Provided the key elements that you are seeking to address with HighStone are well defined the installation may be commenced. We would also activate those areas of functionality in HighStone that match your existing requirements to allow a quick start. Additional HighStone functionality can be released as new modules become available, and as ideas and requirements develop with the initial use of the system. It is not unusual for a HighStone implementation to run over a two to three year period and in many cases development never stops as long as a contract is running.
Each potential HighStone installation is considered on its own merits. Costs of implementation will be made up of elements to supply, install, create and configure the basic HighStone database and installations. Any contract specific data will be built up and defined in the system – this includes geographic asset data, cost codings, user records etc. and the work undertaken in completing this element will be estimated. Where new functionality within HighStone is required this will be assessed and priced. A mobilisation schedule will be agreed to get the system installed and running within your organisation and the necessary user induction, training and on-going support will be quoted for. All these elements will be discussed and an overall implementation plan presented.
This varies on the type of functionality required and how you would like the work to be undertaken. Claremont Controls operates a policy of ‘open development’ on HighStone whereby all clients of the system may benefit from the ideas, innovations and widening functionality of the application over time. We have found this to be generally well accepted with our clients as they benefit from new ideas from other disciplines of business and industry and can also make their ideas more widely available to others. If a specific topic area is highly specialised and the client requires it to be held under a limited distribution, then Claremont Controls will consider each case and agree on how the element will be published prior to implementation. However it is important to note that development of restricted distributed functions will be more expensive to develop and maintain by the proposing client.
Moving management data from a single file or single user spreadsheet environment, to a fully integrated relational database model, is one of the key aspects of many HighStone installations. Making this move opens up your management data to real time, multi-user and multi-site access across your entire business. HighStone enables your data to be always available and up to date. It is promoted as the prime source for management data across all users in a business.
The short answer is ‘both’. HighStone includes a lot of functionality that is already pre-configured and can be applied without any revision to displays and functions. However Claremont Controls does expect that some key areas of your business management process need to be supported with custom displays and functions that fit in with your existing methods. Such elements can be provided by the development of new display modules or by adapting existing functions to better match your requirements.
HighStone may be linked to most commonly available SQL database server applications. The most common installations use Microsoft SQL Server, linking to other systems may require additional configuration effort in adjusting internal scripts to match the chosen system.
Generally the responsibility for providing and maintaining the server services for database hosting and network access rests with the clients IT department. Claremont Controls require a base database server application to be installed with a new / empty database ready to populate with required data tables and configuration data.
HighStone is a Microsoft Windows based application that is built using the Microsoft .Net Framework. The .Net Framework is installed as standard on most Windows XP and Windows 7 systems, and can be freely downloaded and installed where necessary. HighStone includes a number of executable and library files that can be installed in a suitable location on users’ systems – usually in the ‘\Program Files’ folder. HighStone is usually installed as an XCOPY application – requiring just a straight copy of files on to the target system drive.