Coding Innovations Blog

Web Based Portal

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:14:36 GMT

Web Based Portals

A while back I was approached by a locally owned distributor and manufacturer who was having a problem keeping track of its open purchase orders. On any given day the company had over 1,500 open orders but its current process was unable to keep up with the volume. It was beginning to cause loss of revenue and customer disappointment.

This company does over $500M in business each year. Its inventory and sales department is spread out over 18 branches. In addition, it uses over 450 suppliers to reach in excess of 525,000 customers.

In its current system, the company had a team of buyers who were responsible for keeping track of all open purchase orders, in addition to creating new ones. The buyers were in charge of manually updating whether an order had actually shipped or if the supplier was delayed and therefore the shipment to the customer would be delayed.

To make matters worse, the logistics group were relying on this information also. They needed to know when the orders were shipping so they would have the correct ground transportation to get the materials from the supplier to the customers. When the status of the orders was incorrect, logistics was negatively impacted. There were instances when logistics either didn’t have a truck ready to move the material or they didn’t have enough trucks, leading to additional delays and cost.

All of this information was updated via manual data entry by the buyers. The buyers would get the information from the suppliers via email, phone or fax. The buyers would then have to update each purchase order by logging into each purchase order individually. This created backlog problems as the buyers couldn’t keep up with the volume. It also resulted in data entry errors, which ultimately resulted in dissatisfied and angry customers.

So this is what Codinginnovations.com did: Recognizing that the best solution was to create real-time updates to each purchase order, we set out to create a web-based portal. With the requirements already in place, we used a team of 3 and in about 12 weeks delivered the completed program.

The final results allows suppliers to log into a custom designed webpage and update the status of their own orders. The web-based portal eliminates the need for emails or phone calls back and forth and reduces the data entry errors. It also gives the company live data and updates on the location and status of each order. The web-based portal allows the company to effectively communicate with their customers and manage expectations. Also, the company is able to more proficiently run its logistics department. Money is saved by efficiently loading trucks and making sure transportation is available when needed.

Sound like something your business needs? Contact me at Don@Codinginnovations.com so we can talk about how to make your business run smoother.

Automating a Business Process

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:12:39 GMT

Automation and Your Business

In business – time is money. Some repetitive processes conducted by humans tend to cost more, take longer and leave room for human error. The employees at a business, who are paid to do these processes may also be better utilized within the organization performing critical thinking assignments not suitable for automation. By integrating Business Process Automation, or BPA, to specific operations, the benefits stand to provide a quick return on the investment, and in turn, increase the bottom line.

Coding Innovations, a custom software development company, offers services to create and gain direct advantages of BPA. The company's professionals are highly experienced in developing BPA systems to improve efficiency, productivity, and stability. BPA can provide centralized control and management. The automation can initiate order and monitoring capabilities in processes to manage information and avoid unnecessary costs.

Coding Innovations' BPA services significantly reduce errors and lead to quality improvement. Compliance and regulations can be incorporated to assure the organization's policies and procedures abide by laws and follow applicable rules. An automated system can be integrated to provide tracking and reporting within processes. The collected data can provide insight and analysis capabilities for continuous improvement. Any employee interaction with the task is reported for accountability. Decision-making actions, such as approval, within an automated system, may require manual completion, and in these cases, are assigned to an individual and the system will provide data for analyzing those efforts. Within an automated process message and logging capabilities for employee interaction are included to streamline processes and keep the lines of communication open among those involved.

When considering BPA, questions to ask include:

What are you comfortable with the system doing?

What are you comfortable with the person needing to do?

For one case, a professional industrial and architectural manufacturing company was comfortable with the system conducting automated tasks for inventory control procedures and comfortable with a person’s involvement in approving or denying the information the system provided.

Coding Innovations professionals reviewed the company’s process to automate, it was found that the company had a manual process at each of its 19 branches where employees were reviewing 1000s of SKUs within the inventory and guessing what inventory was on hand and needed. The things that could go wrong with this process are endless. First, there was absolutely no quality control for accuracy within any of the 19 locations. Each employee who performed the manual calculations had their own “system” and performed the duties as instructed in the allotted time and as best they could with the task at hand. Unneeded items were ordered. Needed items were not ordered. The one consistency among the branches was error and inefficient use of employee time.

