A multinational organisation was attempting to downsize their mainframe print operations onto their local area network [LAN]. The hardware supplier said that it couldn't be done for years, and that it could not be supported easily.
A suite of templates was written for the monthly batch reports, which converted the spooled output into a format acceptable to a LAN printer with a dedicated font cartridge installed.
A chain of video stores was investigating the feasibility of porting their PICK database across to Microsoft SQL Server. The Point-of-Sale terminals were of different makes, scattered across the UK. Getting the data out would be a logistical and expensive nightmare.
Some discrete code was written to allow the data to be "scraped" off the native backup disks and exported into CSV format. As each branch had to submit only a floppy disk backup of the database, the logistics were simplified, and costs kept low.
An Internet company needed to mass-mail 26,000 prospects on a monthly basis. The cost of commercial software was exorbitant, and a solution was needed fast.
A dedicated Perl script in front of a MySQL database was written, and an old PC was resuscitated to act as a mail-server, saving the client thousands of Pounds.
A medium-sized accountancy firm required a dedicated ADSL, e-mail, firewall and Internet solution. The cost of "square peg" software was prohibitive. The client also wanted to restrict Internet access to specific sites.
A Linux-based solution was implemented with a specially modified proxy server that allowed key staff to add Internet sites from the desktop as required. Anything not on the white list of allowed sites was prohibited. Saving on licence costs alone: more than £15K.
A long time ago when ADSL was a dream and the Internet didn't exist in the public imagination, a data-mining company researching mergers & acquisitions was transferring data from print media and Reuters Textline into a custom database. Every night the reasearch queries were manually sent to Reuters, the output printed, and if suitable, entered into the database. This was very labour intensive.
The core database [Advanced Revelation] was integrated with Crosstalk to allow the researchers to input their queries during business hours. In the evening when telephone calls were off-peak, the queries were submitted to Reuters and the results automatically added to the database for proof reading and editorial acceptance the next day. Any areas of data that were corrupted due to line noise [Reuters only conncted at 2400 BPS] were flagged up for attention. Result: A search engine on the desktop albeit with a 8 hour delay to keep costs low.
A local authority was in the process of upgrading their Customer Relationship Management [CRM] system. The new system did not have sufficent functionality to allow access to historical data and the lead vendors were unhelpful in providing a solution for a legacy product.
The CRM was reverse-engineered to identify the core data structure. Once fully documented, a web-based Intranet solution using Apache, PHP and MySQL was developed. Total project time 6 weeks. Value added: priceless.