Operational problem
Connect scanning, customer records, standardized reporting, and client retrieval.
Documents moved through several tools: customer and operational records lived in FileMaker, commercial scanning software generated PDFs, Word provided the standard report format, and clients needed a controlled way to retrieve completed results. Manual handoffs between those layers created avoidable association and delivery work.
Users and constraints
Support internal staff and external clients without replacing every existing tool.
- Staff needed each generated PDF associated with the correct customer record.
- Standardized reports needed to be populated from FileMaker data and delivered as PDFs.
- Clients needed a client-facing retrieval path for their completed results.
- The application workflow had to coexist with FileMaker, commercial scanning software, Microsoft Word, and the existing operating process.
- The supporting environment spanned three locations, approximately 25–50 endpoints, site-to-site VPN connectivity, and Windows Small Business Server.
How I framed the problem
Integrate around the record of work instead of forcing a platform replacement.
FileMaker already held the customer records, the scanning software already created the PDFs, and Word already defined the standard report. Replacing every tool would have added risk without solving the handoff problem. I focused the requirements on reliable record association, repeatable report population, controlled client retrieval, backup, recovery, and clear support documentation.
What the platform enabled
A coherent path from document capture to a client-ready result.
The integration strategy preserved the tools already supporting the business and automated the high-friction handoffs between them. Client records, document structures, portal internals, credentials, source code, and network topology remain private.
What I owned
Developed the integration, portal, reporting automation, and supporting environment.
- Visual Basic
- Visual Studio
- C# components
- Windows tray apps
- Windows services
- Word VBA
- FileMaker
- PDF workflow
How I tested it
Validate association, generation, retrieval, and recovery as one chain.
I tested whether each scanned PDF reached the intended customer record, whether the standardized report received the correct data, whether the final PDF was produced, and whether the client could retrieve the intended result. Infrastructure checks also covered site connectivity, endpoint behavior, local tape backup, separately located off-site backup, and documented restoration procedures.
Result
A deployed platform used by staff and clients.
The integration and portal connected the document workflow across a three-location Windows environment. Staff used the combined record, document, and reporting path, and clients retrieved completed results through the portal.
What I learned
Focused integration can outlast a premature platform replacement.
The useful boundary was the handoff between systems, not the internal design of every product. A modern iteration would add explicit document identifiers, integrity checks, synthetic workflow tests, role-based portal access, observable job states, and regularly exercised recovery tests while retaining the separation between source records, generated documents, and delivery.