The Coding Innovations' BPA professionals analyzed each of the 19 branches and found a company-approved procedure for all of the locations to follow. The processes were mapped out with actual employees who had performed the inventory steps. Rules were mapped out to automate the majority of the process. The final step of the original process remained, which required employee interaction for review and approval decision. After utilizing the BPA, 95% of all reviews were conducted automatically.

All benefits lead to saving money within an organization. Whether it’s labor costs, supply cost or a combination of having to redo a task due to manual errors, BPA can be incorporated into any business.

Custom Business Software

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:10:21 GMT

Custom Business Software for You

CodingInnovations.com professionals follow extensive quality control and quality assurance procedures to ensure the functionality of our software across all platforms. We work with you to understand your organization’s needs and how our abilities can aid in what you wish to accomplish. We also assure our software is well-maintained and ready for any updates required in the future. Our platform experience is extensive, and only the best technology is used to create your custom business software.

We build our custom solutions using the following platforms:

NET

 C#

 Visual Basic

Web Applications

 MVC

 Web Forms

 OWIN

 Bootstrap

Desktop Applications

 Services

 Win Forms

 WPF

Web Services

 ASP .NET

 OData

 WCF

 WEB API

Platforms

 SQL Server

 Oracle

 Other Databases

 Azure

 SharePoint

 Code Generation

 Document Scanners

 E1 Data Integrations

Application Development

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:09:23 GMT

Application Development and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com provides high-quality Application Development services. Multiple platforms, including Mobile Applications, Web Applications/Portal, and Desktop Applications, are offered as solutions. Our developers provide the coding experience necessary to create the best application for your needs. We utilize equipment and resources that are compatible and designed to integrate into existing systems and engage to assemble secure solutions which will scale effectively. Our custom applications are built to specific needs, making them more efficient and usually more cost effective than over-the-counter options.

Systems Integration

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:07:50 GMT

Systems Integration and Your Business

Any integration should be seamless, and for the most part, unnoticeable. We help implement tools to strengthen your standard operating procedures. Our solutions will not interfere with daily operations or personnel interaction until the solutions are fully established and ready for the subtle transitions. CodingInnovations.com’s professionals provide solutions to your objectives with well-timed implementations. When integrating your organization’s systems, your personnel will be more effective and able to do more.

Mobile Applications

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:06:35 GMT

Mobile Applications and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com has a team of extremely skilled developers who design and develop custom applications available for download onto mobile devices, such as mobile phones and tablets. Our team works with your requests to build the functionality needed in a mobile application. We are highly experienced with cross platform mobile application development. Our solutions are compatible for Android and Apple mobile platforms and will meet the requirements needed for availability in the Google Play Store or in the Apple App Store.

Web Portals

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:04:41 GMT

Web Portals and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com's software developers provide reliable solutions to develop web applications and portals. Our expertise in web development solutions can provide high quality results within budget. Our services allow for quick deploying applications and capabilities to scale automatically for traffic needs. Our solutions allow external users access to the appropriate data or allow the capture of data that is needed as part of your business.

Desktop Applications

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:03:48 GMT

Desktop Applications and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com provides development services for custom applications. Our desktop applications optimize the performance of IT operations, provide continuous information preparing to streamline the work processes of desktop applications. Our custom applications are built to specific needs, making them more efficient and usually more cost effective than over-the-counter options.

Business Process Automation

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:20 GMT

Automation and Your Business

What are the routine tasks that are core to your business? How many of those duties do you still do on paper or in compartmentalized, limited and generally outdated data processing systems? Maybe you have made the leap to Excel or Access, but even these electronic formats seem to fall short in efficiently delivering robust and portable information to your organization, clients, and vendors. This is where Business Process Automation can help you and give you a substantial advantage over your competitors.

