Developers unite blog

Real estate investment and development has never been a more popular pastime or career changing challenge; if you would like to learn seven secrets for consistently successful real estate investing through development or you would like to know how you can continue to profit from property even if the market takes a downward turn just read on…

1) Do Your Location Homework - did you know that through successful and sustained location research professional property investors actually continue to profit during a market down turn? It’s true - whatever the market conditions you can apply their location research approach to your real estate investments and also make consistent profits from property.

Take the necessary time to learn all about a town or city you’re considering for your next property development purchase and discover where the up and coming areas of that town are likely to be. If there are inner-city redevelopment projects planned examine the real estate market in the immediate vicinity, if there are areas that are booming right now examine the immediate neighbouring areas for their potential for future prices rises for example.

Don’t follow the crowd - have the confidence to buck the trend and get ahead of the curve by positioning yourself in a market that is about to boom rather than in one that has already blossomed.

2) Know What You Can Afford - While it can pay to sometimes speculate never be tempted to jeopardise your own home. Work out your finances and be ruthlessly strict about what you can and cannot afford as a down payment, for mortgage costs and for the renovation and redevelopment of your next real estate investment. Only proceed within the confines of your tightly allocated budget and do not be tempted to over extend yourself particularly if competition in the property market is tough and the market is slow or stagnant.

3) Identify Your Target Market - Having identified your next location for property investment identify the types of people who buy into renovated properties in that location. Know who your target market are going to be and what they are likely to look for in a property in that location. If for example you’re examining inner-city spaces you might identify that your buyers will be young single professionals and that the ideal property type for these people will be luxury low maintenance apartments - seek out suitable properties with the potential for redevelopment into luxury low maintenance apartments and you will fulfil your target market’s brief…seek out large houses with substantial gardens in the area and you will have totally missed the market and potentially created a property that will not sell!

4) Renovation Not Rebuild - Know your budget limits and your personal skill restrictions. Do not consider taking on a property that is in need of a complete structural overhaul when your budget is tight or you do not personally have the time, skills or inclination to do the structural work yourself. Be realistic about what you and your budget can achieve and seek properties that fulfil that brief. Pay to have an independent and complete survey done on any property you are seriously considering buying before making a down payment to ensure that there are no hidden surprises waiting for you beneath the floorboards to eat up your budget in its entirety.

5) Manage Your Budget - With your survey in hand you can approach builders for quotations and seek out prices for fixtures, fittings, finishings and furnishings. Take the prices quoted and sourced and build your budget. Factor in ongoing mortgage and service costs and labour costs as well as your findings and structure and allocate your money accordingly. Watch every single spend and be ruthlessly strict with yourself and your builder. If at all possible have your builder commit to a contract with fixed finish dates and fees and stay on top of every single penny or cent every single day. At the end of each week tally up your outgoings and expenditure and ensure you’re not exceeding your budget. If you’re overspending rein it in or you will have to shave it off other areas of the development. Remember never to scrimp and save on finishing touches and always give yourself a realistic fall back fund in case of emergencies.

6) Appeal To The Widest Market - Forget putting your personal stamp on any property you develop - YOU are not going to be living in the property! You should already have identified your target market which will give you a good idea of the level and quality of finish expected, now meet those expectations without adding your own personal taste into the equation. By appealing to the widest market or the lowest common denominator your property will be attractive to the majority of buyers making it faster and easier to sell on and profit from.

7) Make Friends With A Real Estate Agent - Your greatest ally when developing property will be your real estate agent. Make friends with these guys and you will build a beautiful and successful symbiotic relationship in which you both profit to the maximum! Real estate agents are a fountain of untapped knowledge about the local market, who is looking for what property in which area, which additional features cost little to add but which push up the asking price and what a buyer expects from your particular property type. Get the facts from your real estate agent and then apply their advice. You will create a property they can market for top dollar and to the widest market - you will make more profit and they will make a bigger commission ensuring a beautiful and lasting friendship!

