Software Developer at Your Call
Welcome! My name is Ben Amada, an application developer happily developing custom web applications and providing consulting services to small businesses and individuals. I've been successfully involved in creating software solutions over the past 8 years. Staying up-to-date with current development practices, paying attention to detail in my work, and having a passion for developing applications that make people's lives easier has been my recipe for producing innovative software while enjoying what I'm doing.
Getting the Most from Your Application
Having a website or any application that helps you meet your business needs is a great start. However, more times than not the application focuses on handling only a subset of an entire business process. This puts the burden of completing the remaining steps in the hands of either the company employees or even worse, in the hands of its customers.
You might have a support ticketing system allowing customers to submit a support request, but when customer support doesn't realize a support ticket has come in or loses track of the open ticket, a preventable breakdown in the business process has occurred. In another situation, a potential customer searches your site for a product you have, but doesn't find the product because they didn't type in the exact wording of the product name. The customer leaves without making the purchase because although you had a product search system, it fails to be effective and unfairly puts the responsibility on the user in making the software produce the desired results.
Speaking as the end-user of many websites and applications I use daily, there are unfortunately too many of these instances where software is not living up to its full potential. Areas for improvement are not always easy to identify. However, applications designed while keeping the entire business process and objectives in mind are much more likely to result in minimal disruptions and achieve a high rate of success. It is this level of application that I take aim in creating. That is, an application which assumes as much responsibility as possible, allowing both the business and its customers to accomplish more.
What I Do
I'm available for development of both new and existing applications. In the realm of web applications, ASP.NET is my choice for server side programming. While not a graphics designer, I'm strong in client side development including XHTML/CSS layouts, JavaScript and AJAX. I've worked with MS SQL Server databases for many years in both developer and administrator capacities, with the databases serving as a backend to both web and desktop applications.
Should you be interested in opening up additional lines of communication with customers, adding a blog to your website can be a great way to stay in touch while bringing new content into your site. As a developer on the open source BlogEngine.NET team, I have in-depth experience with setting up and customizing this blogging application.
If you need to integrate your website with another system or service, including payment gateways, this is something I'm versed in and enjoy working on as well.
While my .NET programming language of choice is C#, I've spent time developing VB.NET applications, including a couple of large VB6 desktop applications still in use today. Should you have an existing VB.NET or VB6 application in need of new functionality or changes, I'm comfortable in that situation.
The Services page lists some of the technologies I've worked with in more detail.
I can work on a project basis, or hourly rate. My standard hourly rate is $60/hour.
Please contact me with any projects you would like to discuss. Estimates are free.