Keeping a website up to date is a constant challenge. But what if you've got more than four thousand people involved in keeping a vast web presence up to date? That's when you need FileMaker Pro — the award–winning database software application from FileMaker Inc.

Business Challenge

Novell Corporation spans the globe — it's one of the world's leading creators of net services software, used to power all types of networks. With offices spread out worldwide, the web isn't just a convenience — it's a necessity, a vital tool which enables Novell to fully coordinate its development efforts.

Web Content Architect Kevin Millecam is in the thick of Novell's web activity. 'Our group manages the web needs for all of Novell's 4,600 employees and their respective departments,' says Kevin. A big part of Kevin's job is ensuring that everyone in every department knows what needs to be done when, what the status is at any given moment on any given project — and the more the company has grown, the more complicated that task has become. 'It didn't take us long to realize that tracking all the requests for updates, changes, new pages, and promotions couldn't be tracked on a whiteboard,' he notes. 'Since we have team members in different cities around the world, we needed a distributed system that could be easily accessed and updated.'

Successful Solution

In other words, Novell needed a high–performance database application which could be easily accessed over the web. Novell needed FileMaker Pro.

Kevin's team has built an impressive, smoothly–operating worldwide system around FileMaker. The starting point is a web–based form which may be accessed anywhere in the world. Requests for web updates or other such work are submitted through this form — and requests automatically generate a thank–you screen which points the user to the database, where the progress of the requested project may be tracked. At the same time, an email alert is automatically sent to Web Production Managers informing them of the request, and outlining the details. Text messages are also sent to the pagers or cell phones of managers who have requested such notification.

FileMaker Pro allows us to develop and modify our solutions quickly and on–the–fly. Other solutions we looked into required significant investment in time and high–level development resources.

— Kevin Millecam, Web Content Architect, Novell Inc.

Once all parties involved have been notified of the request, they assign the necessary work to the proper production teams — and these teams use the FileMaker Pro database to log the completion of each step of the work. Projects are sorted by priority, and at a glance any manager or team member can see what's been done, what remains to be done, and when it needs to be completed. No chance for confusion, no chance for anyone falling out of the loop.