Finally, remember that when you’ve bought, renovated and sold on you’ll be looking for that next property opportunity and any real estate agent who you’ve worked well with will be on the hunt for suitable real estate for your next investment making any subsequent purchases that much easier to source.

The website is becoming one of the single best tools for communication in the 21st century. Individuals, businesses, and government organisations throughout the United Kingdom and Europe are becoming intimately acquainted with the necessity for a good website in order to keep their customers and clients informed. However, the intricacies of establishing website are often too much for the uninitiated to handle and web developers or designers are often brought into assist. These professionals take into consideration a client’s needs and goals in respect of their website and design a site and pages that fit these expectations.

The need for great websites and their on-going maintenance for success in the business world means that the job market for web developers is fairly strong. There are many companies that are creating in-house web development teams or work a significant amount of hours with web development firms that utilise exceptional developers. However, a strong market does not mean that a web developer can sit on this or her laurels and wait for a job to tap them on the shoulder. Rather, a web development professional needs to refine their job search and find the best job for their personal and professional goals.

Web developers need to assess individual companies in the context of the general web development industry before setting out on their professional path. Indeed, not every company is built alike, and employers often provide enough unique incentives to make choices difficult. One web developer may wish to pursue a job with a non-profit organisation, developing a website that provides services to the less well-off. Another developer may prefer to work with a major international company in order to gain a higher profile in the industry. Whatever the case, looking at personal goals in conjunction with the potential of specific organisations may lead to a clearer vision for the way ahead.

In addition, web developers need to think about their financial situation before setting-out into their desired field. Developers that do project work on a contract basis may benefit more financially than a web development professional who takes an internal position in the hopes of achieving long-term promotion. However promising a job with a major company may sound, web developers work in a very fickle field where on-going changes in the job market are the rule. Building a reputation for successful web development is possible through project work, making such an approach much less of a gamble here than in other fields.

If you deploy Microsoft Great Plains ERP for your company, you may consider the options to contract GP developer or technical consultant to help you with customization logic upgrade, developing, data migration or conversion, complex reporting, integration with external application such as Microsoft Retail Management System (MS RMS), for example. Prior to making your selection decision, you should know GP under laying technologies and programming tools, to be sure that you can ask the right questions. Microsoft Dynamics GP is successor of former Great Plains Software Dynamics and eEnterprise (former name is Dynamics C/S+). In this small article we will walk you through the customization tools:

? Microsoft Dexterity, former name is Great Plains Dexterity - this was the heart of Great Plains Dynamics, and it is still the architectural tool. When you look at DYNAMICS.DIC, DYNAMICS.SET, DEX.INI files - these reflects Dex architecture. If you have legacy dex custom logic, developed for you in the past and if you want this logic to be upgraded to new version of your MS Dynamics GP - you probably should seek for the developer, who is familiar and has experience programming Microsoft Dexterity

? SQL Stored Procedures. We intentionally emphasize traditional tools, over new ones (such as eConnect or Visual Studio.Net development extensions), expecting that you have legacy integration. Stored Procs were very popular when Great Plains was in transition from Ctree/Btrieve (later on Pervasive SQL Server) to Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, 7.0 and 2000. Stored procs do bulletproof job for all versions of GP and SQL Server (including SQL Server 2005). When you check programmer skills in SQL scripting - you should take into consideration if applicant has GP table structure familiarity: GL00100 - GL Accounts Master, RM00101 RM Customer Master, PM00200 - PM Vendor master are good examples of basic tables - candidate should be at least familiar with these tables

? eConnect. Initially developed for eCommerce programmers, eConnect helps you with integrations to GP, however, it is typically good idea that eConnect developer is also familiar with Dexterity tables structure and can potentially extend eConnect with SQL scripting

? Reporting. Such tools as SRS (MS SQL Server Reporting Services), Crystal Reports usually need underlying SQL view or stored procedure, where you link multiple GP tables to produce dataset for the report. In report you group the record set and provide parameterization

