SolvEnterprises, LLC

New Office

2008-11-14T23:45:16Z

Solvent has just signed a lease for office space in the beautiful town of Helena, Alabama just south of Birmingham. We will be moving in over the next month or so and should have the office ready for client visits in January. We are looking forward to expanding our lineup of services and look for a redesigned www.DissolvingProblems.com and our new corporate site www.SolvEnterprises.org which will be replacing www.SolventLLC.com. Our new office is located at 271 Village Parkway, Helena, AL 35080 [Map]. Our mailing address will remain 9340 Helena Road, Suite F-109, Birmingham, AL 35244.

FileMaker Pro 6

2008-04-22T02:18:12Z

Solvent has a limited number of boxes of FileMaker Pro 6. These are all in excellent condition and have all the paperwork. These are legally licensed and not copies. FileMaker Pro 6 lets you easily manage all types of information, includes powerful new ways to import and integrate digital images and other media into your FileMaker solutions, and offers a virtually limitless ability to exchange data with other applications. Complete with enhanced productivity and formatting tools as well as a host of new and updated productivity templates, FileMaker Pro 6 is an efficient tool for quickly managing and sharing information. A robust alternative to tracking information with spreadsheets, FileMaker Pro 6 lets users efficiently exchange data and integrate with other applications via support for XML. Users can also import any file folder (containing text, sound, images, QuickTime movies, etc.) into a FileMaker database in a single timesaving step, or develop customized layouts and forms that can then be applied to other objects and text. Price: $149.00 each.

FileMaker 9 Certified Developer

2008-02-17T04:30:41Z

Solvent is pleased to announce that one of its founding partners is now a FileMaker 9 Certified Developer. Sean Walsh took the grueling 4-hour certification exam back in December and received notification this week that he passed. He is one of only a hand full of FileMaker 9 Certified Developers. Solvent is the only FileMaker Business Alliance member with an in-house FileMaker 9 Certified Developer in Alabama, Tennessee, or Mississippi.

Birmingham's FileMaker Users & Developers Group

2007-08-13T18:51:01Z

This Thursday we kick off our monthly FileMaker Users and Developers Group meetings after taking a break for the summer. I hope you've had plenty of fun despite the HOT, dry weather! This month we will meet at New Horizons Birmingham, a computer learning center off of Valley Avenue on Beacon Parkway West. (see MapQuest) They have classrooms that can accommodate more people than the Alabama Eye Bank's board room where we've been meeting. I would like to thank Paul Canzoneri for this generous offer. This month we will begin with an introduction of FileMaker Pro 9, announced barely a month ago. We will demonstrate some of the new features and discuss the possibilities they offer you. As always, we will have time for questions and to brainstorm your solutions or put our heads together to solve problems brought to the group. Because New Horizons has classrooms of various sizes, could you RSVP by next Tuesday to tell us whether you are coming so we can reserve the right sized room?

Presentation at Apple Store - The Summit

2007-08-01T18:46:37Z

We were invited to present one-hour introductions to FileMaker Pro 9 at Birmingham's Apple Store every Wednesday in August. These presentations are free... and you can play with the cool iPhones when we finish! You can view the schedule on Apple's web site.

