Inmagic usage at MDA – maximizing the ROI of your software

Published Jun 25, 2010

It's enlightening to visit with clients and find out how they are using Inmagic software, especially when they are not typical applications. We are always suggesting maximizing your return on investment by using the software for anything and everything, so here is a great example of a client doing just that.

Last week I was in Toronto and met with Dave Hook at MDA, a long time client and user of Inmagic software. Dave has some very cool applications with over 30 different DB/TextWorks databases populating much of their intranet content. He showed me a few of these such as their home page which displays the latest news, plus their system for listing the latest training courses and how users can register for these online. Following registration, the user’s supervisor is notified by email, the number of remaining available spaces updates until the class is full and then an attendee list can be printed out by the instructor. Behind the scenes multiple DB/TextWorks databases are in play. The web interface including all data entry for many of the databases is handled exclusively by ODBC calls into the databases using standard SQL queries written into each HTML page. This results in pages that don't look like they were generated from a database but fit seamlessly into their intranet interface.

Dave also uses DB/TextWorks for quick prototyping of database ideas for various projects. As it is so easy to add fields and functionality, he is able to build these prototypes and have users critique and suggest modifications in a very short time frame. If applicable, the prototype can then be finalized as an Inmagic application, or used by their IT group as a basis for building a system in SQL or other software. This prototyping process is very much in sync with our philosophy of launching fast, and refining later.

So, just like Dave at MDA, don’t be restricted to just traditional uses for the software! Let us know if you have ideas for new databases that you would like us to help you with?