Call 425-876-0535
or email GPC Data
for a free half-hour consultation.

I am a 2007-2012 MS Access MVP Awardee

Check my blog GPG on Access. You might find recent discussions about SharePoint and Access interesting.

Published Books

In additon to Grover Park George On Access, Two of my former colleagues at Advisicon and I collaborated on a book on Access 2010 and SharePoint, MS Access in a SharePoint World.

Why should I spend money on custom tools?

It is a cliché, but that doesn't make it any less true:

Time Is Money.

Smart Tools minimize the amount of time you and your staff spend doing repetitive, manual processing tasks.

Example: One of my very first databases tracked enrollment in classes and workshops offered by a large insurance company. A few months after it went into regular use, the group's administrative assistant retired. The Training Department decided not to replace her. My enrollment database had reduced the number of manually produced rosters, reports and related paperwork for classes so much that remaining staff could handle all of those tasks themselves, once they learned how to enter data and print out the reports they needed. For the cost of a few weeks of my development time, the company saved a full-time staff salary. THAT'S SMART!

Do I need a database, a spreadsheet, or something else?

I won't try to sell you a database if I think another tool will do the job better. That's part of our initial, free one hour consultation.

Do I need special software or equipment?

If I build your Smart Tool as an MS Access database, you will need to own, or purchase, licenses from Microsoft for each workstation where the tool is used. Alternatives are available, including the Free Run-Time. Call or email me to discuss your options .

How much will this cost?

I bill my design, development, testing and installation work at $65 an hour. I provide a 1-2 hour initial consultation free of charge. I consider long-term consulting contracts on a case by case basis.

Custom Smart Tools cost more than shrink-wrapped software like QuickBooks^© or TurboTax^© because Intuit can amortize their development costs over thousands of identical copies. If an application like QuickBooks^© meets your needs, you should use it.

On the other hand, my Smart Tools don't cost millions of dollars like software systems created for large corporations, and they take days or weeks, not years, to design, build, test, and launch into production.

How long will this take?

That depends on several factors, including the complexity of the proposed Tool, how similar it is to other Tools I've built, and any special requirements you have. I've created simple databases in less than a week. I've spent up to six months on complex projects for multiple users spread across multiple locations.

In addition to my own time, I work closely with you and your staff to design and build Smart Tools that meet your needs. You or someone on your staff will make an investment of time in at least three ways:

• Defining system requirements. This can take from one hour to several days, depending on how complex the proposed Tool is and how much thought you already have put into it. I like to start with a Proposed Project Profile.You should complete this document prior to hiring me. You'll save time and money.
• Approving the design and signing off on milestones during development. This can also take from as few as one or two, up to several hours each week.
• Acceptance testing. Before signing off on the finished Tool, you'll want to have your staff test it to make sure it works as intended. Again, the testing time varies from situation to situation but you should plan on several hours up to a few days.

One way to control the cost of your Smart Tool project is to build it in phases. If you want a suite of Smart Tools to track Time and Attendance, monitor Work in Progress, manage a Customer Contact List and keep your personal Rolodex, start with one module and add the others one at at time.

What do I have to prepare before I hire you?

Define your requirements as fully and as carefully as you can. You buy my experience and expertise in building databases, but I am not an expert on YOUR business. Start by downloading and completing the Proposed Application Profile. Write out in as much detail as you can what you expect the new tool to do for you. Then contact me to get started.