CNOC Informatiesystemen

CNOC Informatiesystemen (CNOC Information systems) is a Dutch company that supports the business processes of their clients by delivering tailor made solutions based on various platforms and techniques. Birger Jansen, a software designer for CNOC, has started to use DeZign for Databases Expert in March 2008. Although the recent purchase, DeZign is becoming increasingly important in their company. Birger Jansen keeps discovering new useful features: "It is nice to discover that the makers of DeZign apparently have a lot of experience with designing databases and therefore have included clever, useful features. All those 'little' clever features combined, makes DeZign a very pleasant tool to work with".

Selecting DeZign for Databases Expert

CNOC needed a database modeling tool. They chose to purchase DeZign for Databases Expert after trying the trial version, Birger Jansen explains why: "The Expert version of DeZign implements a version control system and can generate a script to update one version of a database to a newer version. These scripts will be used in the update mechanism of our product. This version system is a huge pro. Also, the ease of use and the clarity of the interface made DeZign beat some other tools that we evaluated".

The use of DeZign

At CNOC they use DeZign for Databases Expert to design a database scheme and create or update a database from that scheme. DeZign for Databases Expert is currently used by CNOC for a new project in which they are in the design phase of the database model. "However", says Birger Jansen, "due to the good experiences we have with DeZign we are thinking about using it for other projects, where we already have a fully created database scheme".

Multiple databases

Birger Jansen explains the use of DeZign at CNOC: "We are working on a new product that will be supported on various platforms. At this point, we focus development on Firebird and MS SQL server. DeZign gives us a great tool to create the database diagram and the corresponding databases on both platforms. Also, because of the clear visual presentation of the design we can use it to communicate and discuss the design between several developers. In the future we will also use DeZign to create update scripts that will be included in our product so that it can update its own database".

Attribute packages

One of the best features of DeZign for Databases Expert, according to Birger Jansen, is the attribute package system. Attribute packages are pre-defined, reusable sets of attributes that promote consistent attribute definitions. You can reuse these attribute packages in your data model by applying them to entities, and you can also share attribute packages between data models. "After the purchase of DeZign we were very surprised to discover the attribute package system, which helps us to make sure that some common fields, like creating or updating date and time, are consistently implemented in each table. Doing this by hand would be a lot of work with a risk of typo's.

Many-to-many relationships

Another discovery they made at CNOC after purchasing DeZign for Databases was the feature that automatically creates tables for many-to-many relations (N:M-relationships). Birger Jansen explains: "The project that we use DeZign for, is an object orientated framework. The object model is made in Delphi. The data model is designed with DeZign for Databases. One of the functionalities in this project is a log in which objects of different types can be connected. For this we had to create a fair amount of many-to-many relationships. By accidence, we found that DeZign creates these automatically. It is nice to discover that the makers of DeZign apparently have a lot of experience with designing databases and therefore have included clever, useful features. All those 'little' clever features combined, makes DeZign a very pleasant tool to work with."

Benefits of using DeZign

About the benefits of using DeZign for Databases Expert, Birger Jansen says: "First of all, DeZign surely saves us time. It also solved a major issue for us: how can we maintain one design and deploy this to various platforms? Also DeZign improves our databases because it checks if all rules in the database are fulfilled and gives good warnings and suggestions on violations. DeZign for Databases is just a great tool for the development and maintenance of database diagrams and the corresponding databases".

Datanamic support

The support that the Datanamic team offers, is evaluated positively at CNOC. Birger Jansen says: "Datanamic provides us with a tool that is very valuable for us. During the evaluation period we had some questions that were answered very quickly. This personal contact is very valuable. I think that is one of the advantages of doing business with a relative small company, just like ourselves".