Business Process Automation (BPA) takes something that is done manually, or in multiple systems, and combines it into one seamless system. Once the process and data under one roof, other efficiencies can be explored. Computers are very good at following commands and doing repetitive tasks, why not take those tasks out an employee’s hands and let the computer do them and leave the interesting tasks for people? The less time spent on repetitive tasks, the more time that can be spend devoted to creative and specialized procedures, which no box of computer chips and wires can accomplish.

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), the cloud, the internet of things (IOT) and other emerging technologies have rendered so many routine tasks capable being automated, as well as sophisticated, decision-based procedures. With these profound advancements, all organizations should take a hard look at BPA to see how it can incorporate it into their digital transformation. As BPA has permeated every sector, in businesses both large and small, its adoption a matter of ensuring continued survival. Every business can be certain there are competitors in the marketplace who have fully embraced BPA to streamline and reduce overhead and now pose a significant, competitive threat.

Below is an explanation of different types of BPA and the components involved. This article will serve as a link to all of them. Each of those sub-articles will each be able to stand on their own, but this article will link them together. Check back often to find updated information.

Reasons you need BPA

1. Limitations

Many businesses perform a process that is critical to them in Excel and Access. This works reasonably well while the amount of information is relatively small and only one or two people need to get to the data. Once a business starts getting a bit of history and the size of the data grows, and as more users and systems need access to this information, the process can become unmanageable. For example, in Access, there are file size limitations. This causes a business process slowdown as files must be compacted and repaired constantly.

2. Manageability

In Excel, the size of the data can become unmanageable very quickly. How many tabs can a person reasonably keep track of at one time? And once they start linking to external data sources, it is critical that the connected link never move or become unavailable, or the entire process falls apart. Very quickly it can become a house of cards and if one card moves or slides just a little, the rest of the house crumbles down.

3. Inaccessibility – The file is locked

File locks can be an issue too. Frequently, in Excel or other applications the file that needs to be edited is locked? Sometimes you are listed as the person who has it locked, and how do you fix that?

4. Back-up Complications

If files are all stored in different locations and different machines, backups can quickly become an issue. Making sure the data that is crucial to gets backed up should be important to any business. It is imperative to make sure if a file gets deleted accidentally, or the file becomes corrupt, that a backup is available and be a recent copy. In a worst-case scenario such as a natural disaster or fire, it is critical that data can be restored, and that the business can be run from a separate location.

5. Saving Errors

One of the issues faced without a centralized system is the capture and reporting of errors. Let’s face it, errors happen from time to time. There’s really no way around it. Every major software vendor releases a constant stream of error fixes. It would be naïve to think all work is completed error free. So, assuming there will be errors, it is important they are identified as soon as possible. This can be an impossible task while using multiple programs that are built on each other. It may not be possible to see the error in Excel while working with the data in Access, if the error is even ever identified. Beyond that, there is no central repository of the errors to examine.

6. Update Complications

The way data is stored can become an issue as well. As data comes in over time, it is not always segmented and split up properly. This leads to the same data in several spots. It can also lead to repeating data when only one copy is needed. In either case, updating the data becomes an issue. Now that the same data is in different locations, each instance of the data must be reviewed to update it.

I like to use the example of Customer Name. Say you have an Excel spreadsheet that lists the customer name, it seems that updating the name should be a simple task. But let’s say that the name is also stored in an Access database that holds invoices for that customer. Now to update the name of the customer, you need to do it in both locations. Now, if that is the only two locations you have Customer Name, it doesn’t seem so bad. But imagine you have more information such as contacts at the customer, locations, phone numbers, shipping and billing addresses, etc. You have to remember to go to each place and change the Customer Name. Not only that, you need to keep track of each one that got updated to make sure you got them all. Not an easy task.

Things you can do with BPA

1. Seamless back-end

• One environment

A single environment allows for a much more efficient and manageable environment than a string of PCs or less powerful servers. Many publishers license their software on a per-server basis, so multiple servers mean additional costs. Data moves much more quickly within a single environment than from environment-to-environment. This results in faster processing for applications that access databases. Any audits necessary become much more manageable.

