The internal marketing department at a company with more than 3,500 employees contacted the team at LuminFire to build a custom application based on BrilliantHub, a foundational solution based on Claris FileMaker. They’d been using Salesforce in an attempt to manage complex job workflows and work requests, but even after going through several custom development revisions with Salesforce developers, their app still had a rigid job structure that was frustrating the team and causing expensive inefficiencies. This, combined with the fact that Salesforce charges on a per user/per month basis, the Salesforce system was costing more than the client could justify.
We proposed a new custom system based on BrilliantHub to completely replace their Salesforce system. Their primary investment with this solution would be confined to the up-front customizations desired to make it work exactly the way they wanted it to, with only minimal, affordable ongoing costs for hosting and licensing of Claris FileMaker. This meant a significantly lower price point than Salesforce.
To meet their internal requirements and budget constraints, we were tasked to complete the development in less than two months. Replace Salesforce in under two months? This task sounded nearly impossible but our team took on the challenge and completed all primary development on-time and within-budget using the low-code capabilities of FileMaker in combination with the jumpstart that the pre-built BrilliantHub business solution offered.
Choosing the Right Tool for the Job
Sometimes Salesforce may be the right choice to solve some problems, but in so many other situations Claris FileMaker is the best choice. At LuminFire we have experience with multiple technologies, including several web technologies such as Laravel, meaning we can identify and choose the right solution for each client’s exact situation. We’ve even written a WordPress plug-in for Salesforce that populates leads from an online form.
In this marketing/creative department’s case, we determined that BrilliantHub/FileMaker was the right solution for their needs. An analogy may help. Think of Salesforce as a hammer and FileMaker as a screwdriver. If you try hard enough, you can pound in a screw with a hammer, but the results will be excessive. The screw won’t work as designed when you try to remove it, and the wall will likely be damaged. As Maslow’s saying goes, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
In reality, most laypeople aren’t able to choose the right tool without the help of a trusted technology advisor, as they don’t have enough understanding of the current technology landscape, nor do they have exposure to all the options available or experience using a variety of tools.
What we Built
To make this project a success, we took advantage of the rapid application development tools available with the Claris FileMaker Platform and then integrated the system with best-of-breed web tools and services including WordPress, Amazon S3, and Sparkpost.
- FileMaker Pro clients installed locally on workstations for full use of FileMaker features, reporting, plugins, and system integration.
- FileMaker Server in the cloud through LuminFire’s BrilliantHosting. The main data storage and repository for all information.
- Custom WordPress web form – Used by anyone to submit a Marketing Request form. This allows anyone / anonymous users who do not have FileMaker client installed direct access to create new requests in the solution.
- Amazon S3 is used to store PDFs, images, Microsoft Word documents, etc. in a secure place where they can be accessed from FileMaker or the web form
- SparkPost – A transactional email service for sending emails reliably (increased deliverability and tracking). Used to send notification emails upon the completion of various job related tasks. (Mailgun and Mandrill are other options we’ve used on other projects.)
Moving and Mapping Information
There was a significant amount of data to move from the old Salesforce system. We migrated nearly 9,000 jobs and mapped over 200 custom fields to new relational tables in FileMaker. We also transferred over 1,000 contacts that included information on employees so that we could connect them to jobs in meaningful ways. There was zero data loss.
Cooperating with Corporate IT
One key to the project was cooperating with this large organization’s IT department to make implementation as simple as possible. There were many security requirements that we worked within to provide a solution that utilized industry best practices and to maintain data security. Our past experience with FileMaker implementation projects with other large organizations such as Target Corporation, American Express, and others gave us the experience we needed to make this possible.
To simplify the work required by the internal IT group, the entire solution (both web and FileMaker) is hosted in the cloud by LuminFire. To gain the advantages of this flexible system, IT needed only to deploy the FileMaker client on the required workstations and open a port in their firewall to allow access specifically to the hosted FileMaker server.
WebDirect Deployment
During the COVID epidemic (2020) nearly all the employees started working remotely from home. We were able to move the entire deployment of BrilliantHub to utilize Claris’ WebDirect technology. This implementation increased remote performance and eliminated the need to install the FileMaker application. The entire application functions now using only the web browser.
Custom Modules and Reporting
We custom built many modules to track information for the project including Contacts, Jobs, Job Templates, Activities, Documents, etc. The way we were able to implement the job templates allowed for total flexibility for different types of jobs…something that they were unable to achieve with their Salesforce solution. We also provided flexible reporting with many options including export of information to Excel for additional analysis and formatting, direct printing to PDF, screen dashboards, and emailing of information.
Integration
We utilized WordPress to build the structure around the website submission form. It provided a pre-built theme and form creation tool so that we could connect it to FileMaker directly. We specialize in FileMaker integration with WordPress at all levels. Implementation was made easier with BrilliantConnect to integrate the two systems.
Security
Some IT professionals are hesitant to move to hosting in the cloud or move data out of their office environment due to security concerns. We invest time in educating them, and showing them that the opposite is true.
Often your data is more safe and secure in the cloud than at your office. Our highly secure data centers haves many more physical controls on the hardware and access than most in-office server rooms. Taking advantage of all modern security options such as SSL, EAR (Encryption at Rest), encrypted data transmission, audit logging, etc., this organization’s solution is now fully HIPAA compliant and meets the strictest security standards. Many creative departments may not require this level of security, but for this client, it was necessary.
Overall Benefits
With the FileMaker solution utilizing BrilliantHub, the client got a custom flexible job tracking system built to their exact specifications, where they can have varying types of processes for each job and reporting as required. They did not have to try to fit their processes into a generalized system that was not designed to support their needs.
Conclusion
For the 60+ users of the system, the estimated return on investment (ROI) is about $150,000 annually. All users are operating more productively and effectively than before. Total development costs were more than paid for in the first year of use.
The system is flexible and the client can enhance the solution however they want to in the future. On launch day the client expressed their appreciation for our work:
“Thank you cannot begin to express my appreciation for everything you’ve done – and are still doing – to get BrilliantHub running for us. Your patience, flexibility, and insight have been unwavering. We certainly couldn’t have launched today without you. LuminFire has been wonderful to work with, and you are truly appreciated.”
If you are interested in the power of BrilliantHub technology, set up a free consultation.
Tim Cimbura – CEO, CFO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with Claris FileMaker, Laravel, and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.