Selection

When it comes to available technologies to address your business problem, picking the most effective solution can be a daunting task. Starting out with the right technologies is one of the most important components of a successful project. Computer SI considers the trade-offs between power, stability, cost, and ease of integration. As a consulting company we evaluate and keep up with the latest trends in platforms, components, software development and engineering to separate the truly useful innovations from the hype.

Methodology

Our meticulous planning, diagramming, prototyping and documenting have saved our customers and us time, money and headaches in the past; we are firm believers in the engineering approach to software development. We know when to re-use and when to re-invent. We are happy to act as project leads and combine our development resources with a customer's in-house staff, to act as an additional resource for in-house development at a customer's site or to be completely responsible for all aspects of a project. All our projects are designed and worked on by teams that strive for clarity and extensibility in design to allow for easy modification and even easy hand off to customers' in-house or third-party development teams for future development.

Back-end Tools

Most of our custom solutions rely on database, messaging and application or web servers to provide a foundation on which a stable, scalable yet completely tailored solution can be built. For most mid- and small-sized applications we recommend and use the Microsoft Back Office Suite of servers: Exchange, SQL and IIS on Windows NT and Windows 2000 Servers. We are also happy to provide customers integration to legacy systems. In addition, we use the OnBase suite of applications to provide Workflow, Imaging, Document / Knowledge Management and COLD solutions.

Development Tools

When picking a development tool, we consider its use. Our staff has a wide range of experience with different tools and languages, and we pick a team to match the technologies and the project at hand. In the past we've used Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual J++, Symantec Visual Cafe, Macromedia Tools (for dynamic HTML and Flash), Visual Interdev (for ASP / VBScript / JavaScript) and many others. We have helped customers update or migrate legacy systems written using xBase / FoxPro, Access and Business Basic. We always keep in mind the end use of our project, scalability and performance requirements and select the tools that allow us to produce a solution that meets all requirements, are easy to use and are still cost-effective.

Integration

The most well-designed and well-tested projects can still fall apart if environmental issues are not taken into consideration. Hardware, operating systems, supporting software, network and connectivity issues all need to be part of a well designed system. Our staff of MCSEs (Microsoft Certified System Engineers) can arrange for all aspects of project integration from designing new networks and system architechtures, hardware selection and procurement, upgrades and migration procedures, to evaluating the suitability of existing hardware and systems.