Spanish software development firm A.T. Medtra recommits to DataFlex for Web Apps

Benchmark company with software solutions for simplifying the management of health surveillance and occupational risk prevention continues 25+ years of app development evolution with the DataFlex Web Application Platform.

With a roster of high-profile customers to service with their Windows desktop-based applications for health surveillance and occupational risk prevention professionals, Santander, Spain software developer A.T. Medtra has a high bar to cross over as they evolve their solutions to the Web.

Tasked with meeting their users’ high expectations for their industry-leading software, the company’s CTO Victor Diego Gutiérrez and his team made the decision to evolve their applications by adding Web user interfaces with the DataFlex Web Application Framework.

“Our customers include SMEs, big enterprises, and public administration organizations who rely on our WinMEDTRA and WinSEHTRA solutions to manage both their health surveillance and occupational health and risk factors,” Victor says.

“With DataFlex and Data Access Worldwide’s partners, we’re able to achieve a high degree of productivity by relying on only one-environment for our main development – DataFlex. Coupled with the ease of application installation and client management, along with accessibility to Data Access Worldwide’s technicians to make inquiries and proposals, we’re able to realize significant cost savings with our speed of development.”

A.T. Medtra’s client list boasts large enterprises including Repsol, IKEA Ibérica, John Deere Iberica, Mercedes-Benz España, Michelin España, Grupo Mahou, Heineken España, S.A., Schweppes, Pepsico Food, and Banco Santander. Public organizations include the Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, (Bilbao’s City Council), Universidad del País Vasco (University of the Basque Country), the Ministerio de Defensa (Ministry of Defence) and Ministerio de Presidencia (Ministry of the Presidency), the S.E. Correos y Telegrafos, (Spanish Post Office with 60,000 employees), and the Servicio Andaluz de Salud (Andalusian Health Service with 120,000 employees).

Victor says that A.T. Medtra’s long history with DataFlex extends back over 25 years through the numerous DataFlex console-mode and Visual DataFlex revisions and now with DataFlex 2021, along with reporting solutions powered by Crystal Reports, and most recently DataFlex Reports.

“We have been working with DataFlex since version 2.3b and although there have been two critical moments that made us consider changing the tool, Data Access has ultimately delivered the products we needed,” Victor says. “Those two critical moments were the decision to stay with DataFlex to develop in Windows environments (a long time ago), and more recently the decision to use the DataFlex Web Framework to develop on the Web.”

Victor’s team of 10 developers utilize several third-party products with their DataFlex apps, as well, including Codejock, Chilkat, Text Control (text editor OCX), LibXL, Scheduler, and recently Aspose Word as a substitute for Text Control in web apps.

“Our WinMEDTRA and WinSEHTRA solutions are products that began to be developed more than 25 years ago and are constantly evolving,” Victor says. “We are currently migrating WinSEHTRA to utilize Web technologies, and we have been doing this development for a year and a half. When this project is finished, we will begin to develop WinMEDTRA with Web technologies, as well.”

Victor cites a number of benefits that DataFlex delivers to his team as reasons why they continue to rely on DataFlex for app development, including using the Data Dictionary concept, having a framework that allows the entire team to develop with similar criteria, having access to various types of databases (MSQL, Oracle, DataFlex) without hardly changing the source code, the reusability of source code when migrating applications from a desktop environment to a web environment, and a very active Data Access user and technical forum.

When it comes to the all-important question of what end users saying about A.T. Medtra’s software solutions, Victor says that they find the applications very intuitive with a very short learning-curve, and the early impressions of their new Web Apps is upbeat, as well.

“In our case, customers mainly value that the functionality of the applications is as expected, and this is a point in which they consider us a benchmark company in occupational health and occupational risk prevention software,” says Victor.

“Currently, our clients are very positive about the effort we are making to migrate our applications to a Web environment, which will allow them to be more easily distributed among users and will give them the possibility of migrating to cloud environments.”

“Victor’s team is fantastic!” says Pepe Guimarães, Managing Director of Moose Software, the Data Access Channel Partner for Spain and Portugal. “They are extremely good at their job. For example, to use some .NET components they created a wrapper that exposes the .NET functionalities they need as COM objects, interfaced to some complicated medical devices to capture patients (workers) data, manage securely very sensitive personal medical data… and the list could keep going on and on.”

Data Access Europe’s Director Nick Nikijuluw says, “A.T. Medtra is exemplary for many successful software houses that use DataFlex as their prime development platform. They prove that while technology rapidly shifts over time, investments in existing code remains valuable, and can deliver new technology with a minimum of extra effort. We congratulate A.T. Medtra on their success and look forward to many more successful years to come!”

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