General Questions
To learn more about Lake eFX, contact us by completing the Contact Us form on this website. We will promptly call or e-mail you back to set up a time to talk in depth.
Most likely yes. Our experience has shown that information stored on paper can usually be stored more efficiently in a database. Often information on paper is redundant or out-dated. With our systems, the underlying database becomes a central data repository that can be easily accessed and kept up-to-date. Based on your business processes, we then develop business applications that “feed” off that central data repository.
Lake eFX Software prides itself on being able to create a solution quickly. With our guiding principles of innovation and simplicity and our use of emerging technology, our typical systems can be developed and implemented in a matter of days and weeks, not months or years. The timeframe for a typical system from initial business analysis to being completely up and running is about 30-60 days.
We strongly recommend that businesses give their new Lake eFX applications time to have a positive impact of the organization’s productivity and efficiency. Sometimes this complete transition to automated systems can take 6 months or more. We encourage organizations to try the application for at least 12 months. Moreover, we build our systems under the premise that they will be used for at least the next 36 months. However, if a client is not satisfied with the application, they can terminate the arrangement with 90 days notice.
The data and application processing components of Lake eFX application run on a centralized, remote server that is backed up routinely. All an organization needs to run Lake eFX software is PCs with high-speed Internet connectivity – something many businesses already have in place.
We support the software applications that we build. Your contract will include a service level agreement that specific how much our systems will be up. If you ever have a support issue or question, we are just a phone call or e-mail away. You can also log software support issues on our website. Note that Lake eFX does not support client individual Internet connections.
While a Lake eFX solution relies on the Internet, we are not a “dot-com” company in the truest sense. “Dot-com” companies of the late 1990’s built websites and applications that predominantly allowed business to interact with customers (“B-to-C”) or other businesses (“B-to-B”). Conversely, Lake eFX’s focus is automating business processes internal to your company. Our web-based systems become essential tools to increase your productivity and help your business run more efficiently, not just interact with customers or other businesses.
Our team will assist you in implementing your specialized, customized solution. Training will be crucial to the success of your software application. Our preferred training approach is “train-the-trainer,” so that the clients can be as self-sufficient with the application as possible. Thus while Lake eFX Software will be involved in training during the initial implementation, we recommend that responsibility for ongoing training (e.g. for new employees) rest largely with clients.
Please visit our Contact Us page and send us a quick note with a brief description of yourself and reasons why you are interested. We're always looking for talented IT pros to join our team. All of our consultants work from home.
Questions About Data
In most cases, yes. We can usually convert the data if it is already stored in some electronic format (i.e. word processing documents, spreadsheets, or other databases). Often we take data from multiple sources and convert it into the central data repository. During the business analysis and application development phase, we will work with you to identify your key data sources. Still, some organizations prefer to manually enter the data when implementing a new system. They then use the manual re-keying process to “clean” the data. We can advise you on the strategy that work best for your situation.
Yes, absolutely. Connections to your data use state-of-the-art, 128-bit encrypted Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. The servers that house your data and applications are housed in secure facilities with controlled access. Some clients may be uncomfortable at first with their data housed at remote location. In fact in most instances, we provide a more secure, reliable environment for clients’ data than the clients themselves could afford. Your data is much safer on our central, professionally managed servers than if left on an unsecured desktop in your office.
Yes, absolutely. Your business information is a critical asset of organization. We place the utmost importance on the confidentiality and proprietary nature of our client’s data. Safeguards are in place to ensure that all client-specific data is segregated. We promise not to release any of this information to other Lake eFX client or other organizations without your expressed permission. Privacy and confidentiality stipulations are an integral part of the final mutually agreed-upon client agreement.
The client data in the systems that we develop is yours. As part of the application development process, we can develop ways to download some or all the data to industry-standard formats such as Excel, comma-delimited text, or Access databases.
You should be able to reliably get to your application and business data 99.9% of the time if your Internet connection is stable and reliable.
We believe it is. Internet use and its corresponding reliability have grown substantially over the past several years. High-speed Internet connections such as business DSL, broadband cable, or wireless are cost-effective, very stable and much more reliable than standard dial-up connections. Because of the “need for speed” and the reliability of high-speed connections, we do not recommend dial-up Internet connections for standard use of Lake eFX applications. FYI: We currently have clients that use a Lake eFX system for point of sale, in other words: a cash register, which is very critical.
Yes, your subscription fee gives you the right to use the database application. You own the business-specific data housed within the application. (Lake eFX retains copyright and ownership protection of the software applications, programming, and underlying database structures.) Because you retain ownership of your business data, we will provide all your data in an industry-standard database format such as Microsoft SQL Server, burned to a CD, at any time you feel necessary.