• Enterprise level servers

It is not uncommon to find servers that are little more than glorified PCs, which have often been used to reduce costs. Consolidating these in an enterprise level server allows for advanced customization to better serve the owner. If the enterprise level server is owned by a third-party host, offsite, then real-time scaling, which adds or removes resources such as memory, disk space or even entire servers, as needed, is possible. With a centralized server, 24-hour access is ensured, as unlike individual PCs, these are not shut down at the end of a workday.

• No application limitations

In environments that have not been BPA optimized, users often are forced to shoehorn forms, databases, and reports into a packaged application, which ends up sacrificing function, convenience, and preferred appearance. With customized BPA, organizations get exactly what is ideal for their installation, resulting in a better experience for the business and its clients. The only limitation with customized BPA solutions becomes the capabilities of hardware on the market or the budget allocated to hardware.

• Import automation from external sources

Frequently, off-the-shelf applications do not support automated import for all data sources a business might need. There are also feeds which need scrubbing before import. In these instances, manual intervention is necessary, and a drain on productivity. A custom BPA solution can alleviate either of those problems and consequently the inefficiencies associated with them.

• Back-up best practices

Backups and restorations are more difficult to govern when data is stored on desktop PCs. Typically, backups of desktops will take place during non-office hours; however, sometimes the user may have turned off their unit, making it impossible. Restoration is a nightmare in this scenario, as there are more machines to revive and it may not be clear which should receive priority. A centralized database, implemented with BPA, on an enterprise-level server, allows for more frequent backups (often throughout the day), without interruption of service or reliance on individual desktops to be powered up. In the event restoration is needed, it is a much quicker and more orderly process.

• Applying one rule to multiple applications

Regulatory compliance, internal processing time limits, signoffs, style guides (font, color, etc.), and any other guidelines may be controlled across all applications. Lacking automation, this is tedious and error-prone demand, as different processes are frequently subject to disparate policies. BPA ensures the proper rules are applied and adhered to for each unique process.

• Applying data across multiple departments

Some departments rely on the same data to complete critical processes, while others may not require access to that data but could benefit from seeing it. A mortgage application, for example, cycles through many departments. Each add their input or verify that all traps (is this the right word?) have been run. However, generally it wouldn’t move through the marketing group, yet some of the information collected could be of value in helping to design and execute advertising campaigns. Robust BPA environments allow wide access to data, while strictly controlling permissions, so it is easy to accommodate the marketing group, used in this example.

• 24/7/365

Introducing software systems to automate repetitive processes can provide quality productivity around the clock for many procedures. Computers don’t need to sleep. If programmed correctly, they provide consistency and do not make mistakes. Online systems also provide access for monitoring production levels at any time with real-time information.

• Better performance

BPA allows departments to do more with less. An automated process can eliminate or drastically reduce complications or issues, while also reducing employee hours and time frames. Automated processes maintain a consistency that is comprehended and followed every time. This eliminates missed advances and mistakes often found in manual procedures, bringing about predictable, dependable measures to assist in making decisions and executing procedure upgrades.

2. Data accessible in multiple applications

• No repeating

Another data problem, frequently encountered in a collection of legacy programs is many must access the same data, yet, lack automated connectivity. Sometimes, the workaround for this is to duplicate databases or for a worker to transfer the data manually. The same is true for updating databases and is equally as inefficient. A complete BPA overhaul will include the ability for all applications to touch the same database, without manual intervention.

3. B2B or B2C portal

• Single sign-on

A BPA makeover offers a chance to revamp security procedures. Although the security and identity needs are well understood, clients recognize access should only be granted to authorized personnel and a system needs to pull a user’s data, the process is still not loved. In some environments, users must sign in multiple times to access different resources, which is a real annoyance. In a comprehensive BPA retooling, single sign-on may be applied, allowing customers to navigate through all of the systems they may need to, in order to complete a transaction.

• Social site sign-on

Similar to single sign-on, there are a number of authentication schemes, such as OAuth, OpenID, Facebook Connect, and others, which allows users to access a new site by simply clicking on a button, labeled with a particular social media site. What distinguishes this feature from single sign-on, is with these authentication schemes, users can move across completely unrelated sites, without entering IDs and passwords. Conversely, single sign-on only applies to a particular set of related systems (like the same company or website). Authentication schemes are loved by users, and can substantially increase traffic, so they should be included, when possible, in any BPA revamp.

