SMH's main business is to collect, analyze and report on data obtained through their national mental health screening programs. They desperately needed a fast and highly reliable relational database/application to replace their slow, cumbersome and non-relational MS Access databases. SMH had over 7 MS Access databases that contained years of data. The applications were very slow, poorly designed and non-relational. The non-relational aspect of the applications caused a lot of redundant data, unnecessary data entry, and made reporting across screening programs very difficult, if not impossible. Additionally, the applications were difficult to manage and improvements were complex and costly.
SMH hired SilverSwitch to architect, develop and deploy a new relational database application that would meet their business needs, be scalable for future growth and be easy to maintain and upgrade.
Initially, SilverSwitch’s main focus was to meet with each department/program to assess their business needs and to look at their current databases. After gathering all the functionality needs we started architecting the database model. This model included methodologies for how the new application would integrate with the legacy data and the newly developed on-line screening functionality.
Once the database was modeled and developed, an interface was needed. A browser-based interface was decided upon for cost, ease of rollout, and business goals. Additionally, a MS Access interface was setup for the administrator to enable her to do free-form viewing and analysis of the ‘raw’ data.
The application has been a huge success. Queries to the database return in a split second versus multiple seconds. New reporting tools have been created and the new results enable SMH to apply for more Federally funded grants. Additionally, ROI on the application has increased as the number of hours to enter data and the cost to manage and update the application has been reduced.