FileMaker wins again New Zealand Macguide has awarded FileMaker Pro 8 'Best Mac Software' in its Macguide Annual Awards 'Best of 2005'. "We looked at a lot of software in 2005 and most of it was really good. Campbell Green's praise of FileMaker 8 was so fulsome, we just had to give it the big tick." For more awards click here.

Q Brand Agency streamlines its systems and fast tracks its productivity

Advertising and design agencies strive to find creative ways to reach and persuade a target audience. However agency professionals must also juggle many balls at once - client servicing, quoting and budget management - and still make a profit at the end of it all.

To address these challenges, Q Brand Agency adopted Streamline, an off-the-shelf FileMaker Pro-based application developed by Particle Systems.

Christchurch-based Q Brand Agency (Q) is one of the largest design agencies in the South Island of New Zealand. Q specialises in advertising, creative strategy, corporate identity design and implementation, online marketing and multi-media.

Like many design agencies, Q started out with a manual system that required up to five separate entries of data. After extensive research and trials of several products, Q chose Streamline as the solution. Web-only based systems were far slower, did not work as seamlessly with accounting systems, and also posed security issues.

Streamline exceeded Q's requirements with several additional key features such as Fast Track - Streamline's web portal for Q's clients to interact with jobs online.

Streamline's time entry functionality paid for itself in the first month it was installed. Q now captures 75 percent more design time, and its creative team enjoys the ease of Streamline's timesheets! Streamline's extensive front-end CRM functionality - the ability to log quotes, track purchases, cost projects, schedule jobs tasks and people - and the flexibility of invoicing has made Streamline Q's greatest asset... and one that has provided the greatest return on investment.

"The time savings have allowed Q to focus on the areas of the business that people value. The staff work for Q to be creative and enjoy the development of campaigns that are memorable and distinctive in the marketplace - and not to focus on accounts and back end detail which Streamline has eliminated," said Daryl Peterson, Production Manager, Q Brand Agency.

Aaron Green, Particle Systems
Phone: +64 21 727 842
Email: aaron@particle.co.nz
Web: www.particle.co.nz

Tudor House School chooses Denbigh Administration

Despite their main role being educators, the reality is that teachers must balance classroom time with the demands of administrative duties - writing student reports, generating timetables, and maintaining student information such as disciplinary and attendance histories, sporting and extra curricular involvement, family details, etc.

To overcome these challenges, Tudor House School located in Moss Vale, NSW, chose Denbigh Administration, freeing up precious time for teachers so they can get on with teaching.

The following information now resides in a central database, where it is easy to update and can be accessed by authorised staff including teachers, heads of departments, accounts staff, and the school nurse:

Family details, including student photos
Attendance history
Discipline records
Medical records
Financial history
Academic reports, including summaries of parent meetings
Timetables

Now Tudor House is able to provide parents with a more comprehensive report on each child's performance, while behind the scenes administrative processes have been streamlined to both save staff time and improve the quality of output.

"The system is a map that encompasses the entire footprint of the school. It links the various strands of learning and the interrelated nature of these strands into one location," said Geoffrey Gowland, Denbigh Administrator, Tudor House School.