Customer stories


Novell

FileMaker Keeps Novell's website up-to-date

Keeping a website up to date is a constant challenge. But what if you've got more than four thousand people involved in keeping a vast web presence up to date?

That's when you need FileMaker Pro -- the award-winning database software application from FileMaker Inc.

Novell Corporation spans the globe -- it's one of the world's leading creators of net services software, used to power all types of networks. With offices spread out worldwide, the web isn't just a convenience -- it's a necessity, a vital tool which enables Novell to fully coordinate its development efforts.

Web Content Architect Kevin Millecam is in the thick of Novell's web activity. 'Our group manages the web needs for all of Novell's 4600 employees and their respective departments,' says Kevin. A big part of Kevin's job is ensuring that everyone in every department knows what needs to be done when, what the status is at any given moment on any given project -- and the more the company has grown, the more complicated that task has become. 'It didn't take us long to realize that tracking all the requests for updates, changes, new pages, and promotions couldn't be tracked on a whiteboard,' he notes. 'Since we have team members in different cities around the world, we needed a distributed system that could be easily accessed and updated.'

In other words, Novell needed a high-performance database application which could be easily accessed over the web. Novell needed FileMaker Pro.

Kevin's team has built an impressive, smoothly-operating worldwide system around FileMaker. The starting point is a web-based form which may be accessed anywhere in the world. Requests for web updates or other such work are submitted through this form -- and requests automatically generate a thank-you screen which points the user to the database, where the progress of the requested project may be tracked. At the same time, an email alert is automatically sent to Web Production Managers informing them of the request, and outlining the details. Text messages are also sent to the pagers or cell phones of managers who have requested such notification.

Once all parties involved have been notified of the request, they assign the necessary work to the proper production teams -- and these teams use the FileMaker Pro database to log the completion of each step of the work. Projects are sorted by priority, and at a glance any manager or team member can see what's been done, what remains to be done, and when it needs to be completed. No chance for confusion, no chance for anyone falling out of the loop.

Once all the work on a project has been completed, a radio button is clicked, and the project is flagged 'Complete,' with the record automatically transferred to the Archive section of the database. 'It's been a great tool to allow members of our disparate team to coordinate our efforts across geographies,' enthuses Kevin. 'FileMaker Pro allows us to develop and modify our solutions quickly and on-the-fly. Other solutions we looked into required significant investment in time and high-level development resources.'

It's hard enough to keep everyone working on the same page when the whole team is in a single building, so one can imagine the challenge involved in managing a global team. But for Novell, FileMaker Pro has made the difference.



Contact information

Contact Info for Customer:

Kevin Millecam
Web Content Architect
Novell Inc.
kmillecam@novell.com


Filemaker Contact:

Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com


Overview
  • Novell Corporation needed a high-performance project tracking tool which could be easily accessed over the Web. Thanks to FileMaker Pro, thousands of Novell employees worldwide can check the status of ongoing projects at a glance.
Industry
  • High Technology
  • Information Technology
  • Medium-Large Business