Bespoke Software

Are you struggling to find a company who can develop software for a specific problem that you have? Why not get in touch with Innove Solutions? We have a proven track record in delivering bespoke software for clients in the NHS, Local Authorities, large public companies and also private limited companies.

Our greatest strength is being able to take a sometimes vague idea, quite literally once on the back on an A4 envelope through to a fully functioning piece of software. Through regular meetings We work with you every step of the way to ensure that the final product meets all your needs.

To see what we mean why not have a look at some of our case studies below.

Case Study: Involve Northwest Connect Us Database CRM

Project Description

Involve Northwest have run the very successful Connect Us project across the NW of England for a number of years and were looking to develop a centralised database system that would allow them to

• Centralise all the data that they had in numerous Excel files into one centralised, easy to use, secure SSL based database that could be accessed by all users simultaneously.
• Generate Standard Reports automatically without having to manipulate spreadsheet data all the time and also have the ability to download this as csv files.
• Allow users to be added/deleted easily as well as being able to alter all the lookup values used in the database.
• Ensure that the CRM could easily be altered as and when Involve Northwest win new contracts.
• Aim for 100% uptime of the CRM and ensure that all data is backed up automatically every night to a separate data centre.

We worked with Involve Northwest to deliver this project and the system has now been live for over 18 months and is their central database for nearly 5000 clients. We have achieved all the key points above and the system has 26 users and processes over 800 transactions and diary entries per month.

Click here to see screenshots from the CRM

Click here to read our customers feedback

Technical Stuff

We developed this secure CRM using asp.net MVC and the Entity Framework using a Code First approach. Client side validation was done using JQuery and Angular. All the data, including any documents uploaded were stored in a SQL Server. We also made extensive use of stored procedures in SQL Server to ensure that the reports were generated very quickly.

Case Study: Active Living Database System

Project Description

Following the success of the Active Living programme at Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, the service was expanded to engage more people to lead healthier lifestyles through gentle exercise programmes. In 2005 Innove Solutions replaced the previous Access/Excel system with a .Net multi-user database solution. All the existing data was imported and the new system gives the Active Living Team complete control over all the information stored on their participants.

We have constantly improved this system over the years as detailed below.

• Support for data import from Smart card bar code scanners
• New web service set up to accept data from Slimming World
• SMS module added to keep in touch with all participants and to gather feedback
• New Triage system added to run in the contact centre
• Replacement of the ADASTRA booking system with a custom add on booking module

This is a business critical system and we are very proud to have developed, supported, and constantly updated the software over the last 10 years.

<Update May 2015>

We developed and integrated a complete booking module into the database which enabled call handlers to book people onto the Active Living Program in seconds rather minutes. This replaced the previous Adastra booking system which would take over 5 minutes to make an individual booking.

Technical Stuff

We were asked to develop the system as a Windows Forms application in keeping with the policy of the Trust and we developed the system using Microsoft Visual Studio with a number of add in modules from Telerik. The easy of Integration of Crystal Reports into Visual Studio allowed us to build a custom report generator. This makes it very easy to add additional management reports as and when required.

We used SQL Server as a data repository and TSQL Stored Procedures were added to optimise the report generation. We developed a number of SSIS scripts to automate the data transfer from Access and Excel.

For the SMS messaging add on we used TextAnywhere and have had great support from them over the years for this product and also other products that we have used it in.

Case Study: Touch Screen Information System

Project Description

Involve Northwest is a charity that empowers local people in a range of areas such as welfare advice, community involvement, dispute mediation and they have a drop in centre that is open to anyone in the local community. Funding was secured to purchase a Touch Screen Information Kiosk that was supplied by Innove Solutions and installed in the drop in centre in 2014. Working with Involve Northwest we created a bank of useful information and advice that was then made accessible on the kiosk.

Every time the kiosk is used, the information viewed is automatically logged as are any organisations that people are signposted to. This enables Involve NorthWest to analyse the usage of the kiosk and generate reports to show how effective the kiosk is.

See the kiosk on the video clip below

Technical Stuff

We have a lot of experience of setting up Touch Screen Information kiosks and this design was a proven product that we have used for other customers. The through glass 17″ touchscreen delivers a great visual experience while being housed in a very secure unit. The software was developed using Visual Studio and we had to integrate screen timeouts, USB port automatic updating and lock down of the P.C. inside the kiosk to complete the project.

Case Study: Lose Weight Feel Great Portal

Project Description

Wigan Council needed a system that could export referral data from their internal contact centre software and securely push it to a number of providers who carry out services for them.

We developed a custom piece of software that would mine into their data every day, extract their referrals and then place them in an xml file. This file is then pushed over a secure link to our server and automatically imported into the Lose Weight Feel Great Portal that we developed for them. If a provider has a referral waiting then they are automatically sent an email by the system to make them aware of this.

The providers can then log onto the SSL protected secure site and download their referrals as a csv file or just view them on the screen. They can also select their referrals by date range.

Technical Stuff

We developed two C# console apps to deal with the export and import of data on the two different servers. Both console apps linked to SQL Server instances to extract and import data into. The LWFG secure portal was developed in Visual Studio using .Net MVC4 and a mixture of C#, Javascript, Linq and Angular.

Case Study: LHCH LSS Patient Scheduling System

Project Description

The Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital is the largest single site specialist heart and chest hospital in the UK. We were asked to take over the development of the LSS Patient Scheduling System which was in use in the Cath Labs in the hospital.

This software is a real time diary based system that is used to schedule patients into timeslots in theatres. The diary is kept up to date throughout the day and it is possible to see the usage of the theatres at any time on an Outlook Diary display.

Over an 18 month period we refined the software so that it could be used in other areas of the hospital. John Keogh from Innove Solutions worked on site with a number of consultants to define the requirements as well as implementing the changes with nurses and administrators who also used the system.

While working at LHCH we also developed pilot systems for Ward Display Monitoring and Resource Allocation of Staff which were then developed internally.

Technical Stuff

We inherited the software that was already in place at the trust and the software was a .Net MVC 3 application that made heavy use of JQuery for the Calendar Diary system. KnockoutJS was also used a lot linked to a Model First Repository model. All the data was stored in a SQL Server database.