FileMaker is a very popular and easy to use database. It owes it's popularity to it's ease of use. It is the starting point for many a database developement company including this one. We started using it in the early 1990's to catalog shareware at the Boston Computer Society. FileMaker let's you quickly develop a database that provides a good solution for a set of needs.

FileMaker tends to be used by those who have a sense of comfort with it’s perceived ease of use. Quite often those who originally purchased the software and are the users of it cease to be the developers of their system as their needs become more detailed and complex. At that point they seek the services of a professional developer.

Database development is a chess game and the goal is to be in a position at the end of the game to make critical moves. FileMaker generally is not good at that. It’s good at getting something simple done quickly. If you plan your database from the beginning then there are much better choices for a database system and for a lot less cost.

What we like about FileMaker:

• Easy to learn and build a database. FileMaker has a very intuitive graphical interface for building a database. The database engine and the UI are bound together so you don’t have to worry about the engine for the most part.
• Solid network of qualified consultants. There is a strong network of professional consultants who support FileMaker installations as a business.
• Supports ODBC connectivity. This lets us build applications to get data into and out of a FileMaker database without having to use FileMaker thus saving on the cost licensing.
• Strong support through forums, groups, and email lists.

What we don't like about FileMaker:

• Easy to learn and build a database. FileMaker may create a false belief that database development is simple. It's not but it can be for simple applications. If a database is not well planned then it can be a big problem down the road.
• Solid network of qualified consultants. If FileMaker were so simple why would there be a need for consultants? We believe this is mostly due to the first point. Because FileMaker is so quick to get up and running with a good database you will need the benefits of professional database development strategies as your system grows. Whether you take the time to learn them yourself or hire someone is a decision you may face. Most people hire someone. FileMaker consulting is generally on the expensive side of the spectrum.
• FileMaker is not taught in any college or university in the US that we know of. Most database systems can be learned in college. This provides a good source of potential candidates who can work on your database.
• Cost of ownership. FileMaker is expensive. It can be quite expensive by comparison to alternatives. Per seat costs, server costs, concurrent server connection costs, and support costs are all above average.
• Annual upgrade program. FileMaker, like most software, needs to continue to generate revenue. The do that by releasing updates. The cost of these updates are also on the expensive side of the range.

We can deliver to you a complete system that is ready to plug-in, power up, and add to your network. It can include hardware and software on Linux or Macintosh based hardware. We prefer to work with Linux and Mac OS X hardware and server software combinations for a number of reasons. For both website and database serving of open source solutions it is a good choice.

What we like about Linux based solutions:

• Total cost of ownership is very low. There is no cost for the operating system. No per seat licensing for the OS or any free and open-source database system.
• Hardware is less expensive and more efficient. Linux runs lean and is more resource efficient than any other OS/hardware combination.
• Security is solid. When we build a system for a webserver and/or a database we finish the build by locking it down securely. Since we aren't running a lot of services it reduces the vulneabilities.
• Stability is unfailing. Linux systems stability is legendary. Many users report never having a crash and disk use is so efficient there isn't any defragging necessary.
• Performance. You can count on persistent high performance on servers, workstations, and on your network from Linux.
• Community support. Linux has become so popular that there is no shortage of community support and it is taught in every college in America offering a computer science curriculum that includes modern operating systems.

What we don't like about Linux based solutions:

• Open-source based. There is increased responsibility placed on the solution provider to understand the system. For the most part it's not what might be described as "user friendly".

There are a lot of very good commercial database systems available. Here we list three that we've worked on at various times and in no particular order. We have extensive experience with Filemaker and are capable of handling that product from install to maintenance to serving web pages. With both MS SQL Server and Oracle we work in collaborative environment where the systems are already in place and managed by an IT department or outsourced services.

FileMaker

Microsoft SQL Server

Oracle

PostgreSQL is a very powerful open source database management system. It's licensing is clear in that you can use if for whatever you like. That includes using it in a commercial product.

What we like about PostgreSQL:

• No licensing issues.
• Standards  based.
• Highly scalable.
• Fast and powerful. Can handle billions of records.
• Publicly available support is good.

