The Technological Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota provides three technology-intensive graduate degree programs that includes technology management, medical device innovation, and security. Programs help to bridge the gap between business and engineering. They focus on helping high-tech companies grow by helping their leaders.
It’s expected that a Technology Leadership Institute (TLI) takes advantage of the best technology solutions available, and this proved true when they found BrilliantHub and LuminFire to help them. It was a bonus to know that LuminFire’s founder happened to be a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology engineering program.
Workers in several departments at the TLI needed help managing information regarding prospective students and professors. Information was scattered in many locations including Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and in an older FileMaker database that was not meeting their needs.
FileMaker is all about customization. You can build anything with it. As the leading Workplace Innovation Platform, there was unlocked potential that could help TLI be more effective. Unfortunately, the original design of their FileMaker solution was not easy to use and was difficult to maintain primarily due to the limitations of the original developer. In addition, several poor design decisions were made that limited the solution’s functionality.
LuminFire put a plan in place to rebuild the solution using the BrilliantHub platform to take advantage of thousands of hours of coding and testing. Customizations would be an important part of the project, as well as migrating all existing data to the new solution and eliminating redundant silos of information. We removed duplicate records, made it easy to share and created one source of truth for all information. This made it easier to create groups and send information to the right mailing lists. The finished solution assists with accounting, recruitment, and ongoing management of program applicants.
Additional benefits of the project included migration to the latest version of FileMaker, consolidation of multiple files, implementation of a real security model that tracked changes at a user level, better integration eliminating double entry, and easier to use optimized workflows. LuminFire held training sessions with key personnel to be sure that the tool met their needs, then provided further customizations as required to make sure the entire experience of using their solution maximized their productivity.
“BrilliantHub was very customizable. It was really easy to work with LuminFire to get exactly what we needed. It helped my productivity tremendously giving me more time to work on other projects…not wasting it. LuminFire was very detail oriented, and that helped me. You can trust that what they’ve done for us, they can do for others. They are very responsive and helpful.” – Amy Danzeisen, TLI Recruiter
If you have an aging FileMaker database that needs updating, LuminFire can move it forward so that you have the best solution to make your business even more effective, productive, and profitable.
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 the Claris platform including FileMaker, Laravel, and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.