With inflation and unemployment at an all–time low, today's job market is richer than ever. To find qualified staff to fill positions, many companies are expanding their recruitment efforts to a national level. Helping them do this is JWG, a Needham, Massachusetts–based recruitment ad agency. With the click of a button, JWG's account executives can match job openings with the most appropriate newspapers, pinpoint ad rates, determine the exact content and graphics of their ads, and place ads with any number of newspapers around the world. Driving JWG's success is a comprehensive sales order processing system powered completely by FileMaker Pro, the award–winning database solution from FileMaker Inc.

Business Challenge

The sales order processing system is made up of 17 FileMaker Pro files, including a publications vendor database, client database, sales order entry database, and an archive system. To prevent the same ad headline from appearing in two different papers the same week, JWG ad copywriters coordinate headlines via a Web–based headline log database. And JWG field staff can research prominent recruitment Web sites using a Web–based recruitment database. Once an ad is ready for publication, the FileMaker Pro system generates a 'ticket' that automatically routes it to AdSEND, a digital ad delivery service provided by the Associated Press.

Until the FileMaker Pro solution was introduced at the beginning of 1998, JWG coordinated most of its sales order process manually, with the help of one legacy flat–file FileMaker system. When the company decided to rebuild its system, FileMaker Pro remained the only true contender. The system had to accommodate the company's 10 networked branch offices totaling approximately 200 Mac, Windows 95, and Windows NT clients. 'Believe me,' says Mark Annati, Director of Information Systems for JWG, 'I looked at Access and even Excel for this, but I couldn't find any other solution that was as cost–effective and quick to implement as FileMaker Pro.'

Successful Solution

Quick is the operative word here. The initial FileMaker Pro solution—built to interoperate with an archaic accounting system—took The Support Group developer Jeff Fox only five months to build. Once JWG replaced its accounting system, Fox completely rebuilt the FileMaker Pro system from the ground up, this time in a little over nine months. 'Because it's so easy to do rapid development in FileMaker Pro,' reports Annati 'we were able to roll out two completely different sales order processing systems without skipping a beat.'

I looked at Access and even Excel for this, but I couldn't find any other solution that was as cost–effective and quick to implement as FileMaker Pro.

— Mark Annati, Director of Information Systems, JWG