TrackVia: Redefining the Online Database Query
November 12, 2008
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to “TrackVia: Powerful Search Tool for All the Nooks and Crannies.” You can read the full text of the article by Jack Germain here. Mr. Germain provides quite a bit of detail about his experience with this hosted service. I navigated to the TrackVia Web site here in search of some basic information about an outfit of which I had never heard. After you read Mr. Germain’s story, you may want to explore the TrackVia Web site.
Some of the points that caught my attention about this company and its service were:
- Change tracking
- Supports attachments
- Allows statement in natural language and provides a report set up feature with filters
- Point and click data manipulation
- Seamless integration with a Web site.
You should take a look at the quite good demonstration here.
What I found interesting about TrackVia is that its strengths make evident the weaknesses of desktop database and spreadsheet tools. I noticed four features that set TrackVia apart:
- The search function is the method of querying the database. TrackVia’s content processing tags, stores, and manages notes and attachments.
- The storage feature operates seamlessly. Users don’t have to know where an object is nor memorize a method to hook an object into a traditional database.
- The tight integration with a browser blurs the line between a remote and a local application. Data can be local if a user wants to download them. Data can be remote for any user, so it is no longer necessary to shove files around.
- Report generation requires zero specialized skills. If the data contain zip codes, a report is automatically displayed with the data on a Google Map. (This tie up with Google is interesting to me.)
The company was founded in 2005, and it the backing of some high profile investment firms. With the growing interest in cloud computing and data management, the TrackVia system seems poised for rapid growth. After watching the demo, I came away with several interesting ways to use the service. Check it out.
Stephen Arnold, November 12, 2008
Comments
3 Responses to “TrackVia: Redefining the Online Database Query”
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I read this post about Trackvia and was hoping that you could review blist, our similar product here as well.
Obviously, blist is on the web, here:
http://www.blist.com/
Definitely email me at mathew.johnson@blist.com if you have any particular questions about blist.
Thanks,
Mat
Matthew,
I can’t review something I have never heard about. I will take a look. If it catches my attention, I will post a comment. If not, the goose has flown on by.
Stephen Arnold, November 19, 2008
Actually, I’ve tested the features of TrackVia on practice through sloving real-life tasks. It may give you a better understanding what to expect from the service.
My aim was to show the best way of implementation one or another function if posiible, of course:
http://webappsatwork.blogspot.com/search/label/TrackVia