Your cloud migration completed successfully. Now you can access your application from anywhere without any concern about maintaining a server or installing client applications. Bliss!Then a colleague or customer requests some data in a specific format. You download a 100 column spreadsheet from the new cloud application, specifying the date range of the records you […]
Technical
PostgreSQL for the MS SQL Consultant
Like most consultants, I’m using more and more open source software. A big change for me was to use PostgreSQL following 20 years experience of MS SQL Server. What follows is part comparison, part ‘things I wish I’d known before I started’.
Using CarePlanner and Wagestream to improve staff retention
Your carers and appointments are in CarePlanner. You want to use Wagestream to allow your carers to be paid sooner. What to do? Harder still, CarePlanner doesn’t calculate how much your carers are due until you run your timesheets. That’s just too late. Fortunately, we’ve done all the hard work. First, we drag the data […]
Using data to improve homecare efficiencies
The United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) published the chart above to calculate the minimum hourly amount that should be charged for care in the home. That tiny purple slice at the top is profit, so any change in costs can make a significant difference to the bottom line. This is then broken down further to […]
Electronic Call Monitoring (ECM) – Improving Carer Compliance
ECM gives huge gains in carer efficiency and client care by monitoring carers’ arrival and departure. Scheduling is enhanced. Lone care worker safety is greatly improved.However, it is greatly dependent upon high compliance rates. If a carer fails to check-in or check-out, the data quickly becomes less useful. It may be that the carer is […]
Migrating Crystal Reports to PowerBI? 14 things you should know.
Over the last 3 years, I’ve started to do a lot more work using PowerBI. In terms of planning and designing, it’s similar to QlikView/QlikSense in that you first load and transform data, then do the pretty stuff. I’m now seeing more interest in migrating from Crystal Reports to PowerBI.At first, this made no sense […]
SAP BI 4.3, but want the BI Portal from 4.2? Here’s the solution.
SAP BI 4.3/Crystal Server 2020 comes with the new Fiori launch pad. It’s the one that looks like this: The old 4.2 looks more like this: Admittedly, the new one is much more ‘modern’, but once you’ve got loads of users working from home right now and don’t have the time to retrain them for […]
Crystal Reports 2020 goes 64 bit – what you need to know.
It’s finally arrived, but how does the move to a 64 bit report designer change how you work? I’ve installed 2020, where’s Crystal Reports 2016 gone? That side by side install you were hoping for? Sorry, despite the move to 64 bit, you’ll find that your existing 32 bit version of Crystal Reports 2016/13/11 has […]
StarRez data – know RoomBase from RoomSpace
We’ve been helping student accommodation providers report and analyse their Starrez data for over 5 years. The built-in reports are fine up to a point, but most users soon need a little more. Whether you’re using StarRez installed on your own servers, or in the cloud, the data is there waiting for you. It’s great […]
Staffplan Reports? Don’t know your tblActuals from your tblBookings?
Not forgetting tblRegularInfo! It’s said that you need 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in something. We’ve spent 11 years working with the Staffplan database. In that time, we’ve written close to 600 reports, dozens of Dashboards and 100+ views and stored procedures. We’ve even integrated a 3rd party text message system to […]