The education of America's children is being shaped in part by FileMaker Pro, the award-winning database solution from FileMaker Inc. Textbook publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston runs its entire business operations on FileMaker Pro. Some 400 staffers on both Macs and PCs use FileMaker Pro to run the editorial, production, sales, and marketing functions at five locations across the United States.

Business Challenge

The FileMaker Pro system, built by Database Administrator Jeff Moore and the consulting firm Umlaut LLC, contains some 180 related FileMaker Pro databases among three FileMaker Pro servers, the largest database of which is 30,000 records. The remote sales staff uses FileMaker Pro to manage contract and sample requests, a process that used to involve printing sample reports and faxing them to the processing. When a weekly sample report could include up to 500 pages of sample information, automation becomes a necessity. Using a FileMaker Pro Solution, they now generate these reports electronically, print them to file and e–mail them to the processing department. The company also automated its permissions system so that each time people in the editorial department need to use a quote or information from a book, they can simply fill out a FileMaker Pro form and track the request. Other FileMaker Pro databases track images used in books, book specs, contracts, production processes, purchase orders, and internal tracking among workgroups.

Successful Solution

The FileMaker Pro system, built by Database Administrator Jeff Moore and the consulting firm Umlaut LLC, contains some 180 related FileMaker Pro databases among three FileMaker Pro servers, the largest database of which is 30,000 records. The remote sales staff uses FileMaker Pro to manage contract and sample requests, a process that used to involve printing sample reports and faxing them to the processing. When a weekly sample report could include up to 500 pages of sample information, automation becomes a necessity. Using a FileMaker Pro Solution, they now generate these reports electronically, print them to file and e–mail them to the processing department. The company also automated its permissions system so that each time people in the editorial department need to use a quote or information from a book, they can simply fill out a FileMaker Pro form and track the request. Other FileMaker Pro databases track images used in books, book specs, contracts, production processes, purchase orders, and internal tracking among workgroups.

Future updates of FileMaker Pro will allow us to more easily connect our workgroup solutions to Oracle and other SQL applications. While the enterprise database industry lacks good development tool support for the Macintosh, FileMaker Pro's new ODBC support will allow us to bridge the gap for our Mac users, who make up 70 percent of our user base. FileMaker is probably one of the most completely cross–platform applications that I know of.

— Jeff Moore, Database Administrator

More recently, Holt, Rinehart and Winston purchased Oracle in anticipation of growing requirements that relate to their SQL based enterprise systems. 'Future updates of FileMaker Pro will allow us to more easily connect our workgroup solutions to Oracle and other SQL applications,' says Moore. He adds, 'While the enterprise database industry lacks good development tool support for the Macintosh, FileMaker Pro's new ODBC support will allow us to bridge the gap for our Mac users, who make up 70 percent of our user base. FileMaker is probably one of the most completely cross–platform applications that I know of.'