Customer stories


Riverside Cemetery

Perpetually Organized

A cemetery is a sacred place -- a quiet, restful place for family and friends to remember loved ones.

But a cemetery is also a business. And to be successful, a business must be well-organized. Database technology is an increasingly important part of organization of records for many cemeteries -- and at Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook New Jersey, a vital role is being played by FileMaker Pro, the award-winning database software application from FileMaker Inc.

Founded nearly a century ago to serve the Jewish community of Greater New York, Riverside resembles a formal city park, with its soft, rolling hills and tree-lined avenues. It is a place of dignity and of tradition and a part of that tradition is a dedication to service to families. Riverside's management takes full advantage of modern tools in providing that service. 'At Riverside, computer technology is used for nearly every aspect of record keeping, accounting, customer communications, marketing, and photography,' comments Riverside president Peter Blacksberg.

FileMaker Pro databases play a key role in the Riverside system, as day-to-day utility tools throughout the office. ' For example,' Peter explains, 'we use FileMaker Pro as a document generator, to produce burial work orders, and to produce letters to families -- FileMaker works for us as an easily-customized Rolodex in completing important paperwork.'

FileMaker is also vital to the complex task of record keeping for the cemetery itself. While Riverside's main interment database is built on another platform -- Advanced Revelation -- FileMaker serves as a valuable developmental tool, allowing Peter to easily experiment with new applications which, if successful, can become part of the main system. 'FileMaker Pro is an excellent point-and-click prototyping tool,' says Peter. 'When I want to show an idea I can paste it up in FileMaker, and it works!'

FileMaker also adds valuable functionality to the main database. 'For example,' Peter recalls, 'I wanted a printed list of every interment in the cemetery -- a list of about 60,000 names dating back to 1906. I simply brought all this information over into FileMaker Pro, and used it as a printing engine to create the full list. I really like the flexibility of FileMaker, especially when it comes to importing data.'

New uses for FileMaker Pro are being found all the time. Recently, Riverside staffers have been taking advantage of FileMaker's ability to handle graphics -- pasting actual map sections into individual records which create an easily-searchable, graphically-enabled mapping database of the entire cemetery. And other uses are more mainstream: FileMaker Pro is at the center of Riverside's Human Resources system, using an application custom-designed by Peter himself. All told, there are about fifteen different FileMaker databases in use at Riverside, containing anywhere from 1 to 60,000 records depending on the application.

Peter is a strong advocate of database use in the cemetery business -- and he's expecting to come up with even more ideas for how to provide better service and more efficient organization as he continues to explore the power of FileMaker Pro.



Contact information

Contact Info for Customer:

Peter Blacksberg
President
Riverside Cemetery
info@riversidecemetery.org
http://www.riversidecemetery.org


Filemaker Contact:

Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com


Overview
  • At Riverside Cemetary, FileMaker Pro plays a key role, powering day-to-day utility tools throughout the office. FileMaker Pro is so efficient -- simplifying tasks like producing burial work orders, generating letters to families, and handling human resources -- that Riverside is looking for even more ways to use it to provide better service and more efficient organization.
Industry
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