Our services

Requirements analysis Functional specification Web site and system design Web site and system development Making it easy for others to find your web site Training Documenting existing systems and procedures How to contact us

Requirements analysis

This is the foundation of all successful use of IT:

• Defining your requirements, either right across your organisation or in a specific area.
• Prioritising and phasing them so that the most important things are delivered as soon as possible and with the minimum possible disruption to your operations.

We do all of this in close liaison with the senior members of your organisation and review the results with them to ensure that the documents really do describe what your organisation needs.

Functional specification

This usually follows Requirements Analysis and may produce specifications for more than one system.  It defines:

• What you want an IT system to do rather than how to do it.
• In enough detail for you and the developer(s) to have the same clear picture of what is required.
• And, vitally, in enough detail for the testers to know what's right and what's wrong.

And if the system you need requires tools with which we are not familiar, we'll tell you as soon as possible and help you to prepare tender documents so that you can use the services of someone who does know the right tools.

Web site and system design

We design:

• Front ends - web pages and PC screens.
• Databases, to ensure you can store and retrieve information in the way you need.
• System structure - the foundation of your site or system, this is invisible but must be sound and extendable.
• System logic - this covers everything from the functions you see to coping with communications and equipment failures and, for web sites, with the fact that users' browsers and their settings vary a lot.

Web site and system development

We will develop for you:

• PC- and LAN-based systems, using Visual Basic or Microsoft Access.
• Web-based systems using HTML, JavaScript and ColdFusion

Whichever tools we use, we'll:

• Test the programs thoroughly before installing them on your computers.
• Provide documentation which will make it easy for us or other developers to enhance your systems at a later date.
• Provide help facilities to guide new or unconfident users   -  this is particularly necessary with web-based systems, as you don't know who's going to use them or what their level of experience is.
• Fix at no extra cost any faults reported within 3 months of your accepting a system developed by us.
• Subject to suitable contract arrangements, provide technical support for a longer period.

Making it easy for others to find your web site

Once you have a good web site you want people to be able to find it. Most people find web sites via search engines . So getting listed by search engines is vital.

We will help you to get search engines to give your site a reasonably high place in their listings.

Training

In one sense training starts as soon as we begin working with you.   Successful use of IT depends on good communications all round, and we'll be teaching you to understand our language at the same time as we learn yours.  You could even regard our Dictionary as the beginning of a training process.

Where appropriate we will provide more formal training as part of a project:

• In analysis and specification techniques, to those of your staff we liaise with. Requirements and Functional Specifications are only as good as the reviews they undergo, and effective reviewing requires understanding of the document's contents and implications.
• In the use of PC-based systems.
• Web-based systems are often different:
  In many cases you don't know who's going to use them, and effective help facilities are essential in such cases. We will develop help facilities and wherever possible have them reviewed by someone who knows how to use a web browser but knows nothing about the system.
  Of course if a web-based system is mainly to be used by your own staff, we'll be happy to provide training.

Web pages are one of the most effective ways to deliver training which is available whenever needed.
Our Web design for usability tutorial is a good example.

Documenting existing systems and procedures

Fast-moving organisations often can't find time to document their systems and procedures. This can lead to difficulties in:

• Training new staff.
• Enhancing existing systems, because the developers have to read all the program code.
• Testing systems, because there is no clear definition of what is correct.
• Planning enhancements of existing systems or development of new ones.

We will use our experience of system specification, training and system development to document your systems and procedures in a way that is beneficial for users and developers.

How to contact us

The easiest way is probably to email us - use our email form .

Or you can contact us by: