What services do dataBuddha Guides offer?
Meditation is not involved, unless you really want to. But you will have to ponder your data and how it might serve you better. dataBuddha Guides then apply their experience and skills to your desire to become one with your data. dataBuddha Guides will typically perform some combination of these commonplace information management functions described below, but with an uncommon philosophy.
Each engagement is different, and your dataBuddha Guide will design a Path that outlines the fees and estimates the time and days/hours to achieve the information enlightenment you seek.
Commercial Software Application Deployment
Most organizations employ off-the-shelf software programs to manage their accounting, payroll, human resources, sales, production, customer service, etc. This is a wise approach and dataBuddha Guides seek a Path to maximize your effective use of these programs. (See other services below.)
dataBuddha Guides represent you, not software publishers. dataBuddha draws no sustenance from the recommendation or sale of any publisher's software. Our expertise flows from working with many different software programs and in understanding their strengths and weaknesses - and they all have both.
Services include:
- Analysis of the information enlightenment you seek, identification of candidate software programs, and recommendations of the most cost-effective commercial applications to fit your needs.
- Hands-on and minds-on set-up and deployment of commercial software, with a strong emphasis on end-user interaction.
- Ongoing end-user support, derived from working closely with them during deployment.
- Support of orphaned commercial or in-house applications. (See linked page.)
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Custom Software Development
Commercial applications are a preferred means to achieve information enlightenment. After all, there is no sense building a new Path when one already exists. A wise traveler on the Path expects not for their commercial software to satisfy every desire for information enlightenment under all circumstances. For those occasions, dataBuddha Guides can recommend, design and construct custom software programs to fill in those missing stepping stone on your Path.
dataBuddha Guides favor rapid development and deployment to suit individual tasks. Please see stories of information enlightenment for examples.
Services include:
- Development of utility programs to augment your existing commercial programs.
- Creation of programs to transfer shared data among applications.
- Construction of programs to automate special functions, often replacing cumbersome spreadsheet maintenance or complex administrative procedures.
Reporting and Data Extraction
Information enlightenment is only possible when the followers who need data can retrieve it in the form that serves them and they can understand the data as presented. That is the essence of reporting. dataBuddha Guides have perfected the art and science of retrieving data from our clients' application programs and transforming that data into objects to serve its masters.
Raw data can be molded into virtually limitless forms to serve more purposes than there are grains of sand on a beach. It is therefore no surprise that the 'standard' and 'canned' reports from most commercial applications are stale or unfocused. We have witnessed too many examples of lost souls pulling data from reports then re-entering that data into spreadsheets for manual processing and output. dataBuddha Guides will show you how to eliminate these steps to nowhere.
Our experiences from over a decade of guiding people down the Path to information enlightenment have taught dataBuddha Guides that ninety percent of all uses of data are best addressed through reporting. Please see stories of information enlightenment for examples.
Services include:
- Analysis of the purpose behind each report, and recommendations on how to extract your data to best serve those purposes.
- Rapid design and construction of reports using our software tools ReportWorks and Web Reports that harmonize data.
- Surveying your databases and their structures, and cataloging their contents.
- Deployment of individual reports up thru full reporting systems, so end-users have the information they need when they need it and in the form that serves them.
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Sharing of Knowledge and Expertise
Whether dataBuddha Guides work with one person or several in an organization, they are committed to sharing as much of their knowledge and expertise as individuals can absorb. This Path goes both ways, as our clients teach dataBuddha Guides what makes the organization and people's tasks within it special. Only then can we travel the Path together to its destination: information enlightenment.
Our clients describe to their Guide the goals, resources, history, and rules which govern how their data exists and the wisdom they seek. dataBuddha Guides share with our clients strategies and techniques to teach their data how to serve them.
Services include:
- Individual and group consulting sessions to analyze data management issues and processing procedures.
- Training classes on the use and deployment of our published software tools: ReportWorks and WebReports, as well as commercial applications.
- Preparation of data dictionaries and documentation of database systems.
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