We can program in OpenXML or Open Document Format to allow documents to be read and written by many different programs and operating systems. Some applications we have developed include MYOB records interchange, billing information and PDF generation on the fly for an online trading site.
We have also imported 1 million rows of text data (patents from many different sources and dubious quality) into a MySQL database which can then be searched and munged (reformatted and cleaned) to meet requirements in a very complex mixed data environment. We can do this because we are qualified information managers and can get all the meta data (data about data) right and completely reformat the data without having to corrupt it or do hideous programming. We deliver smart data management. We were the only one of 5 developers to be able to achieve this goal with limited hardware at our disposal.
We have integrated group sites to add these features:
Help Desks and Bug Tracking Systems can be setup using databases and open source software on the Internet to cut support costs and improve product service and quality. There is a heap of overlap with project management in help desks and bug tracking systems - one is the developers and other is the customers. When the 2 halves work together the quicker turnaround of bugs and better quality of software management solves a lot of technical headaches and builds up the business instead of eroding value through high support costs. We use it ourselves and it goes straight to the bottom line.
To save hardware, we can create virtual machines to run your applications. This allows us to run Linux and Windows on top of each other. We did this on limited hardware in Brisbane to enable us to test software running on FreeBSD, SuSE Linux and Fedora Linux all on a Windows XP Pro PC without having to install them on separate partitions. This is heaven for a sysop with a limited budget.
This flexibility improves agility and produces quick disaster recovery. This is what they had to do after September 11, 2001 in USA - move their staff to another location and rebuild servers from backups to survive using minimal hardware and working over the Internet from remote locations. Many sites or small businesses worldwide now backup to a remote server for a monthly fee per Gigabyte.
The user need never know that the server that is delivering and saving their data is actually running Linux. Windows will just see a Windows share that they can connect to. Linux has better reliability and can mimic Windows to such a degree that user's copy of Windows can work perfectly without having to have Windows running on the Server. This is the power of a network that is operating system agnostic.
On a more technical level, we integrate Linux and Microsoft Windows servers, systems and files via XML and common file-sharing protocols such as Samba. Data is seamlessly read and indexed from Windows on Linux for easy access via Web-based software (Software as a Service or Web services e.g. Google Apps) which is independent of operating system. In other words, the Linux server is transparent to the Windows machine and the Windows user can use Linux data and vice versa opening whole new areas of collaboration between Linux and Windows users without having to have versions of software specific to an operating system to allow access to shared data. This is called open systems and allows for interoperability, the heaven for users, as it stops lock-in by vendors and gives users choice.
Some examples: Open-Xchange, Samba
Users on a LAN can share a connection via a proxy setup by us to block attacks and reduce data transfer costs. We have programmed the proxy firewall with Python to allow the sysop to manage what users can see for schools internet connections.
We can setup online forums and chats so users can share problems and solutions, or in this Web 2.0 world, form or interact with social networks! We have also setup online newsletter blasts to subscribers of trade organisations and trading sites for placing ads and taking orders for various communities of online sellers, buyers and brokers in competition to eBay.
We setup or develop portals with single sign on so users don't have to continually remember usernames and passwords for different sections of the same site.
Contact us if you want a quote on doing integration of groupware for you.
Created: 23 Jan 2006 13:26
Last Updated: 25 Oct 2008 18:01