What we don't like aboiut PostgreSQL:

• Is challenging to install, update, and maintain.

For more information on PostgreSQL visit the webpage here: http://www.postgresql.org/

For a comparison with MySQL go here: http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/MySQL_vs_PostgreSQL

MySQL may be the most popular database in the world. Or it may not be, it depends on who you listen to. The fact that it is even mentioned as this potential is enough to show it's popularity and use. It has a long history in the open source community and it is now owned by Oracle. This association with Oracle has raised questions as to the future of this open source project. Some users have dropped it and many are reluctant to use it.

What we like about MySQL:

• Oracle has put resources into it. Development continues and major enhancements are being made.
• The product is solid.
• Most colleges use it for teaching.
• Public support is widely available through forums, books, and tutorial websites.
• Many open source projects use it so it has the potential to be integrated with other open source projects.

What we don't like about MySQL:

• Owned by Oracle and not community driven.
• Confusing and unclear licensing.
• Uncertain future is as unclear as its licensing. Many major users of MySQL are moving on.

The big question surrounding MySQL is it’s association with Oracle and it’s licensing. No one seems to understand it thus there is growing reluctance to use it. Another database, MariaDB, is a “drop in” replacement for MySQL and was developed as a fork of the MySQL project by one of the original developers of MySQL. Here's a nice review: http://www.smartfile.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-mysql/

SQLite is an open source database for embedding into applications. SQLite is a powerful and flexible database system. It is not multiuser. It is mostly used as an “embedded” database that is, as part of an application. Like an email application. It is very fast and is basically unlimited in size with a limit of 140 terabytes.

What we like about SQLite:

• Absolutely free, open source, with no licensing retrictions.
• Easy setup. No configuration at all.
• Perfect for embedding into applications.
• Updates are made frequently.

What we don't like about SQLite:

• Single user only with no user management. Some have made attempts to work around this and it does work in some cases but if you need multiuser then you should choose multiuser. If two users are working on the same record then their work may cancel one another.
• It does not scale well. As needs become more complex the lack of multiuser and some other features become a problem.

SQLite is a very highly regarded database system when used for the right application. Here is a list of some of the more well known users. Apple uses it for a number of products. http://www.sqlite.org/famous.html

Analytics is About Psychology, SEO is About Technology

Digital Analytics

Hopefully you've followed the guidelines for SEO in building your site and you're getting visitors. Here is where you fine tune to meet your goals.

Digital Analytics is the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from your business and the competition to drive a continual improvement of the online experience that your customers and potential customers have which translates to your desired outcomes (both online and offline). -Avinash Kaushik

SEO and Analytics go hand in hand. You build your site following SEO best practices, you measure the visitor traffic, and then you refine your SEO to improve your success toward achieving desired outcomes. Desired outcomes differ among organizations and their missions.

Desired outcomes are also called "conversions" in analytics terminology.

Generally a website will fall into one of five categories:

• Ecommerce - the desired outcome or conversion is a sale.
• Lead Generation - a conversion would be when a visitor submits a request for more information.
• Content Publisher - the desired outcome would be for frequent visitation by the same visitor and engagement as measured by the number of pages on the site they visit.
• Online Information and Support - sites whose purpose is to provide information to visitors would also be monitored for frequent visitation and engagement.
• Branding - sites whose purpose is to build awareness, engage visitors, and develop customer loyalty.

Whatever type of website you have, we setup a mearsurement plan based on your business objectives. Raw data needs to be packaged into meaningful reports. Analysis of these reports is conducted to see where website improvements might be made. Candidates for improvemeent are tested on the site. Lastly, the improvements are finalized and implemented on the site. It doesn't necessarily end there and this process can be repeated until you feel you are getting the most out of your site.

Analytics is all about tracking visitor behavior once they land on your site. How many leave right away which is known as bouncing? Do they dig deeper? What page do you want them to click through to? When they get there do they convert? These are the questions analytics tries to answer and the tools available can be quite complex. Google offers many tools and reporting features that you can combine to create meaningful and insightful reports. Three things Google will advise you is needed to get the most out of analytics is to setup conversions, filters, and groupings.

