Check this out: http://demo.geeex.net
Does this suit your needs? I do post-sale support for these guys, it's FOSS and I know it can be tailored for your specific needs. -- .:====================================================:. Amichai Rotman Registered Linux User#: 201192 [http://counter.li.org/] Registered Ubuntu User #12851 [http://ubuntucounter.geekosophical.net] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ .:====================================================:. On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 12:57, Eyal Rozenberg <eyal...@technion.ac.il> wrote: > > Hello all, > > I would like some advice regarding a possible upgrade of an organizational > software application we use at the Graduate Student Organization. > > In fact, while initially what I need is advice and directions, we may soon > be interested in contracting a single developer or a (small?) development > company to entirely replace our existing system with something nice and > FOSSy. > > To describe things briefly, our system: > > - Keeps grad student personal data. > - Records payments and debts. > - Communicates directly or via imported/exported data files with some > Technion and non-Technion systems: The listserv, ANAM, the student tuition > people etc. > - Records non-financial operations such as collecting a gift, > joining/leaving the organization etc. > - Is used simultaneously by more than one person on a network (although it > is extremely rare for two people to try to add or modify db records at the > same time) > > The number of people handled by the system at any given time can range upto > 5,000 (let's make it 10,000 to be on the safe side), and if we keep info > about people active in the past and don't only maintain a snapshot of the > present, then we need to be able to handle, say, 10,000 as a real estimate > for the next several years and 30,000 to be on the safe side. There isn't > any heavy calculation going on, it's all pretty routine and mundane. > > Before talking about our currently operating solution, here are some > questions: > > Q1: What software platforms/toolkits/etc. would you recommend for this kind > of a system? Be specific, not "make it LAMP-based". > Q2: Do you know of specific software apps, already written, which cover > this functionality and may be easily adapted to our needs (or would not need > any adapting)? > Q3: Do you know people/organizations who run such systems with FOSS > solutions, and would be willing to share their experiences? > > Our system as you may probably have guessed is based on MS Access, with a > Frontend-Backend split to ease multi-user use. While it is working well > enough today, it is an endless patch-work, not well documented, without > proper specs for anything, and showing signs of aging with every operation > becoming slower as features are added and the number of people grows. There > are also some foundational architectural assumptions which we want to change > (e.g. the present snapshot vs. full history I mentioned above). > > Q4: Not a list-relevant question, but are more recent versions of Access, > or Access + a full-blown SQL server, options which allow better scaling? > Perhaps with careful coding? > Q5: Does any of you know people we could consult regarding migrating away > from MS-Access to a more capable platform which is both FOSS and is easy to > extend in the way Access-based apps are? > Q6: Is it or is it not worth thinking in the direction of web-based > frontends to databases, rather than plain vanilla apps? > > > Any other thoughts/comments are welcome. > > Eyal > > PS - We're an organization of mostly non-Technically-oriented people, bear > that in mind. > _______________________________________________ > Haifux mailing list > Haifux@haifux.org > http://hamakor.org.il/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haifux >
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