If you need advice, pure and simple,...

Or if you need financial control tools that other companies have at their disposal to zone in instantly on problem areas, and monitor trouble spots,...

Or if you need custom programming to convert data, process real-time information, or audit accounting or production systems,...

Donohue&Co. can help. Consulting is performed by John Donohue personally, as it has been since the beginning of the microcomputer industry.

Approach to Your Need

I take a 1-2-3 approach to solving your problem. Unlike many technically skilled people, I don't want to reinvent the wheel at your expense. So...

Step 1: I seek an executive solution before a technical one:

I make a phone call, get on a modem, something -- to find the solution in less than an hour. Fortunately for you, I know whom to call and whom not to. But if no such solution is available,...

Step 2: I select the best person for the task.

I have the respect of a diverse army of technical experts. While this does not build my income, it assures that your problem is solved as quickly as possible, by someone who knows exactly what to do, at far less expense to you than any other way. There are some cases, however, when the best alternative is...

Step 3: I use existing, inexpensive tools where possible.

Where not, we can design custom programs for the task, in C, dBase, HTML, Visual Basic, whatever is called for. Though I am considered expert in C programming and dBase, I rarely use them, because it is time-consuming (read "expensive"), and unless the system will be used over a long period of time, generally does not repay the cost.

In each case, you get the fastest, most skilled solution available, at the lowest cost to you.

What Makes Software Truly Useful? Rules of the Game

Success is rarely an accident. We follow two practices in business to assure control:

You must have a measuring stick.

To make progress in any endeavor requires an appropriate means of measuring the degree of the initial problem and the effect of various remedies. The trick is isolating an easily measurable quantifier of precisely the item you want to change, maximize, or minimize. It is not acceptable to require an elaborate, time-consuming, or expensive new procedure. Nor is it acceptable to measure something which does not accurately reflect the problem or its progress. Developing the right tool for the task is not only crucial, it is something we do well.

You must have a "mirror".

This is a standard which becomes so ingrained in your mind and that of your key employees that it triggers the necessary reaction, at precisely the moment of each critical decision. If your company needs to charge higher rates, for example, it is essential that the person who quotes the prices sees the "mirror" in his mind exactly as he prepares the quotation. Good management tools can help this to happen.

Technical qualifications aren't enough.

You will find a number of people willing to create software or set up a Web Page for you. If you've been through it before, you know what I'm talking about. If not, suffice to say that there are multiple goals you might hope for:

• low price
• available immediately
• easy to learn
• able to be used in expert mode
• upgradeable

You probably can't have them all. The trick is to determine what's most important to you, and get the best balance.

In particular, there are a dozen things which can prevent your website from doing what it should. Elsewhere on these pages, we list them for you.

Internet Presence and Web-Page Design

See our Internet Mini-Course for solutions, right now.