EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Biomed Databases HECS-friend or foe ?

We Have just accquired HECS-ECRI database. I believe we should have a forum vote on exactly how user friendly it is. From initial setup, having to input all known suppliers is a bit of a drag. When creating a new record / equipment number, having to navigate all those screens only to find that the supplier is not listed, undermines all the work you have just entered. Thus you return to square one.
Is it just me or am I being a bit too over negative about it all ?
I have produced an Excel spreadsheet with conditional formatts and embedded hyperlinks to equipment test results . This I must confess is far superior and user friendly, whats more, IT'S FREE !

I've got a bloke in the department who's a computer whizz and he's done a similar thing with the spreadsheet programme in Office (Excel ?). It does a lot more than our new bought-in system seems to do - and we've just spent ages entering all the supplier details etc etc.
There just doesn't seem to be a system which does everything we need with the minimum of hassle and the minimum of input !

so many questions . . . so little time

HAVE A LOOK AT EMAT ON THE FORUM AND BARWICK SYSTEMS. WE USE THEIR SYSTEM, WORTH A LOOK. IT IS DESIGNED FOR BRITISH MARKET.
ALEX

Thank you Alex, we sponsor this site and more details can be found in the Products section:

https://www.ebme.co.uk/newprods/barwick.htm

Or go to our website at http://www.barwicksystems.co.uk

Please contact me should you require anymore details.

Regards,

Paul Stockton
Barwick Systems

I have had a look at the Barwicksystem (hyperlink to description of it), but am dying to know if it really is as good as they make out.
Would we still have to pay an annual subscription fee? or is it a one off payment with upgrades at cost?

This is where I also feel slightly cheated by the 'NON-PROFIT making organisation.

How do we get a vote going on the FOR or AGAINST ECRI ?

Chris-H

non-profit does not exist.

I am away until bank holiday, give me a ring, come and see the system in action.

alex

Have now spoken to Paul At Barwick who has been very helpfull. The download was smooth and error free. The demo very user friendly (he's not paying me honest) .
I like the fact that the software is windows orientated. There are still mandatory fields that have to be completed before procceding with entering new equipment etc, however I felt more at ease with it than the HECS system.
Paul has explained that the excel data can be exported, but as of yet not imported. This is something I feel is neccessary, and gives more scope for tayloring the program to specific establishments. However Barwick are looking into this and I have been told is on their list of FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS.

Nuff said ! If any of you have come across another more suitable bit of kit. I'd like to know.
Have been in touch with Alistair, regarding my quibbles, but still waiting.
Watch this space !

Chris-H

As Chris said, we have added it to our list of future developments for E-MAT.

This is the kind of feedback we like - if someone comes up with a good idea for a new feature we will certainly implement it!

Stating the obvious, such an "import" feature would save yourselves any data conversion costs.

Regards,

Paul Stockton
Barwick Systems
http://www.barwicksystems.co.uk

Have now made progress with ECRI.
We are in the prosess of getting all our records transfeered over.
This have been a bit of a long and repeated process but things are looking up now.
Hope to have more news soon !

Chris-H

I hope I can be forgiven for trawling up a thread from six years ago (before my time on the forum, I should add), but this is something of great interest to me: namely, how to automate (not possible, without some preliminary work in the spreadsheet, in my view), or at least speed-up the process of importing the ubiquitous .xls spreadsheets into "industry standard" equipment database packages.

For me this is still topical, engaged as I currently am in converting .xls data-sets from biomed friends overseas into .dbf in a specific format. The initial step is easy enough. Add some sensible "field names" at the first row in the spreadsheet, and then use Save As ... to save in .dbf (or whatever) format. Next fire up your favourite database manager (FoxPro et al) and take it from there.

Those first couple of steps take but a couple of minutes ... but carrying on from there can take days and days, depending upon the quality (and clarity) of the original data, and the level of organization required by the recipient database system.

Some of the posts I have read on this issue (and other, related, ones) seem to make light of this laborious process. Over the years I have done a fair amount of this stuff, and wrote software tools on a "needs must" basis when required, but I still say that there cannot be an easy way. Unless, of course, I'm missing something here.


... no comment needed there (except to point out that ECRI used to talk about being a "not for profit organization")!