FileMaker Pro 9 Released

2007-07-10T18:19:19Z

Today FileMaker, Inc. announced the release of FileMaker Pro 9 the most comprehensive update in years. What’s in it for you? Plenty. Here are nine of our favorite things about FileMaker Pro 9 that will benefit users. External Data For starters, FileMaker now supports external data sources. This will allow you to access data from other sources such as your web site that is powered by a MySQL database or your UPS WorldShip computer without having to constantly import data. No more lost in translation problems either. Your data is simply there. There is even the ability to create supplemental fields to fill in the gaps between the external data and fields you may need inside FileMaker. PDF Support FileMaker Pro 9 has better PDF support. You can now append to an existing PDF document which will allow you to build a PDF based on your specifications. In our tests PDF file size has also been reduced and eliminates the file size problems we experienced with prior versions. Sharing For those who share their FileMaker solution without the benefit of FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced software, you can now share with up to 9 concurrent users instead of the previous limit of 5. For small offices that don’t have the budget for FileMaker Server this is a great reason to upgrade. Conditional Formatting With conditional formatting, we can do more to help users by giving them visual clues. Say you want to make sure that a new account has certain fields filled out before the user finishes creating the account or moves on to placing an order. Now those fields can be highlighted with ease, instantly showing the user what required fields must be filled out before moving on. Quick Start Screen Finally! The Quick Start Screen gets a major overhaul. It now provides you with useful information with a central place to create new files, view a list of previously opened files (either local or remote), and get instant access to electronic documentation. Updates No longer will you have to constantly keep an eye on the FileMaker web site in hopes of a new update, FileMaker will do it for you automatically. Auto-Resize Layouts For the very first time, layouts can be built that will adjust based on the size of the window. This is great for multi-user environments where screen sizes are rarely the same from user to user. Now when you maximize a window the content can adjust too. Multi-Undo If you made changes to a record and want to undo the last three instead of reverting to the previously saved changes, it’s now a snap. Spellchecking While spellchecking has been with FileMaker for some time, and visual spellcheck as well, it was often confusing to see a person’s name underlined when it was spelled correctly. Now spellchecking can be turned of on a field-by-field basis, eliminating the unnecessary squiggles. That’s just the beginning. There are many more features including new features to FileMaker Server and Server Advanced. On Site Demo If you would like to know if upgrading is the right choice for you, or you are simply curious about what FileMaker Pro 9 can do we will be happy to give you an on-site demonstration of the power of the new FileMaker Pro 9. Contact us to set up your appointment now. Sales When you are ready to purchase any of the FileMaker product line, Solvent can handle all of your purchasing needs. Call today.

Solvent Joins the FileMaker Business Alliance

2007-06-23T18:18:24Z

We have a special announcement here at Solvent. We have been accepted into the FileMaker Business Alliance! The FBA requires its members to successfully pass a rigorous approval process to ensure that only the finest FileMaker consultancies are a part of the alliance. Solvent is the only FBA consultant firm in Birmingham/Central Alabama and one of only three in the state. The goal of the FBA is to partner FileMaker's corporate resources with independent FileMaker consultancies to enhance sales and marketing. This partnership, along with our Technical Network membership, helps keep Solvent in-the-know about all things FileMaker. With this alliance, you can now purchase your FileMaker software directly from Solvent. We can assist you in making your software purchasing decisions and help with your volume licensing and non-profit agreements. In addition we can install the software, help you keep tabs on your licensing and make sure you are always up-to-date with all the latest software upgrades -- all at no extra charge. When FileMaker releases new products, Solvent will be ready to answer your questions. We look forward to what this exciting new partnership will bring.

Answers Posted

2007-06-21T17:47:04Z

We've update the answers to the business card brain teasers. Check them out here.

The Powell Group

2007-05-09T17:04:23Z

PROBLEM: Marketing Broker Needs Contact Management
The Powell Group is based on a unique business model in which the company independently represents media outlets to other businesses. The company's original database had an interface that was cumbersome and outmoded programming. Over time, sales reps migrated all their accounts' contact information into their individual email programs. This prevented the company from being able to track the detailed information related to their brokerage.

SOLUTION: Develop a New Central Database
Solvent provided The Powell Group with a far more nimble database solution in FileMaker. In addition to keeping all their old information intact, new functionality was added to allow staff to set notes and reminders, email directly from the database, add tags for customized searching, and much more. With the data no longer divided, the overall picture is clearly more organized and efficient. In addition, all the contact information it houses can be synchronized with each sales rep's cell phone for travel portability.

Scott Howard joins Solvent

2007-05-04T20:09:19Z

We are proud to announce that Scott Howard is joining the Solvent team. Scott has been actively developing in FileMaker Pro since 1992 after 900 customers were dumped on him with no way of handling them all. He took the FileMaker manual home that night and developed a quote management system. He later sold that system to a local computer retailer. In 1996 he joined the Alabama Eye Bankas Director of Administration and Information Services. In the first few years he designed their AEBIS database system which grew to manage every aspect of the Eye Bank: from initial donor referral, tissue evaluation and placement, invoicing, marketing, statistics, and more. Scott is currently redesigning AEBIS for FileMaker 8.5. He presented AEBIS at Internet World 2000 with Steven Marcek, Chief Technology Officer, FileMaker, Inc. He has been quoted in FileMaker Advisor Magazine, written for ISO FileMaker, highlighted in FileMaker advertisements in MacWorld and PC World, and he is the founder of the Birmingham FileMaker Developers Group. As a consultant, he has developed solutions for the National Guard, the United States Eye Injury Registry, Saks/Parisian, Stanley, Inc., The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Cowart Hospitality Services, and many others. He also conducts basic FileMaker Pro training classes for corporate and academic clients.

