Computing Advice

How can you get the most from your investment?

Which systems should you be buying, PC's, workstations or mainframes?

What are the available network options?

Should we go for UNIX, MS-DOS Windows 95 or Windows NT?

CREA Consultants (CREA) have over 15 years experience in the selection, installation, management and development of computer systems. We can help you to maximise the usage of systems, protect your data and build a computing strategy for the future.

An important factor is that we are civil, structural and mechanical engineers who use computers for analysis, draughting, project management and presentation. We can balance the needs of each department of your operation, whether you are a one man band or a large multi-national.

Let us cut through the fog to clarify your computing.

What hardware, PC based, workstations, networks?

Do we need a multi-media machine?

Which office software to use?

Can we integrate systems, such as pass results of analysis to reports?

Which CAD system, can it run Finite Element Analysis?

The options are seemingly endless and sometimes conflicting. It is possible to build an efficient computer system to meet the needs of most companies, or to take what is there and reconfigure the overall system to get more utilisation from your investment.

CREA can help you to derive a strategy for you computer development. If you are about to invest, we can look at your perceived requirements and help you to decide on the required equipment. We can plan an expansion path, using our knowledge of the currently available equipment. We can look at resource sharing, such as printers, tape drives and modems. We can look at networking and data integration.

If you have invested, we can review your current system and look into how it will fit into your future plans. Maybe you have invested and discovered that computers are having a significant impact on your business and you would like to investigate further improvement. CREA can help.

CREA can advise on selection of Internet Service Providers, (ISP's), using dial-up or dedicated lines to connect to the Internet, finding out how to put web pages on the system.

You will be looking at the product of our own work, this site has been developed by CREA.

Many people only run software bought from software houses, and even then don't fully exploit these programs. Word processors, spreadsheets, databases, CAD programs, Finite Element Analysis suites, can often be programmed to carry out specific tasks using internal macro languages or external programming languages.

Bespoke software can be written to carry out specific tasks, (See also programming for engineering analysis). There will be tasks which you may feel are well suited to computer solution. CREA can provide a programming service to produce programs and macros for most Microsoft Programs (Word, Excel, Project, Access), FE programs such as ANSYS and CAD program such as AutoCAD. Programs can be written in FORTRAN, "C " and C++ for MS-DOS, MS Windows and UNIX.

UNIX system scripts can be written to ease the use of the operating system. These scripts are used for many UNIX functions and can be very powerful, automating process such as backup, program control, accounting ...

For a sample program see our DynaTool Home Page.

Computers also make mistakes extremely quickly, if it is a big mistake, then they seem to make the mistake amazingly quickly. The favourite saying, "Garbage In, Garbage Out", is one of the most enduring in computing. Murphy is without doubt, the Patron Saint of computing!

CREA have engineers who have written and implemented Quality Management Procedures for computing departments, and who have sat on international QA working parties.

It is impossible to prevent mistakes occurring, but it is possible to reduce the impact of the mistake and to be able to recover quickly. In many instances, the computer can be programmed to help in the QA procedures, it can analyse backup records, scan output files and look for errors and omissions.

However good the program or computer, if your staff cannot effectively use them, they are either a negative investment, the cost of using the computer is higher than the cost of doing the job by traditional means, or they represent a white elephant.

CREA can help with training, either providing it ourselves or helping you to find a cost effective training solution.

CREA can help you to develop operational procedures to keep you systems and data secure. Backup procedures are essential, your systems will work perfectly for months, they will help you through thousands of pounds worth of project work, then ... it will all go wrong. How do you recover from a disc crash? What happens when your backup tape gets wrapped around the heads? What if there is a fire!? What if the network breaks?

Procedures can be developed to minimise the effects of all of these scenarios and many others. The effects of some can be totally eradicated, others the losses can be minimised.

Good management of systems will also allow more cost effective use through resource sharing.