For over 20 years, DATABASICS has helped leading organizations throughout the world meet their time-tracking and expense reporting challenges. Focusing on the specific needs and goals of each customer, DATABASICS provides Software-as-a-Service solutions that are known for their ease-of-use, flexibility, integrations capabilities, and cost-effectiveness.
Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, the company released its first web-based time and expense products in 1997. From the beginning, DATABASICS specialized in the requirements of project-oriented organizations and the adaptations needed by federal government contractors.
DATABASICS has gone on to extend its portfolio of solutions to an increasingly diverse range of customer types, including nonprofits, manufacturers, multi-store retailers, pharmaceutical companies, multi-national organizations, and more.
Overcoming the Initial Struggle
DATABASICS originally installed its products on systems owned and operated by the customer. Often, these environments integrated multiple vendor products in combinations that, to a significant extent, were unique. DATABASICS had to maintain versions of its products specifically tailored to the most common types of infrastructure, but each installation typically required meticulous problem-solving. With its adaption of the Software-as-a-Service model in which DATABASICS hosts its software on its own servers, implementation and support were vastly simplified. As a result, DATABASICS is now able to concentrate exclusively on solving its customers’ business problems as opposed to troubleshooting its customers’ IT issues.
A Leader Who Fostered a Culture of Meeting Obligations
Alan Tyson founded DATABASICS and has been its leader since the beginning. Prior to DATABASICS, Alan worked at the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and Control Data Corporation. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Rochester with a degree in Philosophy.
Before the first product release, Alan focused DATABASICS on custom software, systems integration, and IT management consulting. The experience gained through these activities laid the groundwork for DATABASICS’ pivot into software product development and hosting.
Alan believes that his major contribution has been to foster a culture of meeting obligations to customers, suppliers, and co-workers.
“Trust,” he says, “is indispensable if people are going to work together at the highest levels. Trust is earned by doing what you say you are going to do. In other words, we need to live up to your obligations.”
His support for this principle has been critical to DATABASICS’ success.
“It’s Always About the Customer”
Tyson maintains that “these are not simply words to us. Our commitment to customer success has led DATABASICS to develop products that can be easily adapted to meet customer requirements to an extent that is unmatched. It also underlies our insistence on providing outstanding customer service at a time when the industry as a whole is frankly struggling to free itself from the cost and effort that delivering world-class customer service requires.”
Striking the Right Balance For Each Customer
Before DATABASICS developed its first time and expense products, it was a professional services organization. Targeting the PSA industry for its initial product offering made sense since DATABASICS was already deeply familiar with the industry’s requirements. DATABASICS’ first offerings were web-based–among the first of their kind. Two ERP vendors, specializing in project-oriented solutions, were quick to “white label” the company’s software and DATABASICS was off and running as a software company.
Today, DATABASICS provides a cloud-based, unified platform for time tracking, employee expense reporting, leave management, and P-Card control. All of its solutions are “globalized” to support large scale enterprise deployments. Additionally, DATABASICS provides small to mid-sized organizations with the exact functionality they need to meet the most demanding of requirements. It designs its products for usability and is deeply committed to strike the right balance for every customer, in terms of both capability and ease of use.
A Future of Continued Excellence
In the coming years, the PSA industry will need to adapt to changes in how professional services are delivered. Some of the major trends will include migration away from billing for time as opposed to work products; a loosening of the grip of the “engineering model” with the recognition of the need for a more dynamic, flexible methodology for executing projects; and the beginning of the transition to Artificial Intelligence from the direct provision to customers of human experts.
Amidst all these changes, “DATABASICS will,” according to Tyson, “continue to provide its customers with its ‘best-fit’ solutions and outstanding services.”