• Wider audience

Big Data has made more valuable information available for organizations, both internally and externally. The human resources necessary to manually gather the external or distribute the internal wealth of data is beyond the reach of most businesses, and extraordinarily inefficient. However, with automation, this data is easily and quickly accessed, processed and complied.

4. Lower cost of ownership

• Reduce human error

Following implementation of BPA, errors are substantially reduced. With manual systems, a missed decimal point on a payable or an order can result in too much being paid for an invoice or too much product being shipped. Both of these are common occurrences in manual environments, along with many other types of errors, which are eliminated with automated processing.

• Ongoing savings

Imagining an automated process to can reduce the need for one employee is a small-scale view regarding the type of financial savings a BPA can produce. Labor costs are often reduced during the implementation of an automated process. Reducing the need for human involvement also reduces the possibility of human error and overhead costs associated with fixing mistakes. Automated systems provide the level of consistency required to build efficiency. Automated systems never ask for a raise.

• Easy to maintain

Legacy environments often lack the ability for real-time and thorough monitoring. Centralized and uniform systems, inherent to BPA, are easier to monitor for performance. This allows for quicker response to anomalies and more accurate projections of looming problems. System updates, security patches, changes in operating procedures are all streamlined. All of which make the life of the IT and their dependent departments easier, and simultaneously reducing costs.

• Reduced training

Facilities that have undergone a BPA transformation have a much easier time with onboarding. Not only is the time and associated costs reduced in training new employees on automated systems easier, but also more employees are capable of mastering the simple tasks. Jobs that may have previously called for highly-trained personnel can often be performed by lower-skilled (lower salary) workers.

• Smarter and faster decision making

BPA will not automate all functions, as some require a personal touch. However, by getting the proper information to customer service rep, who has a customer on the phone, or to a manager making staffing decisions, these and other procedures can be accomplished faster and more thoroughly.

• Employee satisfaction

Another upside of BPA is happier workers. Creative types loathe monotony. Consequently, many will leave a job where the work is not challenging. These same folks may also make mistakes on routine tasks, as they find it difficult to focus. Maybe worst of all, the efforts spent on mundane procedures deprives bright and creative workers of the opportunity to enhance services, design new products or find other ways that significantly add to a business’s offerings.

• Collect and measure data

Transitioning to BPA provides for far greater management of indices. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a great mechanism for determining past, present and even future performance. However, collecting the data needed to calculate these indicators and compiling it into useful and attractive forms can be labor intensive. BPA to the rescue, again, as the entire process can be automated, and easily digger deeper and more often than a single worker or team ever could.

• Streamline and improve performance

BPA entails far more than merely taking existing processes and improving them. New processes should be considered, looking both within one’s sector to see what competitors are doing and beyond to see what other types of businesses have implemented. A talented BPA outfit can invariably offer suggestions, which a business may not have considered, along with optimizing existing processes and business objectives.

• Reduce turn-around times

Eliminating manual efforts for automation will accomplish more in a smaller amount of time. Also, due to the consistency of automation processes, modifications can be made to the process effectively, making even better use of time.

5. Compliance

• Records and regulations

Businesses who have not adopted BPA usually struggle to keep up with the ever-changing and growing body of rules, which they may endure. Federal, state and even local governments all have some fairly stringent laws dictating how and what information is to be maintained. Tied to it are some pretty hefty penalties that can run into millions of dollars in for non-compliance. Some violations also include jail time as a possible penalty for violations. Additionally, professional organizations and accrediting institutions will frequently publish rules on data maintenance, which, if not adhered to, can lead to fines or loss of accreditation.

6. Automation

• Do more with fewer people

It is human instinct to search for a less demanding and additionally more productive approach to complete tasks. From the most simplistic, to the more difficult processes at hand, automation of tedious procedures is the key to working smarter, not harder. In business – time is money. Some repetitive processes conducted by humans can cost more, take longer and leave room for human error. Employees may also be better utilized within the organization performing critical thinking assignments not suitable for automation. By integrating Business Process Automation, or BPA, to specific operations, the benefits stand to provide a quick return on the investment, and in turn, increase the bottom line.