? Legacy Tools. Modifier with VBA and Integration Manager (with VBA scripting). We placed IM here as it is currently under redesign process, where it will be deploying eConnect stored procedures in the future

When Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software and then integrated Great Plains into so-called Microsoft Dynamics ERP products family as Dynamics GP, modification tools became more Microsoft and .Net oriented, as you could expect. However in the initial design in earlier 1990th Great Plains Dynamics was intended as multi platform product and its fundamentals were built on new technology named Great Plains Dexterity. Considering complicated origin of GP, let’s review development tools:

1. Dexterity. Great Plains Dexterity, as we already mentioned is the heart of GP design, and it is in turn written as the shell in C programming language to secure certain flexibility, especially the option to switch from one operating system or computer platform to another. Being very powerful and flexible, Dex doesn’t facilitate so-called rapid development scenario as it is not object oriented and it requires you as programmer to have several years of extensive Dexterity programming prior to participation in Dexterity programming project. Dexterity has its own scripting language Sanscript. Latest versions of Dex support such cool Microsoft technologies as COM objects and Web Services, plus you can call SQL Stored procedures from Dex code. To get quick tour into Dexterity architecture, you may install it from GP CD #2 and open Dynamics.dic file - this dictionary has core GP logic and it is written in Dexterity

2. VBA and Modifier. We were watching closely the competition between various GP customizing tools. And we still think that Modifier should be reviewed prior to eConnect. Modifier is in essence the module, written in Dexterity, which allows you to add buttons and fields to existing screens of GP as well as take them off. To animate new fields you use VBA scripting language, often you use ADO technology to access GP tables from modified forms

3. eConnect. This SDK opens for you GP objects: master records (customer, vendor, GL Account, employee, prospect) and work transactions (SOP invoice, Purchase Order, Payroll Entry). eConnect is based on encrypted SQL stored procedures, plus it has several layers of technology wrappers - in fact it is friendly for Microsoft Visual Studio C# or VB developer. If you are integrating eCommerce website with your GP back office, we recommend you to consider eConnect as the main integration tool, also consider Autoposting Server to post batches of SOP invoices in GP

4. SQL Stored Procedures Integrations. If you think eConnect is too heavy and complex and you are comfortable to do light SQL insert statement to populate GP tables, then SQL scripting is an option. However, we discourage newcomers from trying SQL insertion prior to researching other integration tools first

5. GP Integration. Of course integration is not the same as customization, however we would like to orient you here as well. GP traditionally has Integration Management Module. With current version 10.0 IM has new connectors - from now on you can use eConnect connectors to do integrating.

?Microsoft Business Solutions stakes on Microsoft Great Plains as main Accounting/ERP application for US market.? At the same time it seems to be staking on Navision in Europe and has Axapta as high end large corporation market competitor to Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, IBM.? This article is brief review of Microsoft Great Plains integration with Microsoft Access.? This is also applicable to Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology - Great Plains Dexterity dictionary - DYNAMICS.DIC and runtime DYNAMICS.EXE) and Great Plains Standard on MSDE? or MS SQL Server.If you are developer who is asked: how do we implement? Great Plains integration/interface? with your MS Access-based? system - read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables.? The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records - but when you are talking about thousands - it is not a good option.? By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.? Microsoft Access is ODBC compliant and so you can do direct Integration Manager query to MS Access eConnect - it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net.? Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net.? eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn’t allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above)? eConnect is rather for ongoing integration.? It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains. SQL Stored Procedures.? Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries.? You need to know Great Plains tables structure and data flow.? Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables.? Find the table in the proper series.? If you are looking for the customers - it should be RM00101 - customer master file.? If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents - they are in SOP30200 - Sales History Header file, etc.?? Do not change existing tables - do not create new fields, etc.? Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID - identity column.? Sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters - then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems. Data Transformation Services (DTS) - Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP - then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager.? You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import.? You can have DTS working with Linked Server - SQL Server Construction for linking to Microsoft Access Great Plains Dexterity Custom Screens.? Sometimes users prefer to have seamlessly integrated into GP interface custom screens - for parameters settings and initiating integration.? Dexterity is a good option, however remember - it is always better to create new custom screen versus customizing existing one - due to the future upgrade issues.? Also - Dexterity is in phasing our by Microsoft Business Solutions. Modifier/VBA custom buttons on the existing screens - ?alternative to Dexterity is you are comfortable with VBA and ADO. SQL Linked Servers - you can do direct SQL queries to other ODBC compliant platform via SQL Linked Server (including Microsoft Access) - you may need to familiarize yourself with OPENROWSET command in Transact SQL.? This is also good option if you need cross-platform Crystal Report - pulling data from SQL Server and third party databases on the same report. Warning - do not place existing GP tables into Replication! - you will have upgrade issues.Happy integrating!? if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Oracle Reports, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle XML Publisher, RXi Report, FSG Reports, Business Intelligence System

