Since 1988 I have been developing software on a contract or freelance basis for a number of companies in diverse fields such as logistics, utilities, defence and finance.

From childhood beginnings using BASIC on BBC Microcomputers I progressed to C and Clipper using 8086 machines. With the widespread takeup of Windows during the early 90's I moved over to Delphi using various database backends.

Around 1998 I started to find one of those databases particularly interesting and begun to concentrate on it's more complex internal workings. Having now performed extensive work on Oracle both server side and client side, it is my database of choice.

Thorough knowledge of the database workings allows the production of application and database integration not often utilised. There is an area of software development which concentrates on portability of applications, this invariably has to sacrifice the advanced features often specific to some systems. This is not an area in which I have expended too much effort, preferring to utilise the more advanced features of the available platform.

I will develop on a contract basis at a fixed hourly rate or on a freelance basis at a fixed fee for the project. A recent freelance project involved development of a single system which through user configuration could satisfy the very diverse requirements of five companies. Even with the diverse requirements, the system replicates it's data to a single database at group level for OLAP (online analytical processing). Reporting is available group wide, for just one member of the group, one department or even a single user.

A further development for this project will be developing the web based front end to the database, allowing clients to monitor and track their goods. Group wide, the system handles approximately 1.2 million transactions per year.

A product website will soon be launched for this system, just as soon as the branding has been completed. Check back here for any further developments.