A good example of what a business can expect to achieve, through BPA, is a recent CodingInnovations.com retooling of an industrial and architectural manufacturing firm’s systems. This business has 19 branches, which previously had relied on a manual process to fulfill orders. There were 1000s of SKUs to check, with no inventory control, so workers often just guessed whether a product was in stock. Errors were frequent and costly. Working with this company’s staff, CodingInnovations.com mapped all fulfillment processes and implemented an automated inventory-control system. After this BPA makeover, 95% of orders were automated, requiring no human review. Order errors fell to nearly zero. Time and money savings were enormous. Customer satisfaction soared and worker frustration dropped.

This all makes a very strong case for the implementation or expansion of BPA. One of the best ways to determine how your operation can benefit from BPA is through consultation with CodingInnovations.com. CodingInnovations.com can not only automate many existing processes but can suggest new capabilities to improve customer experience, increase revenue growth, and reduce in operating costs.

Single Sign On

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:19 GMT

Single Sign On and Your Business

Providing quick and convenient access to application users or website visitors, single-sign on (SSO) typically requires only a username and password and is used to control access to low-risk information assets. Appropriate for access to read-only support documents, tracking low-value shipping orders, etc. Along with adding a measure of security, SSO systems, created by Coding Innovations, can also be used to retrieve any necessary file information needed to serve the customer account, or to suggest particular content to view and other individual services, specific to identified client, based on history and profile.

Two Way SSL

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:18 GMT

Two Way SSL and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com implements secure sockets layers (SSL), when necessary. These provide visitors with confidence that they are entering information into a legitimate website or safely accessing other online resources, such as downloads. Users want to be sure that their personal information is not about to be stolen or that their systems will be damaged by malware. SSLs use digital certificates, on both the client and server to ensure each is legitimate. Transmissions between the two machines will be encrypted

Custom Projects

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:16 GMT

Custom Projects For Your Business

CodingInnovations.com professionals develop and implement specialized and dedicated solutions to automate processes and provide support. Today’s workplace has become an ocean of heterogeneous data platforms and equipment, which must all be managed. Regardless of the various inputs, we can develop the solution your staff or client needs to accomplish routine and unique transactions.

Sweetening Your SQL

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:15 GMT

Sweetening Your SQL with COALESCE

With a wink and a nod to all those late-night TV infomercials, I ask all you SQL coders out there, “Are you tired of having long and complex syntax in your SQL query? Do you SQL queries look like a never ending stream running down your monitor?” If so, do I have the function for you! And the best part? Unlike a late night sales pitch, this one is free! No shipping, no handling. It’s already built into most database query languages. It’s a handy little function called, “COALESCE.”

COALESCE is a way of taking many lines of SQL and truncating it down into one short statement when looking for a non-null value. This can eliminate lines and lines from the query. It also has the benefit of making the code easier to read and can aid in troubleshooting long queries.

I have a larger client that has JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (JDE E1) as their main backend system. I was working with one of their JDE E1 consultants who is very adept at writing SQL queries directly against the Oracle back end. He was doing a query that joined many tables together and trying to find specific data. He had several places where he was trying to find the first non-null and his query looked like this:

SELECT

CASE

WHEN (expression1 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression1

WHEN (expression2 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression2

WHEN (expression3 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression3

WHEN (expression4 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression4

WHEN (expression5 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression5

WHEN (expression6 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression6

WHEN (expression7 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression7

...

ELSE expressionN

END AS FirstNonNull

His query was getting so enormous and complex it was becoming difficult to keep track of the actual logic. The query was so long there wasn’t enough screen real estate to keep eyes on the entire thing. Scrolling from top to bottom and side to side was only making it more difficult. He was not getting the results he was expecting and was having issues troubleshooting the root cause because of the query’s size.

