I am a seasoned software engineer with 20 years of experience. I spent 15 years working for advanced engineering projects within the U.S. Defense Dept, specifically work related to Java development and SOA within USJFCOM, SPAWAR, and USA/TRADOC. Following my work with the govt, I spent 5 years working the the Research Triangle. I now run a small consulting practice with the goal of providing application, database, and web services for small to medium sized businesses. Typically, the cost of standing up a database system, with a professional, cross-platform (Windows, iOS, iPad, mobile) front-end presentation and web presence can quickly spiral into a high-cost endeavor, that is simply out of reach for all but the largest companies. I specialize in lower-cost implementations leveraging the power of FileMaker. What makes this technology truly unique is it's focus on Rapid Application Development (RAD) and that it is built on an extremely approachable development environment. What this means to a small business is that you can expect extremely short turn-arounds for prototypes, providing high visibility of work in progress and allowing responsive feedback. For example, after 2 days to stand-up an initial prototype, we will setup a web-conference to confer on initial requirements and to redirect efforts if necessary to meet specific business needs, in real-time. Another extremely attractive feature of FileMaker is related to project maintenance. While the expertise of initial development may be out of reach for a small business, ongoing maintenance is likely within the capabilities of anyone that can create Excel spreadsheets. FileMaker is not programming in the traditional sense. A large-scale Java, Perl, or HTML project requires that you again hire a professional service to make changes or otherwise maintain your project.