ViaData supports StarFish Foundation

As part of our ongoing programme of social responsibility ViaData has partnered with a group of enthused Capetonians to support a Dinner of Hope in aid of the StarFish Foundation. The Dinner Of Hope programme encourages individuals to host dinners in their homes or at public venues supporting the StarFish philosophy that if many people do a little they can achieve a lot. This group of Capetonians has taken the concept to another level, organizing a ball for 150 guests with a concurrent auction of art, vacations, food, wine and other luxury items and hopes to raise over R150,000.

ViaData has been involved in supporting the dinner in three ways.

Firstly, in order to provide sponsors and donors with some much deserved advertising and exposure – ViaData developed a website to provide guests, sponsors and other interested persons with information about the ball and the StarFish foundation – this website can be viewed on www.dinnerofhope.org.za

Secondly, ViaData reached out to their business partners to secure cash and prize sponsorships for the event.

Finally, as the major fundraising activity for the evening will be a sealed bid auction of about 40 items to the 150 guests, the dinner committee was very concerned about the logistics of managing the auction and the bids. The requirement was to collect, record and process all bids and release the results within 1 hour of closing the auction. The committee also didn’t want to burden themselves with a massive administration requirement as ultimately the main objective is to have an enjoyable evening while raising funds. To address the requirements, ViaData developed a bid management system and will provide all the hardware required on the night of the ball. The system was developed using the Catalyst tool and allows for the generation of personalized bid booklets, the capture of all the bids received on the evening, the calculation of winning bids and the printing of certificates for all winning bidders that can be signed and secured on the night of the ball. The system was developed with only 8 hours of development effort and will allow the entire auction to be managed efficiently using only two administrators on the night of the ball.

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A comprehensive software development solution

One of the reasons that companies tend to opt for large-scale ERP solutions is that the vendor offers a one-stop-shop. This is generally true for large vendors, although the inherent cost of using the vendors’ consultants and specialists is normally high, as the company has to cater for its high operating costs. Add to that divisional rivalry for the largest slice of the customer’s money and status competition, and the focus swiftly turns from the client to the vendor.

By the same token, software development houses can be perceived as fly-by-night operations with no longevity or full-house solutions.

ViaData stands as a software development house that has been in existence for 18 years - a very long time in the industry. In addition, all of ViaData’s work has come via word-of-mouth and referrals. The company has a range of consultancies that cover the full gamut of software development needs, providing a complete ERP/SCM/ CRM solution to all sizes of clients.

Please call us so that we can discuss your needs in greater depth, whether it be software development, or one of our consultancies. We are here to help you!

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Welcome to 2008…

We would like to extend to our readers all the best for 2008 - may it be a prosperous and fulfilling year for you…

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Software development as a science

To the best of our knowledge, there are very few business software houses that focus on data as opposed to business processes for business software. From a business perspective, it seems logical that a business process(es) should be the foundation of software that is focused on the running of a business. Surely this makes sense, as business processes are the operational procedures that keep a business going?

Actually, this isn’t quite true. Business processes change over time - just ask anyone who has decided to map their business to the supposed “best practise” of a major ERP suite. Surely this is the way to go? Now you can run your business the way everyone else does, not be “left behind” and be part of the mainstream?

The reality is that if you map your processes to generic industry vertical ERP software, your business loses its identity, loses its competitive process differentiators and becomes just another business. No company runs in exactly the same way as another company - their processes are necessarily different to create competitive advantage in the marketplace. So there it is - business processes ARE different, and they morph over time due to competitive and market considerations and, because of this, no two businesses are the same.

So this is ViaData’s premise - that a business process is a transient, existential convenience, whilst a business’ data is permanent, and a reflection of the true nature of the business and its transactions. It is reliable and consistent, and hence provides a permanent and verifiable reflection of the business and its worth. This of course requires a strict data quality regimen and a very well designed database(s). Here, ViaData can also provide the knowledge and expertise, through its data consultancy and database design consultancy.

All the above is, of course, a very cursory discussion of the data versus process debate, and the subject deserves further deliberation. Come and talk to us - ViaData has proven itself, its methods, premises and practises to the marketplace since 1990 - a very long time in the Information Technology world, and all through referrals. That should speak for itself…

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Corporate disillusionment with software solutions

Many corporations have gone the route of installing major ERP, CRM or SCM software solutions, only to find that the installation project has sucked most, if not all of the company’s resources dry. On top of that, the software itself is so generic that it has to be customised in almost every area to cater to the company’s unique competitive processes. Ultimately, the corporate expectation and the software solution delivery are often worlds apart. ViaData has recognised this disparity and has created Catalyst, a unique prototyping and development platform to meet corporate needs and expectations. With Catalyst, software projects are delivered in less than half the time of a standard project and concomitantly at less cost, allowing the company to realise the benefit of the dedicated software far sooner than normal.

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Business systems development

Traditionally, companies have had to make a choice between shrink-wrapped software and custom software when choosing a business system. Most have gone the shrink-wrapped route, in the mistaken belief that this route entailed less risk, and have discovered the ernormous expense of an off-the-shelf ERP system. ViaData’s business case is that it is possible to create dedicated business software that is inherently risk-free and purpose-driven, and at typically a fraction of the cost of standard packages…

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System development methodology

Catalyst, our prototyping and development platform, allows ViaData to model, prototype and develop business systems in at least half the time that a typical development would take place. This means that clients save a substantial amount of time and money - and they can use their new applications far sooner than they would otherwise be able to, and adding functionality to the system once it is installed is very easily accomplished through the Catalyst architecture.

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Our new website!

Our brand new website is now up on the web! We think it looks great and is a vast improvement on our “old” website.  We hope that you will enjoy exploring our new website as much as we have enjoyed putting it together - we think it gives a great snapshot of who we are and what we do, but we also want to make it fun and infomative for you. We want to make the site an interesting portal for software customisation issues, news and views and a way for you to see what we’re doing to make your life a little easier in the corporate world.

Please let us know what you think by contacting us so that we can further impove the site and make it work for you…

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Welcome to the new ViaData website

Please keep your eye on this section for updates, news and articles…

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