In this instance, the table structure for JDE E1 is not third normal form and the naming convention has been carried over from years past for backwards compatibility. Sometimes to get the data needed, the query must join many tables together and the SQL gets mammoth. On top of that, the naming convention is not easily understood. For example, to look for sales data, you find the header information on the F4201. For the detail records, you need to join in the F4211 table.

He asked me to take a look at the query to see if I could help him spot the issue. The code was impossible to read because of the size of his CASE statements. I asked him if we could reformat the query to use COALSCE instead. He was unfamiliar with the command so I explained that we could take all those lines in the CASE statement and cut them down to one. I went on to explain that COALESCE was a syntactical shortcut to the CASE statements he wrote. He questioned whether it would work on Oracle. I then brought up the documentation to show him it does indeed work in Oracle.

We were able to eliminate the many lines of CASE statements to one line like this:

SELECT COALESCE(expression1, expression2, expression3, expression4, expression5, expression6, expression7, ..., expressionN) AS FirstNonNull

He had several places where we could take advantage of COALESCE. This made troubleshooting the query much easier and we were able to find the issue quickly once we could more easily read the SQL statement.

Conclusion

COALESCE might seem like syntactic sugar, but it has real world implications. It can make life easier when maintaining complex queries. Keep an eye open for my second post about COALESCE in the next few weeks. I will be writing about some additional features that this wonderful function can do. In the meantime, you can contact me at Don@Codinginnovations.com

Business Intelligence

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:14 GMT

BI and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com’s professionals have the Business Intelligence (BI) experience and knowledge to help establish best practice use of technology to provide support in needed situations. We offer Business Process Automation, Custom Business Software, and Systems Integration to provide BI solutions. By using state-of-the-art technologies and applications, our methods enable our professionals to analyze data and provide valuable information to empower you to make well-informed decisions. Our goal is to help your organization become more efficient; essentially increasing your revenue.

Databases

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:13 GMT

Databases and Your Business

CodingInnovations.com manages data. Data belongs in databases. We can design and integrate databases to manage valuable information and drive other applications. Our database development offers a total solution which includes server maintenance, updates, backups and all licensing.

Custom Solutions

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:02:12 GMT

Custom Solutions For Your Business

CodingInnovations.com's professionals have the experience and knowledge to help establish best practices for custom solutions. We offer Document Imaging, Database expertise, and Custom Projects to provide solutions. Our professionals start with understanding a problem, and then working to implement time and money-saving innovative solutions. Whether you need a database reengineered or a full blown system, we have the experts.

Two Factor Authentication

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:25:41 GMT

Two Factor Authorization and Your Business

For resources requiring an extra level of security, either for compliance or best practices, Coding Innovations will add one or more additional levels of authentication to that of the SSO. This is known as multi-factor authentication (MFA), where the most common deployment is two-factor authentication (2FA).

MFA and 2FA require clients to produce something that only they should know or have, beyond initial username and password. This may be more personal information, such as date-of-birth, texted or emailed passcode, or a mother’ maiden name. Retina scans, fingerprints, facial recognition are among the biometric markers Coding Innovations can also integrate for additional protection. For clients, whose security requires an even greater level of protection, Coding Innovations can develop authentication layers that require physical objects (badges or FOBs similar to keyless car entry device).

Coding Innovations Blog

Web Based Portal

Web Based Portals

Automating a Business Process

Automation and Your Business

Custom Business Software

Custom Business Software for You

Application Development

Application Development and Your Business

Systems Integration

Systems Integration and Your Business

Mobile Applications

Mobile Applications and Your Business

Web Portals

Web Portals and Your Business

Desktop Applications

Desktop Applications and Your Business

Business Process Automation

Automation and Your Business

Reasons you need BPA ﻿

Things you can do with BPA ﻿

Single Sign On

Single Sign On and Your Business

Two Way SSL

Two Way SSL and Your Business

Custom Projects

Custom Projects For Your Business

Sweetening Your SQL

Sweetening Your SQL with COALESCE

Business Intelligence

BI and Your Business

Databases

Databases and Your Business

Custom Solutions

Custom Solutions For Your Business

Two Factor Authentication

Two Factor Authorization and Your Business

Reasons you need BPA

Things you can do with BPA