I am looking for any recommendations or advise for finding software that would meet the needs as described below. I have tried doing browser searches, however I believe I am using incorrect search terms as I am not getting accurate results.
The very base requirements that we are looking for is software that would allow us to:
Create a file for an individual where we can store basic personal information (name, date of birth, and a reference number for the individual).
Attach documents (pdf, doc, xls) and store them in named folders (i.e. Correspondence, Notes, etc).
Include an interface where we can search by the person’s name or number to find the file.
Currently we are doing all of the above with OneNote. The nice feature of OneNote is that when documents are attached, you can attach them as printouts, so that you can view the document in the file, without have to actually open up the document – however you do have that option as well.
While OneNote is essentially working for us at this time, it really feels like we are using it outside of it’s capability. The work we do is investigative nature, however most software that I have found that would do the above, is case-based – meaning that you would create a case number, and all management is based on that case number. This really doesn’t fit our needs well, as a file needs to be “person based” and not “case file number based”.
Other considerations, would be having a client display dashboard that we could customize. It would be great if we could integrate this dashboard with another database we have where could pull other information on the client from, and have it displayed on the dashboard.
We are hoping that in the far distant future that we will be able to migrate all this data into custom designed software, but we are likely 5 to 10 years away from that.
If anyone could suggest the correct browser search terms that I could use to find something similar to the above – or better yet recommend existing software that does the above, please let me know.
“software that records people and documents in a database” is simultaneously entirely too vague and too case-specific. Which is… an odd sentence to say.
A database is itself a piece of software. So there’s one blob on the table. The other blob is the interaction element. Unless your company is staffed by people who are well versed in directly interfacing with a database…
Yes, we are not looking to build anything from scratch. We would have to engage our IT department for that, and there is no time or budget for that. We need an out-of-the box solution that would only require our IT department to install the product.
I no longer have a good grasp on IT matters in general, but I have been tasked with trying to find something that suites our needs. I can handle configuring the user display environment within the software, but that would be my limit as my coding and SQL knowledge/ability is very limited.
The other consideration is that our data has to be 100% contained in a safe and private environment, and would have to be only accessible by our organization, and not be stored in an environment where the party providing either the software or storage environment would have any access to that data.
So you’ve got a server, which IT manages, and you want to install a piece of software on the server, that runs a database, that you can connect to… via a piece of software? via a browser?