In this article we are going to show some tools that can be used to develop reports to Oracle e-Business Suite. Most of organizations that have installed Oracle Applications have their data base systems with a lot of data about their business. However their data is trapped inside the database, being very difficult to find it and to convert into valuable information, very important to make decisions to run the business.

Knowing all the problems regarding reporting, Oracle has a number of offerings helping organizations to solve the reporting needs they have. Some of these tools are part of Oracle E-Business 11i and others are Oracle products that access the data stored in Oracle Applications database.

The most common reporting tools for Oracle Applications are:

? Oracle Reports: the fixed format reports delivered with the 11i release were built on this tool. Nowadays, this is the most used tool for reporting on Oracle Applications. Most of reports customizations are built with this tool.

? Oracle Discoverer: is an intuitive tool for creating reports and performing on-line analysis. Discoverer uses the EUL (End User Layer), a metadata definition, which hides the complexity of the database from the end user and provides easy to use wizards for creating reports to suite individual needs.

? Oracle XML Publisher: is a new Oracle tool for reporting. It enables users to utilize a familiar desktop tool, like MS Word or MS Excel, to create and maintain their own report. At runtime, XML Publisher merges the custom templates with the concurrent request extracts data to generate output in PDF, HTML, RTF and EXCEL.

? RXi Report: (Variable reports) - variable format reports delivered with the E-Business 11i. With this tool a user have the ability to print the same report with multiple layouts. This tool is most used on Oracle Financials Applications.

? FSG Reports (Financial Statement Generator): is a powerful report building tool for Oracle General Ledger. Some of benefits of using this tool are that a user can generate financial reports, generate presentation quality, design custom financial reports and schedule reports to run automatically.

? Business Intelligence System (BI): is a set of tools to provide high level information for the managers (decision makers) to run their business. The information this tool provides helps managers to take the right decision with the daily data that is upload on their systems.

Every organization is unique and the standard reports delivered with Oracle Applications are never going to meet all the requirements in every organization. Customizing reports is a must on all Oracle e-Business implementation and our company “Alba Spectrum” can help you in this task.

Give us a call 1-866-528-0577 or help@albaspectrum.com if you need additional information or directions.

Good web designs are very subjective and even the designs perceived as great by one person will not be viewed as so by another.

Before starting your search the first thing to establish is what budget you have. This determines whether you should be looking at a design agency or a freelance web designer.

So what do you need to look for? Do you look for someone with amazing creative talents, a history of excellent websites or simply rely on recommendations from others. Without doubt a web designer’s portfolio is of utmost importance, you are not going to contact someone if you are not keen on their previous creations. When looking at their sites check they don’t all look the same, check the pages load quickly and above all check they are easy to navigate through and that you never feel lost in the site.

