer’. Well I guess that’s how I hung on to my developer, and that’s how I choose to remember it now!  :-)

Hence my surprise attending a Gilb course. So convinced was I that my programmer had known all this 10years ago I e-mailed him for the first time in about 5 years.

‘ Hi’ I said , ‘Have you heard of a guy called Tom Gilb?’

‘Yes’ he replied, ‘Why?’.

‘Well I’m sat in one of his courses right now and it reminded me of working with you’.

‘Well’ he said ‘Your learning from one of the best’.

chalkyriver

Hello! This is the debut blog of Hexner Limited who are offering Software Consultancy in Devon and Cornwall.

Hexner has over 15 years experience of designing and developing software applications.  Based in the market town of Holsworthy, within the Ruby Country (www.therubycountry.com) of Devon, we aim to be a highly recommended service for industries of the Southwest.

Our current business accreditations are membership of The Federation of Small Businesses (www.fsb.org.uk), and Association of Professional Programmers (accu.org). We are also active in attending the networking meetings of ‘business network sw’ at Exeter(www.business-networksw.co.uk).

Techies might note that we are fans of Tom & Kai Gilb (www.result-planning.com) and have trained in Value Requirements – Stakeholder-Value driven front end Scrum, and Agile Inspection – Lean QA.

Translating this for normal people it means we want to deliver results to you that work as you intended! Actually Gilb principals are good for any form of business so you might be interested in looking them up for some ‘putting your house in order’ ideas.

For the start of 2011 we are offering a Health Check of your Microsoft database: Microsoft Office Access 2007, recently released as Microsoft Access 2010 is part of the Microsoft Office suite in the Professional editions. It is the database that small businesses may rely on for basic data handling and report generation.

Data systems close to capacity become slow or develop bugs. Not all report options are those you need or want. As financial end of year approaches it is a good time to make sure your database is optimized for reporting and archiving. Tell us what we can do for you by e-mailing us at st…@hexner.co.uk.

As our business builds we hope to bring you useful information and interesting links, meanwhile you can follow us on twitter (@pavol and @chalkyriver) or check us out in more detail on our web site www.Hexner.co.uk.

chalkyriver