Manifesto

Solving the puzzle to success in your database application

Like everything you do in your business, success is often realized in finding a "good fit".  So how do we make sure a web-based database will be a good fit for our organization?   Let's start by addressing a few common misconceptions:

• "It's a piece of software on the web."  A web-based database is not just a piece of software - it's a service. Since it's a service, you should consider not only software features and options, but also in the team that is supporting web database service. Does the web database vendor try to understand what you are trying to get out of your application? How dedicated is the vendor to making your application a success?
• "80% of your application in 20% of the time."  It's true that web databases are much faster at building applications. But take care to realize that quite often, 80% of the value of an application sits in the last 20%! So while 80% is great, make sure the product will be able to get you the other 20% when you need it to. This is often called "future proofing".
• "Just start with a template".  Templates are great - when you're business "fits the mold". We have also had much success extending a template - we call these "plus applications" as in a CRM plus project management. However, altering templates to fit your process often leads to poor data design that gets more difficult to fix the longer you use the application. Nine times out of ten, it is easier to build something from the ground up.

Now that we have the major misconceptions out of the way, the answer is simple;
Make sure the team behind the web-based database service

• can understand my business
• and help me build something from the ground up
• on a platform that at least has the potential to be customized past the 95% level

So how does Lightspoke fit in this picture? We promise that you will find our philosphy and the way we work focussed on your continued success.

• One customer at a time: Each customer is a new project for us. Mind you, this does not translate to being costly. We leverage our unique application generator ( Lightspoke Easy Creator ) to get the busy work out of the way. After that, a little proofessional guidance goes a long way - remember, out engineers help customers build several applications a week!
• Unique business process OK!: Lightspoke can "inject" customized business logic specific to your business upon system events (record saves, running views, custom workflow tasks, etc). We call this "Customizable Event Triggers".
• Extend and Expand: Lightspoke can integrate to your website or existing systems via standard web services technology.