Custom Web Applications
Custom Web Applications
Custom Web Applications
We help businesses gain operational efficiencies and save money by delivering affordable, custom web applications and databases
that streamline their unique processes.
Our Approach
We will never advocate ‘reinventing the wheel’ by building what you can buy. However, when you do need a new web application, database, or custom software tool that is not available off-the-shelf, we can engineer, build, host and manage a solution for you.
We deliver our solutions by customizing our ASCS framework. By customizing this framework, we will never have to build a new solution from scratch. That is, we never have to redevelop the common underpinnings that go into the solution. This means new applications are delivered quickly, with minimal effort, at minimal cost.
We’re experienced Microsoft .NET developers and we use a proven, easy-to-understand and agile development process. Our solutions are hosted in the Microsoft Azure Cloud so you know your data will be highly-available and protected by world-class infrastructure and security. This also means your data can be hosted on Canadian soil, or in one of the many other countries where Microsoft has their Azure infrastructure.
What We Provide
Setup
We handle all things technical. We configure the ASCS framework to deliver any functionality needed. We set up the front-end web application, the backend SQL database and all required network services and security configurations. Our solutions are completely turnkey.
Hosting
We will manage the hosting. As mentioned above, our solutions are hosted in the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Your data will be highly-available and protected by world-class infrastructure and security.
Training
We provide ‘train-the-trainer’ training. This ensures your organization gets the maximum benefit possible from our solutions. Training is delivered via virtual meetings using secure, industry-leading tools like GoToMeeting, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.
Technical Support
We provide you with responsive technical support. Your primary method of support will be e-mail or our help desk portal. This approach was chosen to assure speed, accuracy and efficiency. Technical support requests made via e-mail will automatically open a support ticket in our help desk. This allows us to have a senior technician address any reported issues while improving the speed of delivery. In a nutshell, using an email/ticketing based system ensures our technicians are not wasting their time playing ‘phone tag’. It also ensures your valuable time is not wasted waiting in a phone queue.
What You Will Need to Provide
Contact Person
You will have to assign a responsive contact person who, during development, can provide insight and answer questions related to your business processeses. This individual will also provide our team with sample documents, forms and any digital images needed during the development processes.
Feedback
Our team will also need feedback from your key employees. That is, you will need to organize a small team of people who are the target system users. These stakeholders will be required to test the system and provide us with feedback as it is being developed, and prior to its final implementation. This will help ensure that the final product meets everyone’s expectations. Of course, your team’s testing will be in addition to ours.
What You Pay For
One-Time Setup Fee
We will charge you a one-time setup fee. This will be a firm, fixed fee that will be determined prior to starting the development project. It will cover the cost of the ASCS platform customizations, testing and the delivery of training. You will NOT need to pay by-the-hour software development fees or the overage fees that are often associated with software development.
Monthly Hosting Fee
We will also charge you a monthly hosting fee. The hosting fee will cover use of the Microsoft Azure platform. Of course, this fee will be determined prior to project start and presented to you in a formal quote. Hosting fees are based on anticipated usage, system load and required network services (texting services, email services, etc.).
Our Development Process
As mentioned above, we use an easy-to-understand, rapid, agile and proven development process. The following illustration walks through our eight-step process which is both methodical and flexible, and designed to ensure we fully understand or clients’s needs and objectives. This process also ensures that all stakeholders are well informed so any challenges or project risks are identified and addressed as early in the process as possible.
Step 1:
We collaborate with our client to gain a clear understanding of who will be using the system. We will examine the high-level role of each user to ensure the solution is both user-centric and easy to use. That is, we will ensure the system design and its functionality is prioritized around the roles and objectives of the end users.
Step 2:
We map out the role of each specific process. This exercise lets us identify the nuances of the user’s work flow and build a picture of how each role will interact with the system. During this step, a concise understanding of the data input, export and reporting requirements is established. This will also give us the insight we will need into any special data export formats as well as an understanding of any third-party systems that we may have to integrate with, through APIs or other methods.
Step 3:
Functional requirements are defined and documented. We identify any needed changes to the current system functionality that is required to support the needs identified in step one and two. This document then becomes the checklist of coding tasks to be accomplished during the development process.
Step 4:
We identify and design any user interface updates and or database structure modifications needed to support the functional requirements identified in step three. At this stage, we design any new database tables required to hold system data, and we design any constraints required to assure data integrity.
Step 5:
Now we begin customizing existing screens and adding new screens as needed. We also code the various functions and procedures needed to support any new system requirements in the areas of data validation and processing, data storage and retrieval, API integrations and so on.
Step 6:
Aggressive, in-house testing is conducted. Our team will put the system through a battery of tests to assure it functions as expected. Should we find any bugs or discover a code update is required, we feed this information back into the coding process as illustrated in step 6-A. Of course, step 6 and 6-A are executed as often as needed until the system performs as expected.
Step 7:
After our in-house testing cycles are complete, we provide our client with access to the system via our beta servers. This allows our client’s subject matter experts (SMEs) to test the system and ensure it meets their expectations. Any change requirements identified by the client are documented and fed back to coding for resolution — as indicated by step 7-A.
Step 8:
The system is deployed. During this phase the system is installed on the Microsoft Azure servers. The ASCS technical team will install, configure and fully test the software before the system goes live.