When you approach a designer we suggest you ask the following questions:

1) If a logo is required ask them how they approach the branding process and how can they build on your current branding2) Ask them how many design concepts they create3) When coding sites check they validate all pages on the W3C validator? This ensures the pages are free from errors and any respectable coder will automatically ensure this is automatically carried out on all sites. A good test is to look at their recent client list and check those sites using the W3C validator http://validator.w3.org/). 4) You need to decide what audience you are targeting and hence what browsers you want supported. If you want a site that works in all version 4 browsers and above on PC and Mac then it will cost more than a site is developed for Internet Explorer 5 and upwards on the PC. When you have decided what browsers and operating systems you would like supported check the developer has access to all the relevant browsers and platforms you require (i.e. do they have a Macintosh if you require this)5) If your site requires e-commerce ask the designer if they have experience in this area and get them to show you examples.6) Do you require a content management system (CMS)? Content Management Systems help you manage the text on your pages without knowing any HTML. Many developers can offer this service so if you require one ask them for recommendations, as a CMS they have worked on before will be a lot more cost effective than using one they have not. 7) If you want your designer to market your site on search engines then experience in this area is vital. Many companies offer tools which promise to submit to 1000’s of search engines but most people agree these do not work as well as links submitted by hand. Find out what projects they have marketed on search engines, go to Google and if you have the Google toolbar installed find out the Page Rank of the site (a Page Rank of 4 and upwards is generallt regarded as acceptable, anything less than a 3 could do with further optimisation and site submission). Do bear in mind it takes time to get listed on search engines, and even longer for the Google Page Rank to be updated. (this process can take over three months)8) Work out if you require affiliate marketing e.g. banner ads or other forms of online advertising. If you want to go down this route you need to make sure they have experience in this area or use a separate company for this work.

So where do you start the search for a designer? Google searches, Kelly Search (http://www.kellysearch.com) and the UKWDA (http://www.ukwda.org) are all good places to start but even better is finding a site you like the look of and enquiring who developed it.

So, what it is really that distinguishes a good website from a poorly designed web site? The topic is as broadly debatable as Windows over Linux is but it all boils down to the two important keywords: development and design! A good web designer offering web site design services must know the difference between the two words.Web development in itself is a broad term for any activities related to website, web application, web solution, e-commerce development, web content development, client-side / server-side coding, web solutions and web database system. Web development usually refers only to the technical aspects of building a website.Web design on the other hand is perceived as the artistic side of creating a website that involves the visual styles, layout coherence, color theme considerations and all other factors that has something to do with the general appearance of the site, vis-?-vis its functions.Therefore, we may conclude that web development equates to a programmer’s logic craftsmanship while website design is a product of an artist’s imaginative and creative ideas. If this is true which I’m sure most website design firms and individual web designers in the Philippines would agree that a good website must be a combination of digital landscape and well planned programming logic. The dilemma however is that majority of web designers falls short of these two important aspects. Worst, most website developers do not realized these qualifications. I don’t have anything against talented and enterprising individual with knowledge on web design and development but there is more than simply knowing the basic of html and image editing to come up with a commercial grade website. We must put in mind that a website is our business or personal identity online. It is the sum total of our being and our business that is accessible to clients and prospective clients. It means therefore that a website is our front line to the information age and that should be well planned and designed in order for it to serve its purpose.There are however rampant offering on “create your own website in minutes” application and other template-based website. I’m baffled by these ideas simply because it directly contradicts to what I have just discussed above. Choosing to publish a website from a template equates to buying a white cardboard box in the department store and stamping it with your product’s name, no branding, no image building, no identity! It’s like the usual “Special Patis (Fish Sauce) label you see all over the wet market. All of them claim to be special but the sad truth is that non of them are.As I have mentioned already, there are two important keywords in the subject, they are Website development and Web site design. Development is of course straight forward and can be learned in school. However, design is a rather different zone in the battlefield of web design. As the word design implies, it has something to do with creative ideas carefully woven by an artist - a full fledge designer who is there to collate the meaning of symbols, colors, sizes and positioning of every element in a website. It is ironic though that most web design firms out there offers template based website that are available in many template stores, worst many of them are available for free. So to say, if you have your prestigious business website made from templates, chances are that you have a twin website somewhere in the internet with only its mole and hair different from yours - the logo and text content, but they are visual replica of each other.So if you happened to be reading this in search of a good website design firm, check out if the firm has a certified graphic artist and not just a programmer who read a crash course in image editing offering templates and who promised to create your website in minutes. Web site design and development involves careful planning, collaborating of design ideas, and putting together appropriate contents to capture the visitor’s attention and to properly reflect your business’ image or professional reputation..for more visit: iConcept

