BrilliantHub Starter (formerly fmIgnite) is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and business solution that you can use to begin building a complete custom solution using FileMaker, the #1 rapid application development platform in the world. LuminFire provides BrilliantHub Starter unlocked and editable for FREE so you can begin using the FileMaker Workplace Innovation Platform quickly.
BrilliantHub Starter is a great foundation to expand on and to build your own ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) tool.
BrilliantHub Starter is built on a solid foundation of developer best practices; honed over the last 20 years of building FileMaker solutions to make it powerful—yet easy to modify. It takes full advantage of new features available in FileMaker 17. Every development choice was made to meet the goals of providing the best starter solution available today. For example:
- Plainly named tables, fields and scripts.
- Relationship graph built using the anchor-buoy method.
- Card windows are used for the contact selector.
- Script parameter passing utilizes native JSON functions.
- Set up to integrate well with BrilliantSync, our “sync as a service” that makes communicating with external web services and keeping data in sync with your WordPress website simple and worry free.
- Set up to utilize BrilliantConnect advanced integration code modules.
Fields and tables are named in a similar way to our fully featured BrilliantHub business solution framework.
You can use BrilliantHub Starter as is, customize it yourself, or if you love it and want it to do more, you can decide to upgrade to BrilliantHub Pro. BrilliantHub Pro has over 10,000 hours ($1.75 million in R&D). We’ll make sure the data migration process goes smoothly.
We have versions of BrilliantHub that are built for specific industries: Manufacturing, Creative Services, and Art Galleries, to name a few. You would then gain all the custom features required for your business type while still being able to fully customize the solution.
BrilliantHub Starter’s UI design is elegant, modern, and easy to use. Buttons are easily discoverable in blue for navigation and grey buttons are used for everything else. Themes and styles are identical to its’ big brother BrilliantHub so that even layout elements can be moved to a future BrilliantHub Pro solution if required.
Key modules and features of BrilliantHub starter include:
- Dashboard
- Contacts
- Invoices
- Products
- Preferences
The data model is designed for simplicity and flexibility. For example, Accounts, Employees, Clients, People, and other common tables are combined into a single Contacts table so that components can be reused and applied consistently throughout the solution. For example, if you add a module for sending messages via Slack, any Contact in the database can utilize it without building it an integration for each entity. For simplicity, estimates are handled via an invoice in Quote status rather than requiring 2 additional tables and many additional layouts.
One goal of this solution is to let FileMaker be FileMaker. We’ve not attempted to reinvent the things that come built in — where FileMaker provides a built-in toolbar we allow access to it.
We have not included complex InsertFromUrl (aka cURL) calls and API integration technologies in BrilliantHub Starter because they are not required when you pair the app with BrilliantConnect. While FileMaker 16 added extended support for JSON and cURL commands, these can’t insulate you from the constantly changing APIs of web services. Using BrilliantSync or BrilliantConnect allows you to connect to the web using ESS and core FileMaker script steps — no Computer Science degree necessary.
For someone new to FileMaker, we believe that BrilliantHub Starter is a great place to start. It is simple, clean, organized, and understandable. It’s a solid foundation upon which you can build your key differentiator and technology solution for your organization. And, unlike other solutions, it has a clear and efficient upgrade path to BrilliantHub Pro, our enterprise FileMaker business solution.
Download your fully unlocked and modifiable copy of BrilliantHub Starter today and start building your ultimate custom business solution.
BrilliantHub Starter currently being redeveloped and redesigned
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Tim Cimbura – CEO 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 the Claris platform including FileMaker and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.