Over your head?
 Are you working on an in-house FileMaker project that has you pulling your hair out?

 Is your budget too small for an outside developer?

 Is your credibility, or even your job on the line?

 We have the solution!
    (Just click the SOS button.)

  

---

“...garnering more than 25 awards and top-rated reviews... FileMaker Pro 7 won more awards in 2004 than the combined total won by seven other workgroup databases.”

FMI press release

---

“Their support is phenomenal. They've walked me through a lot of stuff and even corrected a couple of dumb mistakes on my part.”

Omar Ahsan

---

Foundation Database Systems provides professional FileMaker Pro™ development services to a variety of companies, organizations, and individuals worldwide. In addition to FileMaker Pro™, we are proficient with related technologies that complement FileMaker Pro™ such as Lasso, XML, PHP, JavaScript™ and AppleScript™. We build web sites, automate production systems, integrate off-the-shelf software packages to operate as one unified system and invent new solutions to knotty problems. But with rare exception, everything we do revolves around FileMaker Pro™.

In FileMaker, we build new solutions, upgrade existing solutions, convert version 6 and earlier solutions to version 7/8, troubleshoot solutions and analyze your solutions for viability with regard to continued development or as a vertical market product. If you're on a tight budget, we'll even be your project manager and guide you along the way as you develop a project yourself (see our FileMaker SOS page.)

---

Why do we concentrate so heavily on FileMaker Pro™?

At Foundation Database Systems we want to build solutions for our clients that we know will be inexpensive to create, remain viable for many years and not be a constant drain on the company budget. Although there are dozens of well-established database environments for a client or developer to choose from, at FDS we believe that certain criteria should be met before we can recommend one to our clients...

• The database system must be cross-platform
  A single-platform proprietary-format database like Access means your company's data is locked into that software and the platform it runs on. Since no company knows what it might do in the future, cross-platform databases are the only wise choice.

• The database environment must have proven longevity
  Most software products have one thing in common: they disappear! They are either discontinued by their publisher or the publisher itself goes out of business. To be a viable candidate, a database environment must have a lengthy and proven track record that assures its continued availability and future upgrades. It must also have a sufficiently broad user-base that even the publisher's bankruptcy isn't likely to make it go away. (It will most likely be picked up by another company.)

• The developer tools must allow rapid interface development
  Few clients are aware of the fact that 80% or more of the time it takes to build a database system isn't spent on the database at all, but on building the interface. The more quickly and easily the interface can be built, the less the cost to you. This simple requirement can turn a $100,000 job into a $10,000 job! A solution can be built in FileMaker in roughly a quarter (or less) of the time it would take to build it in most any other environment, simply because the interface can be built so quickly.

• The database development package must not be a money pit
  Some database environment publishers offer entry-level database systems at very attractive prices. Later you discover that needed features, or middle-ware required to communicate with other software, are sold as expensive add-ons. These products are designed not to provide you with the best software and economy, but to extract as much money as possible over a long period of time. We have seen solutions built in other environments where the yearly cost of maintenance alone was higher than our total projected cost of development in FileMaker!

At FDS we have found that only one database environment meets all of the above criteria to our satisfaction: FileMaker Pro™. There are other rapid-development database environments out there, but none offer the flexibility, longevity, economy and speed of FileMaker. It's not the answer to every problem, but it certainly comes close!

---

With FileMaker Pro™ we can help you build a new database, a vertical market product, update or upgrade your existing database, put your database on the web, build a shopping cart, or do just about anything else. Just give us a call (432-386-2121) or email us ( support@foundationdbs.com ) any time. We can't wait to help get your project up and running.