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Drupal is a very powerful content management system suitable for large organizations where departments or teams each maintain their own content. Universities are such an example. Keeping in mind that simple is not powerful and powerful is not simple Drupal entails a level of complexity that is typically outside the range of small to medium business owners. In our experience, and it contrast to both Joomla and WordPress, it is neither easy nor simple to work with. We find Drupal in larger organizations with a staff devoted to their website maintenance and it is very popular in the Boston area.

Drupal has a very strong community of developers and support. There are many plugins to choose from with which to extend and support your website. However Drupal has something Joomla and WordPress does not have and that is what is called a “distribution”. A distribution is like a version of Drupal that has been customized for a particular purpose. For example there's a "distro" for conference organizing. It provides all the features for event registration, session schedulings, session reviews, etc. Some of the other popular distros are:

• CivicCRM - designed for constituent relationship management. Maintain relationships with constituents including fundraising. Used by more than 8000 organizations.
• Confernence Orgainizing Distribution - used to organize and manage a conference.
• Open Atrium - described as "an intranet in a box" it allows teams to form "group spaces" within which to collaborate and discuss a project including document management.
• RedHen CRM - designed for contact relations management. It has the features for managing detailed information on contacts and organizations, membership services, event registrations, and constituent engagement. This is a more generalized package than CivicCRM.

We enjoy working with Drupal distributions though we don't do Drupal development from scratch. Contact us to discuss your needs.

Joomla is a powerful content management system with built in features not found in WordPress. It was designed from the ground up to be a flexible content management system with which to build websites and web applications. Like WordPress, Joomla is a collection of scripts and not an application.

Joomla scales quite well to accomodate larger numbers of users who will be working with it.

Here's what we like about Joomla.

• Easy to use, maintain, and update for single users up to many users.
• Access Control Lists (ACLs) allow for the creation of user groups where just those group members can access the features.
• Has many plugins for extending the functionality of your site.
• Has great “core” plugins for backup, security, SEO, and URL customization and management.
• Has an excellent forum for support.
• There is a strong community of professional level developers of templates, extensions, and frameworks.

Here's what we don't like about Joomla.

• Extensions page organization is somewhat cumbersome.

There’s not much to dislike about Joomla.

WordPress is accepted by most as an easy to use website development platform. WordPress, like all CMS systems, is a collection of scripts. It’s not an application within a single file. These scripts are written to perform a particular function that, when combined with the other scripts of the WordPress installation, make up the WordPress experience. This is important to know not only for WordPress but for any CMS. These scripts are written by a lot of different people and it’s crucial to security to keep these “scripts” up to date. It’s also crucial to understand when you extend your WordPress site with plug-ins, themes, and any other software that the plugin scripts might not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

WordPress is widely regarded as an easy to use platform for your website. It can be. It can also be quiet complex and most people can spend a week or more setting it up. WordPress was originally designed as a blog engine but now it may not have a single blog page.

What we like about WordPress.

• Easy to use, maintain, and update for single users or business with a small number of users.
• Has many plugins for extending the functionality of your site.
• Has great “core” plugins - backup, security, SEO, and URL maintenance.
• Has a good plugin page showing important statistics for the plugin.
• Has a great forum for support.

What we don't like about WordPress.

• Does not scale well to larger numbers of users.
• Does not have built-in Access Control Lists (ACLs) which permit the assignment of users into groups which then are given access to only the features they need to see.
• Features that are built into the core of Joomla or Drupal are provided as a plug-in. The difference being that with Joomla or Drupal you have an organization maintaining the code vs. a single developer who may move onto something else. For example, to take WordPress offline you need to install a plugin that does that.
• Plugins are sometimes not updated and are obsolete. Compatibility with current versions of WordPress may not be maintained.
• Does not have the ability to include some of the more powerful features needed by larger businesses.

We like using WordPress for photographers, lawyers, real estate offices, and similar sole proprietorships. We don’t like using it in environments where several people will be making occasional updates to the site and these people have no interest in becoming proficient in WordPress. WordPress does not allow the administrator to "hide away" features not useful to those managing content.

We should add that WordPress does have one unique and powerful feature and that is the multisite feature. If this is an option for you we can discuss it.