There is no one formula that solves all challenges. Solid fundamentals may suggest the broad strokes of a strategy, but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Few of us would want to force our business or our veteran intermediaries to conform to an idealized system that may be brilliant in the abstract, but blind to the often situation-dependent realities of how business actually gets done.The best systems accommodate those realities and eliminate the obstacles between them. Growing pains and learning curves are held to a minimum. Efficiency should introduce itself like a wind at your back, leaving everyone with the feeling that their lives have gotten easier, not disorientingly unfamiliar.In order to achieve that, your solution designer’s first priority must be to listen.
We like to ask questions. A solution developer that analyzes your needs via ESP or by making one-size-fits-all assumptions is heading for an awkward fork in the road when your needs go one way and the solution goes another.An effective real-world solution doesn’t usually pop out of a single “eureka” moment. A full-fledged information architecture involves defining the short- and long-term goals, intended audiences, scenarios, user experience, competitive analyses, content inventories, functional requirements, site structure, navigational scheme and at the end of it all, the gratifying sizzle: visual design.These steps are all must-haves for enterprise-scale solutions. But if you're new to this, don't be daunted: a good information architect can scout out the essentials without beseiging you with jargon.
Orthodoxy has its place. Solutions that are compatible with current and emerging standards take full advantage of the most popular tools and can talk fluently to other applications. Similarly, a navigational design that shares basic principles in common with the best sites on the web is more likely to feel intuitively familiar to the user. Designers and developers must stay on top of how the winds are blowing in the IT world.But to stand out, it is necessary to lead. Creativity breathes red-blooded personality into your message. It refreshes the mind and sparks curiosity. It evokes intangibles: atmospheres, feelings. Perhaps even more powerfully, creativity also expresses itself in the infrastructure of a solution. Old ways of thinking rarely keep pace with technology. The technological “dots” may already be there, just waiting to be connected by an inspiration. That’s our line of work.
We use the latest and most robust tools available to ensure that our clients can leverage their investment in new hardware and software to the maximum, while at the same time maintaining support for legacy systems.Our new development uses Microsoft .NET as the foundation, whether the solution is PC-based or web-based. Our developers use Microsoft Visual Studio as a standard, and our data solutions can scale from Microsoft Access for small applications to Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle for enterprise applications.We have experience developing web services, and we can also assist clients with developing a plan to scale solutions to suit even rapidly growing enterprises.
Over our last 20 years in business, Vortex has built up a wealth of experience in the world of finance. We have especially honed our expertise in financial planning and sales concepts involving life insurance.In 1990, Vortex introduced ADDCALC, a concept sales tool that takes information from ordinary life insurance product illustrations and turns them into compelling sales illustrations tailored to real-life financial problems. Our solutions address such concerns as retirement planning, estate planning, pension maximization, charitable giving, tax planning and sophisticated tax solutions for shareholders and corporations.
