What we do

RavenTek Business Services specialise in the design and creation of databases. We have been doing this successfully since 1995 and still have many of those original clients on our books providing ongoing support.

Our work includes discussions with the client as to their requirements and involves us getting to know their business very well as we find many clients do not appreciate how a database works therefore do not always ask the right questions.

Having created the database structure we then create user-friendly screens and reports for the end user which often mask the complexity underneath. Our development tool of choice is Delphi from Borland plus their new C# Builder for the dotnet environment.

With the explosion in broadband and related fast communication technologies, we have developed techniques to exploit this to give fast access to remote databases. These can include conventional web-browsers or specific client executable files using three-tier technology from ASTA.

Unlike many business software development companies, we are not tied in to Microsoft. We will use their products when appropriate but believe there are better products out there including an enormous amount of open-sourced software. Our database of choice (Firebird) is open-sourced, is comparable, if not better than MS SQL Server and of course is free of licencing costs. This can result in significant cost savings for the end user.

We also offer assistance with reporting and analysing existing data in a database together with the "tidying up" of data prior to, for example, a mail-merge.

What we do not do

We do not supply or configure hardware and networks. We use a number of local companies to carry out this work in conjunction with ourselves.