Why Database Design is Crucial
Most web and business applications suffer from poor or inadequate data structures. Sometimes this is unavoidable - a business changes or expands drastically in an unforeseen way. But more often it is the result of inexperienced designers, corner-cutting and poor planning. And the more complex the business model, the easier it is to make subtle mistakes that can cripple the long-term utility of a system.

If you're lucky, a poor design will kill your application early in development before it costs you too much time and money. Then you can throw out the work and start fresh. But far too often developers end up writing the application in spite of the database. They waste hundreds of hours putting the square peg into the round hole over and over again.

A frequent result is a system that functions as requested but the first enhancement or feature request turns into a nightmare. It takes far longer than it should, costs far more and, often enough, requires compromises that make you wonder why you bothered in the first place.

Talent + Experience = Results
Healthcare systems storing hundreds of millions of records and web-based case management systems for insurance subrogation. Content management systems that allow users to add new types of data with new fields without programmer intervention. Educational systems for tracking student applications, housing and billing. B2C and B2B e-commerce systems. Customized installations of open source content management systems like Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla.