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Roy F. Weston
Top Billing
Steven Swarter is a Financial Analyst with Weston's Marketing
Division, and it's his job to know that Time is Money. So you can
imagine how frustrated he had become with the system formerly used
for recording billable time for the department that puts together
Weston's informational and promotional publications. It was a
system built around three-part carbon forms -- which had to be
manually entered into a series of databases for processing. The
process was taking 16 to 20 man-hours per week -- and consuming an
average of 20 thousand billing tickets a year -- while producing a
system that was clumsy and inefficient to use. The data was there
-- but forget about trying to produce an easy-to-handle
summary.
The answer? A box on the shelf.
A box containing FileMaker Pro.
Steven took the box down, opened it up --- and decided to give it
a try. 'It was that simple,' he says. 'As was using the
software.'
'I began development of our billing system as a covert mission to
prove a better way,' explains Steven. 'The old system used dBASE. I
was certain that was not the way to go. I finished the billing
database for graphics, showed it to their manager and got the
approval to use it. Over the next six months, billing systems were
developed for the other services groups. There were no discussions
-- as Nike says, 'Just Do it!''
Since Weston is a Microsoft-oriented company, Access is the usual
database of choice. But in Steven's department, things are
different -- and his colleagues know it. 'Everyone who sees what
I've developed is amazed,' he declares. 'They even say it seems
easier to use. I know it is. I have tried Access and find it too
difficult.'
Steven's system is made up of fourteen individual databases, with
well over 140,000 total records. And it's revolutionized the way
the billing is done in the department. The use of paper billing
forms has been cut by over 20 thousand a year -- forms are only
printed as needed. Billing is more accurate -- it's no longer
necessary to hand-calculate the totals and enter them manually into
the computer. And tickets no longer get lost -- a database record
can't fall down behind a desk.
Most important, summaries can be prepared instantly. 'As far as
project budgets are concerned, totals per week, month, year and
historical are all a click away,' notes Steven. 'We are better able
to watch the profitability of our work.' And, the company is able
to keep careful track of which publications are current -- and
which need to be updated, improving service to clients.
Contact information
Contact Info for Customer:Steven Swarter
Financial Analyst
Roy F. Weston Inc.
610-701-3092
swarters@mail.rfweston.com
Filemaker Contact:
Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com
- Environmental consulting firm Roy F. Weston, Inc. helps keep the water flowing, clean and clear, for cities across America. To handle the flow of paperwork, Weston's Marketing Division depends on FileMaker Pro. Though Roy F. Weston is a Microsoft-oriented company, the Marketing Division chose easy-to-use FileMaker Pro over Access.
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