Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2002, we started featuring one Database Developers Group (DDG) member per quarter. See a link to the featured member for the current quarter on our home page. These reviews represent an excellent means for you to learn about the wealth of talent in the DDG. In addition, the quarterly presentations reflect one of the benefits of DDG membership. Overall, the ProgrammingMSAccess.com serves more than 1,000,000 pages annually. Therefore, the site represents a powerful vehicle for getting the word out about your database practice and/or career. In addition, you can view this summary of membership profiles to tell if DDG membership is right for you. After all, these database developers joined the DDG. If it is right for them, maybe its right for you too. Excerpts from Our 1st Quarter, 2004 Featured Member Paul M. Summitt and his wife Mary J. Summitt own and operate Summitt New Media (SNM – http://www.summittnewmedia.com) in Columbia, Missouri. They founded SNM in 1996 as an outgrowth of their computer and technology writing. Paul and Mary wrote the user manual for VR Basic for Waite Publishing and five chapters for Cyberlife for SAMS in 1994. During the mid to late 1990’s they wrote Creating Cool 3D Web Worlds with VRML, Creating Cool Interactive Web sites, and Creating Cool FrontPage Web sites as well as provided technical editing for several books for IDG including The Word 97 Bible and The Office 97 Bible. Paul holds the following professional certifications: MSMC, MCSE, CCNA, MCP+I, MCP. He has written chapters for Syngress MCSE study guides and provided technical editing for Sybex MCSE study guides. Summitt New Media has a select group of clients for which Paul and Mary provide application and Web design and programming. Working with predominantly Visual Basic and Access, SNM applications are currently being used in television news rooms to simplify day-to-day operations. These products include TownChooser, an application for television news producers to simplify the writing of commercial break lead-ins, and FleetControl, a vehicle maintenance control database. Paul developed FactoRot, an application that provides a 3-D representation of research data obtained during Q research. Paul spends his days working full time as the IT Director for the County Employees' Retirement Fund (http://www.mocerf.org) where they are currently migrating a proprietary PowerBuilder 6.5 application on Oracle to a Visual Basic .NET Web application on MS SQL Server 2000. Excerpts from Our 4th Quarter, 2003 Featured Member Rick Nelson heads Nelson Technology Associates, Inc. (NTA) in Danville, California. He co-founded NTA in 1992 and has been the primary owner and principal since 1997. NTA had been using Access since Access 1.0 was released in late 1992. Rick quickly became an Access devotee, and has worked with every version through Access 2002, and almost every part of Access – even including such dark areas as replication. He and NTA began using VB5 a few years ago and since have moved to VB6 and even some VB.NET for web services. In the last 10 years, NTA has built or re-architected more than 30 systems, in a fairly broad range of applications. Many of NTA’s applications are in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) because of Rick’s dual background in technology and sales/marketing. Some of his favorite systems involve the integration of various combinations of VB, Access, Word and GoldMine for CRM systems requiring both data management and high-quality documents such as proposals and contracts. One such system is a VB/Access/Word application developed for Toyota and used in over 70 locations around the US. Another significant NTA application was a system for managing environmental compliance audits, which is now used by Kodak, United Airlines, Carnival Cruise Lines and others. Much of NTA’s development business comes from taking over an Access application that was developed internally by a client’s end-users and turning it into a high-quality, professional system that can effectively support normal business users – as opposed to trained Access users. Rick holds a BS in Engineering from Northern Arizona University, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA in Management from Golden Gate University. Prior to founding NTA he worked as an engineer, project manager, sales rep and sales manager. He held positions in these areas at firms such as Computervision, McDonnell Douglas Systems Integration Company, and EDS. He is divorced and raising twin 10-year-old boys half-time and a Husky/Lab mix full-time, so he doesn’t have much free time – when he does, he runs, bikes, skis, and practices Tae Kwon Do (he earned his Black Belt just last year) to stay in shape. He supports his local community (for example, by serving as Chairman of the Danville Area Chamber of Commerce). Excerpts from Our 3rd Quarter, 2003 Featured Member Henry Jenkins began small business consulting in 1987 as Micros & Business Solutions (M+BS) after spending 12 years in corporate staff and management accounting positions. Henry’s first programming efforts began in 1975 out of desperation to automate manual calculations and paper work in the accounting office. He learned and implemented a Report Writer via a timesharing “dumb” terminal. By 1982, Henry was automating accounting tasks using Lotus 123, and later Symphony (an integrated suite that included a spreadsheet, word processor, and graphic drawing functions). Henry began programming with Access 1997 with the release of Office 97. His current library exceeds 50 books on Access, VBA an SQL. He subscribes to several periodicals specifically for MS Access: SmartAccess Newsletter by Pinnacle Publishing Inc., Inside Access by Element K Journals, and Access VB SQL