Scott has been actively involved in eye banking nationally. He served four years on the Board of the Eye Bank Association of America, served on many committees and ad hoc work groups, has spoken at annual conferences, and lobbied Congress on various issues. He is also actively involved with churches in the US, Brazil and Africa.

Student Life

2007-04-11T03:26:46Z

PROBLEM: Student Life’s internal staff too busy to make needed changes.
When Student Life’s internal FileMaker developers were to busy to handle implementing a new phase of their extremely large database they turned to SolvEnterprises to make the additions.

Alabama Eye Bank

2007-01-16T01:54:38Z

PROBLEM: Tracking Corneal Tissue
From the heart of Alabama, vital components in sight-saving surgery go out to patients around the world. The Alabama Eye Bank provides corneal tissue for transplantation, for research, and for medical education. It's a task with prodigious data-management demands. They manage tons of data as they screen potential eye donors, procure, place, and evaluate eye tissue, track receivables, and direct mail campaigns, evaluate hospital participation in eye donation, and plan for marketing and public relations. Data is coming in constantly.

SOLUTION: Custom FileMaker Solution
Some fifty FileMaker Pro databases handle a wide range of tasks at the Alabama Eye Bank, serving workgroups in the Administrative, Technical, and Hospital Development/Public Relations division, as well as the remote marketing representatives who log in over the web. "We looked at other eye-banking database systems," notes Scott, "but they would have forced us to change the way we work. FileMaker Pro allowed us to create a solution that fit our workflow. I currently use the entire FileMaker product line--FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Developer, FileMaker Pro Server, FileMaker Pro Unlimited, and FileMaker Pro Mobile. I'm always looking for ways to improve our operations, and FileMaker Pro has been the main tool to accomplish this."

This powerful system operates across a diverse system environment, with Windows NT 4, Macintosh OS 9.2.2 and OS X 10.3.2 machines all running FileMaker Pro applications. And plans are afoot to expand its web capabilities through the use of the Advanced Web Publishing features of FileMaker Pro 7. "I'm learning XML and XSLT," says Scott, "so I can leverage FileMaker Pro 7's new, more robust features for our web interface.

Getting it out the door.

2006-08-27T14:09:54Z

I thought this was a great quote from 43 Folders' Merlin Mann on his podcast , "Don't be so hung up on getting it perfect the first time that you fail to make anything." This isn't to say that you should push a sub-par product out the door. One of the agile development principles is that you can compromise on what features will be included in a release but you cannot compromise a release date.

Parisian

2006-08-16T02:02:26Z

PROBLEM: Mailers Require Coordination of Myriad Details
When Parisian advertises its merchandise for a sale or season, it routinely creates a mailer of some kind—a postcard, flyer, or magazine. These mailers are produced in house and feature merchandise that is provided by hundreds of different vendors. Each piece, whether it is apparel, an accessory, or a cosmetic item, must be collected, dispatched to the appropriate photo studio, then returned to the vendor.]]> Although a senior marketing associate was able to keep mental tabs on the merchandise as it went through the various stages, Parisian wanted the entire department to be able to quickly scan for missing items and keep the ad creation process going smoothly.

SOLUTION: Develope a FileMaker based Tracking System
Solvent developed a robust system for multiple users to be able to number, describe, track and ship its merchandise to multiple locations. It gave the department the ability to use barcodes to uniquely identify each piece and quick scan the merchandise for packing.

Welcome

2006-07-30T19:08:30Z

Solvent is currently in the process of developing it's web site. If you are a FileMaker user or developer we welcome you to view our FileMaker wiki or you may contribute your knowledge if you so desire.