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Design Process
MEGAbyte Design Process
MEGAbyte strives to keep the design process as simple as possible with the goal to deliver an application that meets your business objectives in a timely fashion and well within your budget.
We can effectively develop your application regardless of your geographic location…
MEGAbyte is able to effectively develop your custom software application or support your application regardless of your geographic location. Advantage Systems utilizes remote control programs such as E-mail, GoToMyPc, Net Meeting and PcAnywhere to assist in the development and support of your software.
Remote control software package allows us to take control of your workstation exactly like we were sitting in front of your computer. We are able to see the same information that is displayed on your monitor and download or upload files.
MEGAbyte supports client applications across the Northern Mariana Islands.
Steps
Step One: Design Phase
We will arrange a meeting to obtain an understanding of your current business software objectives, long term goals and determine which programming technology will be best for your situation.We will work carefully with you to review your current business processes and identify time consuming bottlenecks. Where it makes economic sense we will automate these processes.
Step Two: Prototype Phase
MEGAbyte will create a prototype of the important data entry screens, menu systems and reports.You will receive these prototypes shortly after we start programming, turnaround time to implement changes to the prototype and application design will be minimal since we are only focused on layout and design.
Step Three: Programming
After the prototypes are approved we will begin programming your application.We will start with finalizing the database design. If you are upgrading a system to Visual FoxPro we will keep your current tables and only normalize the data model, if possible. We will add a database container, primary keys, and indexes to maximize performance.The programming to connect the forms to the database will be completed.
Step Four: Training and Testing
We will conduct a final testing phase to ensure the application meets your needs. We use this phase to verify that your report totals match your legacy system or manual process, and that your employees are trained on the new system before going operational with the software.We will discuss backup and data recovery strategies.
Most importantly we will support you after deployment from simple questions about the software through adding forms, report and subsystems.
Recommendations
Keep It Simple - While it is tempting to include all the "bells and whistles" into your application, in most cases you are further ahead to implement the basic system so the software can begin "paying for itself" and later add additional functionality. If the system is designed properly these features can be added without endangering the integrity of the application and without any additional expense as if they were added during the initial development.
Minimize Training - If you are converting an existing system, keeping the look and feel of the application similar will reduce training time and acceptance of the application by the end-users.
Follow Windows Standards - By designing the application to behave like Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office you can reduce training time.
Hardware Considerations - Even the best application will perform poorly on outdated hardware. It is important to ensure your operating system, servers and workstations are able to accommodate your new software application.
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