Outlook™ Development Specialists

Davton specialise in developing solutions for Microsoft Outlook. Outlook has its own quirks which need to be considered when developing applications. We have almost exclusively developed applications for Outlook over the last five years, and while we don't claim to know all the bugs and issues with programming for Outlook, we do tend to know what is possible and what is not.

Experienced Outlook Developers

We have written quite a body of Software over the years, so we can call on the lessons we have learned in the past to create better software more quickly. Many solutions we create are based on a piece of software called Redemption. This gives us access to the underlying MAPI interface in Outlook and Exchange. It is also an order of magnitude faster for many tasks when compared to using the normal Outlook programming interface.

Agile Development

Davton follow loosely the Agile Software Development principles. Davton projects are typically shorter and smaller than those aimed at by the full Agile principles, so the following is our interpretation of the Agile principles as we apply them to our developments:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
We welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently with a preference to the shorter timescale
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

Cost Effective

When we get a call from a company who need to do something slightly unusual with Outlook, one of the first questions is how much it will cost. Usually callers are pleasantly surprised that what they want to achieve can be created quickly and cost effectively.

Recent Contracts

These are some of Davton's recent contracts:

London Solicitors - Lawyers Calendar Tracking

A large UK solicitors needed a solution to track and schedule appointments for their Lawyers. Lawyers could be required at a courts, police stations or in various offices. In addition appointments needed to be switched between Lawyers at short notice, and scheduled quickly when requests for duty solicitors to attend police stations were received. Davton have created a solution based on existing Outlook Calendars - with a group calendar to track all appointments, and administrative dashboards to view pending appointments and enable re-allocation and notification of lawyers. In addition a web interface has been created so that access to the data can be provided from the Lawyers Blackberry smart phones, appointment results can be recorded and new appointments scheduled.

Management Dashboard to review and re-allocate appointments
All appointments recorded and updated in lawyers local Outlook Calendars
Synchronised Cloud Database and Web Interface for Blackberry smart phones

Global Inventory Management - Go to Market Trading Solution

A specialist excess stock trader asked for help to build a system to manage the process of finding companies with excess stock, and then matching up the stock to potential purchasers. The system manages and tracks all the customer communications, creating custom emails, tracking and sharing information on potential sales and purchases, and providing management reports.

Since the initial project, Davton have created a second system for their purchasing team, and have made on-going additions and changes to both systems. The Davton solutions are now the primary tools used by the purchasing and selling teams to manage and run their day to day business.

Create and send custom emails based on templates
Track all communications with contacts
Record potential purchases and sales
Provide management information for shipping and administration

International Textiles Wholesaler - Integration with Navision

Davton were asked to provide tools to integration a Navision (Enterprise Resource Planning) system with Outlook. Quotations created on the hosted Navision system are passed to Outlook as an XML file, compiled into a quotation using a standard template, and emailed automatically to the required recipients.

Navision sends XML files
Create HTML quotations from standard templates and email to the customer.

LOndon Financial Services - Contact Tracking Application

A company offering financial services to Public Limited Companies asked for help with a contact management solution. Key to the solution was positive feedback on the last time a 'contact' was called so that contacts were called regularly, but not too frequently.

Use Outlook Journals to track calls made to clients
Colour-coded Contact form showing whether a call could/should be made.

Events Management - Automated CSV Exporter

A business to business marketing company asked for help uploading contact information to a specialist email marketing database. New contacts collected during each week as part of the day to day sales process were automatically exported to a CSV file at the end of the week, ready for uploading to the marketing database. Only new or changed email information was exported to avoid duplicates

Create an 'export to CSV file' tool
Automate the tool to run once a week
Automatically attach the CSV files to an email and send to administrator

Top 10 Merchant Bank - Financial Dealing Requests

A major International financial organisation asked for help using Outlook custom email templates for dealers to request transactions on.

Create Organizational Email templates for different types of transactions
Create a Toolbar for easy selection of the relevant forms.
Simplify the complex entry requirements using code 'behind' the forms

US Manufacturing corporation - Staff Absence Request Management

A large American multi-national business asked for help with an application to log staff absence requests.

Create a custom email template with absence information
Enable Managers easy responses to requests using response form
Automatically log approved absence in Public Team Calendars
Update Absence Access Database with absence information

Mid-size architects practice - Contact/Project Linking and Syncing

A mid-size architects practice already had a company wide contact database, but wanted help to synchronise the contacts to staff persoanl folders so they would appear in their blackberries. Key to the activity was the ability to link contacts to projects and sync only the contacts for the projects relevant to each individual.

Design and install synchronising software
Allow selection of projects to be synchronised

Commercial Property Sales - Contact Management

A business to business marketing company with four sales divisions asked for help building a company wide contact database to improve their marketing and tracking capabilities.

Develop custom contact form with centrally managed SECTOR configuration.
Develop custom Company form with links to Contacts
Create a tool to export subsets of the contact data to CSV files for marketing

Multinational Telecoms - Sales Opportunity Form

View Flash Demo

A multinational telecom organisation wanted a custom form to manage their Sales Opportunities. They followed a rigorous opportunity analysis which required collection of large amounts of date for each opportunity.

Develop an Opportunity Form to store complex information
Develop custom views to be used like reports to view the data

Ship Brokers - Shared Outlook In-box

A ship broker asked for help in migrating from an old Email application to Outlook. they wanted to continue using functionality found in the previous solution, but not found in Outlook - particularly the idea of a shared team in-box.

Replace an existing Email system utilising one shared inbox for around 10 staff. Set up shared Public Folders with shared in-box/outbox functionality to complement individual mail-boxes. Added a toolbar with features to update messages with information on log who had read, and who was working on a response to each email.

Set up a Public Folder as a shared team In-box
Add functionality to mark each mail with the initials of team members who had read it
Add functionality to enable Team Members to take ownership of a mail and respond to it
Features added via a new toolbar and custom views

Marine Insurance - Track un-read mail in team members mailboxes

A Marine Insurance company asked for help enabling Team Members to instantly see how many messages are in other team members in-boxes - to provide cover for breaks and absences. The application needed to be access from Outlook 2000 running over Citrix.

Single click access to Team Members' in-boxes
Summary View of new mail in each team members mailbox
Ability to reply on behalf of team members
Stand alone Windows Application
Installation onto Citrix Server

Television/Media Group - Shared Contact Solution

A major European media organisation requested help with the design of a custom contact form for use in a central database of 5000+ contacts. The database was to be used for marketing and relationship management and to enable the central data to be easily kept up to date.

Pick lists for Company Name and Company Code
Enforcement of standard formatting in address and other fields
History log of any changes to fields on the form
Check and warn for duplicates on saving contacts.
Design custom import tool to import contacts with custom fields

Financial Services - Prospect Database Solution

A London based Fund Management company asked for help update an existing contact form to take into account enhanced data requirements. The shared contact database of 12,000 + names is used to store information on financial interests, mailing requirements, links to other contacts etc, and is a primary marketing tool for the organisation.

Dropdown lists for Company Name and Company Code
Enforcement of standard formatting in address and other fields
Track history of any changes to fields on the form
Check for duplicates on saving contacts