by Advisor Media. In addition to being a member of DDG, he subscribes to several email newsletters specifically for MS Access: Woody’s Access Watch, Peter’s Software Newsletter, The Buzz from FMS, and Access Unlimited Newsletter by Gary Robinson. Henry is an Elite Partner with Comtech Solutions and holds Developer’s Licenses for Access 97, 2000, 2002, and SQL Server 2000 versions of Image Accounting, Adept, and Corpay Payroll. He also holds the developer license for Yes I Can Run My Business for MS Access 97(now sold as Business!) developed by Database Creations. Henry‘s consulting revenues are derived primarily from removing and replacing outdated accounting software systems. All solutions are customized to meet the client specification. Excerpts from Our 2nd Quarter, 2003 Featured Member Charlotte Foust began programming personal computers during the mid 1970’s. When Microsoft introduced Access, Charlotte abandoned dBASE III+ and switched to Access. She has worked with every version of Access, except Access 95, and has been a full-time Access database developer for the past 8 years. Her experience includes devising multi-user solutions running on Novell NetWare 3.12, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000 networks. She is familiar with how to make Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and Access, interoperate with one another via OLE Automation. Since September, 2001, Charlotte served as a programmer/analyst at Infostat Systems in Sacramento, California. Her responsibilities include maintaining and improving the design of commercial applications built with Access 97. In addition, Charlotte is responsible for migrating existing products to Access 2002 and developing alternate visual interfaces whenever appropriate. Charlotte’s dedication to staying at the top of her profession is apparent from the list of her formal computer training experiences and other activities that hone her skills. For example, she participated in the Access/SQL Server Development Seminar offered by Rick Dobson, noted author and trainer. In addition, she completed computer training from Executrain, DataTech Institute, and TechLink Training. Charlotte published articles on computer technology in such sources as The Naked PC newsletter and Inside Microsoft Access. She has an article in press for the Tech Republic. She is also a MVP and Moderator in The WOPR Lounge (www.wopr.com/lounge). Of course, she is also a member of the Database Developers Group. Excerpts from Our 1st Quarter, 2003 Featured Member Sid Singer, a native of Canada, earned his B.A.Sc. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Toronto. He then went to The Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded a D. Eng. in engineering with a specialty in Operations Research Sid started his own full-time consulting practice in 1983 as Singer & Associates...Sid attended in the early nineties a Microsoft seminar introducing Access. Since that time, he has concentrated on applications development with Access. Later, he expanded his involvement with Microsoft products to include VB/VBA and SQL Server. Sid has worked with clients in a broad cross-section of organizations, industries, and government agencies. He works mainly with small and mid-size business clients, although occasionally he has worked with Fortune 500 companies...Sid’s most rewarding consulting engagement is with a manufacturer of custom industrial fragrances that he served since 1995. He initially used Access 2.0 to build an Order Entry/Tracking System. This system operated on a peer-to-peer network with three users. Before installing the database system, the company used manila folders stored in a filing cabinet to track orders. Like other clients of his practice, this fragrance firm engaged Sid to upgrade his initial system for them over the years. In 1997, he was retained to migrate the system from Access 2.0 to Access 97. Then, in 2001, he upgraded the back-end of the application to SQL Server. Today the application operates on a Windows NT 4.0 network with 22 users, and the entire business depends on its functionality...As a member of the Database Developers Group, he contributed product reviews for: Total SQL Analyzer (from FMS), and Business! (from Database Creations). Excerpts from Our 4th Quarter, 2002 Featured Member Laurie Almoslino participated in the information technology field for the past 19 years. She earned her B.A. in Mathematics at Whitman College. On the way to completing her degree, she participated in a work-study project that converted the membership records for an HP3000 User Group from paper to a real-time database system. After gaining additional experience at custom programming and personal computer retailing firms, she moved to Seattle to start her own database consulting practice, PC Database Solutions (click the logo below to visit the web site for her firm)...Laurie bought Microsoft Access 1.0 for just $99 to create solutions for her clients. As she first started using Access, Laurie reports: “I definitely got my money’s worth in free support calls.” Laurie runs her consulting practice along with her husband, Michael. Their motto is: We Make Your Data Jump Through Hoops… So You Don’t Have To. Over the years, PC Database Solutions developed application for a broad range of clients...One specialty area for PC Database Solutions is the leasing industry...PC Database Solutions has experience in other business and government sectors, such as health care, insurance, non-profit organizations, and county government. Regarding her membership in the DDG, she comments that “I won a free copy of "Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET", downloaded several interesting articles, and am being featured for this quarter. Not too bad for a $75 investment!” |