We are a small but busy charity-run community centre. We offer thirty plus adult education and leisure courses. We wanted to ditch an old website and a mainly paper booking system with many cheque payments. In addition to the courses, we offer our halls and rooms for hire, provide a home for local community groups, and present a number of special events during the year. Paper systems demand much time from trustees, and we have had recruitment difficulties.
We wanted a modern website with an online booking system covering all the areas mentioned. After a search we signed with Fountain Digital and Data Simplexity. Development of the new site began; the booking system in particular.
Ian Green dealt with the approach, changes and alterations we sought, quickly and accurately. Sometimes he challenged us - so we had to pause and think things through. At times we found him working into the night. The system assumed its final shape. Development would have been easier without the pandemic. We managed via email, online meetings and a training session from Ian in our main hall - suitably distanced from each other. We found getting to grips with the content management system a steep learning curve - especially for the older trustees.
We launched in early August 2021, ready for the autumn term's course bookings. Everyone booking has to register an account. It worked very well overall. There were a few hiccups for some signing up, and we found a bug or two (quickly fixed). But hundreds of people registered, booked course places and paid in a single visit to the site. A very small number - less than two handfuls - wanted to pay by cheque, or had no or little computer experience. We dealt with these at an open day. Single hires, bulk bookings by community groups, and special event ticket payments were also handled by the new system. Time has also revealed some strange things that people do when using a booking system. When you think you've seen it all, you find you haven't.
Our day to day experience has enabled Ian to further refine the system. Reports extracting information from the system have been extended and improved. We anticipate continuing improvements. Through it all Ian has coped with our sometimes quirky ways with equanimity. And has produced a booking system - complex because so many options are needed - that has bedded in well with us and our many users.
Brian Knight
RWC Committee Member
Ultimate Database were able to deliver a pioneering fully integrated, bespoke web portal, entirely unique to this sector. They were able to translate my haphazard abstract ideas into a fully functional, user friendly website. Over the 2 years they have worked with our company, they have dedicated a responsive, ethical and supportive attitude through the design and maintenance process. Their services are priced fairly and competitively. No query was too much and at any time, during and out of standard working hours, they responded to ensure a consistent service. I highly recommend UDB, specifically for bespoke services, where larger providers will drown you in jargon.
Mr Jimmy Makdissi
Consultant Dental and Maxillofacila Radiologist
CEO od JM Radiology Ltd
As a company with over 10,000 customers relying solely on traditional paper filing systems we approached Ultimate Database 3-4 years ago with an idea of a database template that we could use to contact/market groups of customers with various mailshot offers and promotions at different times during the year.
The database would also be regularly used by team members to refer to during customer telephone conversations when booking a service engineer, or dealing with customer queries etc.
Once ready, manually inputting data from our paperwork systems commenced, taking approximately 18 months. During this time, after, and even now, additional features to make our database more bespoke to our business needs have been added by Ian at Ultimate Database without any problems, including a brilliant diary booking system neatly connected to our database.
Having never had or used a CRM system before, we didn’t have enough foresight to know exactly how our database would look and what features it would have/need to run efficiently for our business, but from the start Ian assured me that as we started using it and improvements became apparent, then he could easily make adjustments as requested, hence the after sales service and continued support from Ultimate Database comes with a 100% 5 star rating.
Our database has been fully functional for some time now and has been used for several mailshots resulting in a significant amount of extra business.
Our database is a pleasure to use, and enjoyed by all team members. It is accessible from iPads and mobile phones and referred to regularly when on the road by our engineers and sales team.
Thank you Ian and Ultimate Database for an excellent efficient and supportive service that I highly recommend to all businesses requiring a new and / or updated CRM system.
Garry Smith
Director, Watercare Softeners Ltd
As someone who was involved in running websites for 10 years before I started using the Ultimate Database, I can say with confidence that it's the most elegant, flexible and robust database and content management system I've ever used. Our charity came to Ultimate Database with a very complex set of requirements, which involved setting up two distinct but related websites containing a wealth of intricate text and image content. Before we could move forward, several thousand articles needed to be imported from a legacy system and incorporated seamlessly into these websites. Once the websites were in place, content needed to be submitted remotely by volunteer contributors, before being approved and worked on by a team of editors and then made visible to the public, all using a hierarchy of permissions. A weekly email newsletter is generated from the website content and sent - in various forms ranging from plain text to full HTML, depending on user preferences - to thousands of subscribers worldwide.
Every single aspect of this process is handled by the Ultimate Database, which is also exploited for additional purposes such as hosting questionnaires and analysing questionnaire responses. As its name suggests, the Ultimate Database is the last word in tools with which to build and manage websites.
Sandy Starr
Communications Officer, Progress Educational Trust
I have worked for two businesses as the IT Manager over a 12-year period and both companies suffered from the same problem when I joined them, namely old out-of-date systems. These companies required a modern system, with a new sense of IT direction and, above all else, new processes that worked for the company as well as the employees who would be using them. In both cases, we approached numerous companies to bring fresh ideas to the table. We looked for a company that would be willing to work with us, not just to get the system up and running, but also a company that we could rely on to ensure that any changes to our business could also be reflected moving forward. In both instances, we decided to go with Ultimate Database Ltd, as not only were they very reasonably priced, but also their business approach was compatible with what we were looking for. In both instances, Ultimate Database Ltd has delivered fully functional and workable systems that have constantly evolved as our system processes have. They have always been more than happy to work with us and they understand that maybe what we decided upon at the start of the project has changed somewhat towards the end. It is good to be able to work with a company that is able to adapt their systems to accommodate our requirements.
I believe it's very hard to find a company which you can trust completely, a company that will work with you and understand your business, a company that will do what it says, when it says it will and a company that is always on hand to take a call. We have been fortunate in finding Ultimate Database Ltd.
David Heath
IT Manager, Hoopers International Probate Research