FileMaker Pro

I have set up Filemaker databases for many different businesses. Where it shines particularly well is when there are many aspects of a business and keeping track of all the people, resources and products is difficult. Filemaker make it easy to keep all the information in one place where reports can cover a broad variety of things or hone in on one specific area. I've used Filemaker for over 10 years and have run a business with entirely remote workers utilizing Filemaker Server. There are endless add-on products but we have used the mapping program, texting, and calendar. All have been excellent products and highlight the ability of Filemaker to adapt to whatever your specific industry is.

It is perfectly suitable for many different projects, making it easier for developers to track customers, help them in the best way, and provide a database to provide better service
otherwise Not very suitable for large projects that need a lot of complex systems that are important to have available, but it is rather useful

If your company is really small, I can understand the need for a product like this. However, I would go for MS Access... FileMaker Pro can not be integrated with other systems (like MS Access can at least be handled by C# for instance, and can be integrated with MS Excel or even SQL server). I'm really not sure in what scenario one would choose for FileMaker Pro. If your application or company grows bigger, you're going to have a problem to move to another environment. Also, the fact that only one person can work with the backend at any given time is a problem in a somewhat larger company.

I think FileMaker [Pro] is a great solution for a small business wanting to take the next step from managing data with Excel spreadsheets to actually using a database. It is very intuitive to use and manage. A tech-savvy user can learn to use FileMaker [Pro] very easily without advanced skills as a developer.

In our situation it is well suited to our organization because one of the owners of the construction company has some programming experience and was able to use FileMaker to make all of the existing systems in the organization electronic. It has been a work in progress and the system has grown with the organization. When we want to shift to meet new market needs or changing government regulations we can move quickly to adjust our electronic processes.

It is well suited to teams or organizations that do things differently than their competitors and want their electronic systems to be reflection of who they are instead of using a canned system that forces them to work the same way everyone else does.

It is not well suited to teams where there is high turnover of employees and managers as custom systems may never get a foothold or be maintained in that environment.

The forums are great with lots of helpful experts and the staff monitor them to provide help where needed. There have been a couple of unique technical issues I've had to deal with that I haven't been able to get resolved so I chose to score this a 9 instead of a 10.

This program is well suited for companies or individuals who are looking to hold a bunch of data in one place and need to keep it organized. I'd say it is most appropriate for larger organizations but could be useful anywhere there is a Human Resources Department, especially. Overall, it is useful but frustrating at times.

I have defaulted my rating to a 10 because I have never had to contact customer support. This may be a question that is more appropriate for our IT department. I do not have any personal first-hand knowledge or experience dealing with the customer service department of this software at this time.

It is suited well to help organize lots of data in the same place. Not worth the cost of implementation if a basic spreadsheet works for your purposes, but if you have lots of data associated with each entry, it works well. QuickBase is an excellent alternative and is internet-based, but not quite as customizable.

I do not have experience with their support.

We're building information on clothing, and this gives us multiple categories so we are able to plug in and grab the info we need.

FileMaker Pro is good for tracking inventory and sales. Financials are better suited to software like QuickBooks.

From what I can tell Filemaker Pro is very versatile. The best function is the ability of mass data collection. This tool makes it easy to collect data and organize it effectively for better use. Another pro is that you can use third-party programs and combine them with Filemaker to get better functionality.

FMP is well suited to organizations that need a tightly integrated system that delivers interfaces targeted at specific job roles.
FMP is not suited for quick, on-time solutions. This may be better suited to another app such as excel.

It is very well-suited for events and meetings using one or two rooms.

It works well if there aren't tons of instructions. I say this because their field for this is a bit short and we sometimes run out of room when detailing our needs.

It is very good to use for creating internal libraries. To store collections of props, on screen talent, backgrounds, anything that you would need an inventory for.

FileMaker Pro works well for companies with large amounts of data. It's fully customizable so you can get exactly what you want and how you want it (which a few restrictions.) It is costly, but overall it's worth the investment.

Filemaker Pro would likely not well with companies who are more creative and fewer data heavy. There is little room for creative ideas, it is more...numbers/by the book focused.

Despite limitations, Filemaker Pro is perfect for a company which is in constant flux and which requires a custom work flow which an out of the box solution doesn't provide.

One example is that my company requires orders to be submitted where based on product type, purchase location and company category all impact the price that is charged. I've used several e-store solutions and most of these are very cut and dry. You can have a product with 1 price, the only exception is a coupon code. Filemaker allowed us to create an store that allows our users to create an order based on our crazy pricing structure.

If you have salaried salespeople it's easy to teach them to create quotes and invoices. If they can do that, they can also learn to create purchase orders so cross training is very easy. It is less appropriate to use to reconcile the every changing bank balance of a business. We always do that outside of FileMaker.

Filemaker is a great tool for adding serial numbers from orders and keeping track of Support Contracts and when they expire or need to be renewed.

Based on my experience Filemaker works extremely well for up to 10 users but have very little experience with larger setups.

The communication between records and customizable information linked to multiple sources provides an infinite number of possibilities when tracking complex inventory items. If you like or need to see a lot of information about your inventory item, FileMaker is a powerful tool to organize and track your data. Essentially our entire business is linked to the FileMaker database in one way or another. If you do not have large amounts of information pertaining to your inventory items, then you might be able to get away with an Excel database that utilizes macros as it is far easier to perform the backend programming compared to FileMaker.

FileMaker is perfect for a company needing a custom data tracking solution that fits the way they do business.

It was difficult to navigate at first, however after time it became easier. The version I used did not have a cloud base application, this was a major downfall for us. It was very versatile in creating queries, and manipulating mail merge features. Being able to group data was very easy.

If your organization requires a low-code and flexible database solution, FileMaker Pro will work great. We were successful in implementing the system because many of the manual processes of the company are now automated through the script builder. However if your organization has very complex queries and/or very complex needs, you should look elsewhere as FileMaker limits you to the tools they give.

FileMaker Pro is well suited for low-code situations where a custom app needs to be customized for specific customer needs.

It's really great for fast development, prototyping, and general database needs for a relatively small population. It doesn't scale particularly well, so large enterprises might be content to prototype in FileMaker, but would want to deliver at scale on another platform.

FileMaker is great for start-up businesses, small business, and even mid sized businesses. I would say that FileMaker is well suited for small to medium sized environments (1-200 people). You could definitely go bigger than that, but the level of expertise and planning significantly increases when you do that. Because FileMaker doesn't scale very well with really large companies, I would avoid using it for large companies who want a solution that goes across a large amount of employees.