• home
• about us
• contact us
• newsletters
• privacy policy
•  
•   our solutions
•  
• BizMan® - business management software
• custom software development
• POSE® - event management software
•  
•   Other BizMan Modules
•  
• contact manager
• data archiving/event logging
• data export/import
• DocuSifter® document management
• job costing
• marketing and promotion analysis
• work planner
• time logger

Configuration Module

Because every client comes to us with a tall wish list and a short budget we need to be able to deliver a customised contact management solution to them with as little programming as possible. The off-the-shelf software they have looked at or tried does not do something they want it to do. It is too broad in scope or under-engineered. For us to cost-effectively satisfy their needs we need to be able to deliver a mostly pre-built solution that can be tailored and extended to meet their needs.

This necessitates both a comprehensive database design as well as a way to hide unneeded functionality. For these reasons we have invested a substantial amount of money into designing and building a configurable application framework. It has the following features and capablities.

Dynamic Menu Structure

In order to hide functionality the users don’t need and efficiently assign permissions, the client is allowed to set up as many user groups as required. Each menu item and button is an application event to which User Group permissions are assigned. On startup, BizMan dynamically creates the menu structure for the current user based on the user groups to which they are assigned. If a user does have permission to access a menu option, they just don’t see it.
This minimises the learning curve, increases the relevance of the whole program to each user and makes the program far better liked than one with twice the menu options needed.

Dynamic Menu Text

Each menu option has a default text that we supply but the menu is populated with user editable values. If the site administrator decides to use "CRM" instead of "Contact Manager" he/she can alter the text by bringin up a form using a key/mouse combination. This ensures that all the menu option text is relevant to the terminology of your organisation and lowers user learning curve and change resistance.

Multi-Language Capability - User Specific

If a client has a multilingual work force then they can set up BizMan such that menu options, buttons, tab labels, form and field labels can be displayed in any language. When entering a new user you specify a preferred language from those entered. When that user logs on BizMan displays the text elements for that user in their chosen language. Of course we can’t translate all the data on the fly but it at least makes it a lot easier for users whose native language is not that of the other users.

Parameter Driven

We wanted to minimize data entry keystrokes and deliver a user experience that is extremely relevant to the client company as well as their individual users. To accomplish this we have a series of tables in which are stored parameters or default values used by the application. An example of these is the default state. A client should not need to select or type in a state or country for every address entry; the program should look up the parameters table and use a default for a new record. You can vary the default for each user. If a client uses different trading names there can be differences between the default values used by each trading name so we have a trading name specific parameters table.

Dynamic Field Label Text

The label text for each property is stored in a Caché. If the user has permission to do so, to alter "State" to "Province" or "County" on a form they double click the label and enter the text. That altered text is saved to the database and used thereafter.

Dynamic Fields in Screen Forms

Different clients have different data requirements. One client may wish to store a date of birth, income or assign personnel to each sale item to compute commissions based on sales volume. Multi-department users might wish to assign detail lines to cost centers outside the chart of accounts. For most other users these fields would be unwanted. For this reason BizMan allows the Site Administrator to specify which fields to display. This reduces complexity and inapplicability of the application to the user’s requirements.




If you would like further information or an on-line demonstration of how simple and easy BizMan is to configure to your requirements, contact me on +61 2 9552 3311.