As more and more people around the world understand how they can use software to grow their business, the demand for custom software continues to grow. Individuals and small businesses cannot afford to hire companies to develop software for them. Due to this, they prefer to hire individual freelance software developers to do the work for them. People with good software development and marketing skills can become freelance software developers and be their own boss. Though this looks like a good option initially, you must consider the following three factors before taking your first step as freelance software developer.

Difficulties in working alone: Freelance software developers work from their home as a single person army. Apart from developing software, they have to manage other tasks like investigating new prospects, getting requirements and project management. This might look exciting initially but after some time, people tend to get bored of doing one or the other task. For example, if you are a good programmer, you might get bored of work related to marketing. Thus, if you are thinking of becoming freelancer, then it’s very important for you to learn different ways to have fun at work and keep yourself active.

Lack of knowledge support: When you work in any medium sized organization, you can always approach any senior member in your team for help if you are facing some technical difficulties. While working as a freelance software developer, you may not find this kind of support as you would be working alone. You must be good at finding out solutions to all the problems yourselves. In other words, you should know how to use different forums and search engines effectively. It’s also a good idea to keep contacts with your old colleagues and friends who have worked on similar domain.

Money: In the game of business, cash is the king. You have to pay your bills and support your family too. It is very important to know that becoming a freelance software developer and becoming your own boss doesn’t mean that you will become rich overnight. Also, you will not be flooded with lots of good paying clients for the first few months. You need to have enough of saving (cash in your bank account) to support all your financial needs during this time period. Also, be extremely careful while spending your money as during this initial time period, money in account is your limited resource.

If you like solving puzzles or know when to take break and how to enjoy it, you won’t have any problems in working alone. It’s a good idea to take breaks in between and play some indoor or outdoor games. Participate in forums and get yourself involved in some open source projects. This will help you to learn how to handle some of the technical issues. Also, if you want to become freelance software developer, then plan well in advance. Don’t leave your current job until you have at least one paying client or have enough money in your bank account to support your financial needs for the first few months.

Like many Crystal developers I get asked if I can put a specific crystal report on a web server so the users can refresh it “live.” I have been using crystal for a while now and with all the advances in Visual Studio, I was eventually able to do it. Soon after, I got moved to another group that had crystal licenses but no web development tools. I downloaded the web developer express and tried to get them to work together. I couldn’t do it directly so here is the work-around I found.

On the Business Objects web site is a server install file for the version of Crystal reports you are using. Pick the latest version and install that on your web server. Then create a new website on the server using visual web developer express.

Import/create a couple of files from an existing crystal web site (web.config and your aspx page.) Then customize it to your liking using visual web developer express.

A few fun facts to know.

This only works on the primary web server. So let your administrator know that’s what you need.

Always get the latest version of Crystal to develop with. So if you have XI then get the XI release 2 with the latest patches before you develop. If you have crystal 2008, just get the latest patches.

The intellisense feature will not work with any of the crystal items. You will have underlines all over your code where you refer to crystal.

Microsoft usually has a version of the full blown visual studio you can get to evaluate … will your boss invest some money in buying this great tool after you show him what it can do? Try telling him you now need it to maintain the site.