I developed my first Filemaker database 1979 for my first business a recruitment company. That FM-v0 was developed on a MacPlus which had an orange screen and was ex the DevTeam. While we now longer have a Recruitment business in our group of companies - I have developed custom FM data bases for each of our subsquent busubness - through 4 x Construction & Development companies to Business Consulting. Those FM solutions have covered Scheduling / staff timing/task recording - and in case of Business Consulting a CRM database with 800+ fields of information ... Best FM feature -- that you can literally add fields/features into a live FM Served database without any disruption to standard Users -- other than maybe for layout changes. What this has meant to our business - is that a new 'need' can you 'prototyped' and 'tested' live -- and either adopted or adapted --- this is a huge time-saver!!

This is a product that a regular business can get started with on their own, or work with a consultant to build exactly the kind of system they want. I've yet to have to say no to any idea a client has had for the unique needs of their business. My favorite compliment is when they exclaim how much time has been saved by using Filemaker. It is easy to get started, and really fun to work with, and the community fostered by Claris, consisting of other developers sharing and collaborating on tools & resources; makes this a family as well.

It has what a power user needs to accomplish a task or create a solution. You can also use it for simple tasks that don't even include scripting or custom functions. I can make a script to process my data with minimal time or difficulty.