As we stress throughout the site, MicroCrest has a broad range of skills but over recent years has specialised in the development of Internet-enabled (often Internet-based) systems. This is obvious from the range and nature of MicroCrest's Clients.

Supplementary to this process, then, it has been vital for MicroCrest to remain up-to-date with changing technologies. As a part of this learning process, MicroCrest's approach has been to run projects internally with the aim of (a) expanding the technical competence of the company, and (b) providing a general "service" to Internet users.

Of course, the result of this process means that a third benefit is apparent - MicroCrest is able to showcase a range of Web sites in order to demonstrate its pedigree as a top-class consultancy.

Of course, many similarities exist between this approach and our approach in making a range of utilities available via the site (see our Products page for details). Indeed, this is a conscious decision since the quality of the web sites and the utilities that we offer demonstrate well the quality of service provided on a consultancy basis.

The sites currently produced and maintained by MicroCrest are listed below.

Terms and Conditions

MicroCrest's Web Sites

Agony Uncle Online is a light-hearted (some have said "scary"!) attempt to provide an Internet-based version of the traditional Agony Aunt. The difference between this version and the traditional form is that, being live on the Internet, absolutely anyone can join up and start to offer advice.

The service is maintained by MicroCrest, on MicroCrest's own kit and premises, as a free "for pleasure" service.

Technically speaking, Agony Uncle is valuable since it was MicroCrest's first foray into Microsoft's new .NET architecture. Thus an albeit customised version of what is essentially a standard "noticeboard" web site has been written completely in C# and in ASP.NET. A SQL Server 2000 database, and XML communication between separate components, completes the architecture.

Also, by virtue of the fact that Agony Uncle is hosted in-house means that MicroCrest has expanded its experience beyond pure "software development" into the realms of component infrastructure. Admittedly we have worked with clients in the area of infrastructure already, but we've deliberately built Agony Uncle in a "small office" scenario. Cost was a critical consideration in this case (not least since we funded it ourselves!).

The site is distributed across two LAN segments (one is a DMZ), and comes complete with firewalls, intrusion detection etc. The "application" environment is mainly Microsoft-based, but the system is fronted by a Linux-based box which contains the firewall and intrusion detection software. Hosted at the end of a DSL line, the site also tackles problems such as the dynamic IP address issued by the Service Provider.

So it is possible to see, then, that despite the rather light-hearted subject matter of the site itself, a good deal of serious thought has gone into both the application and its infrastructure. Also, the first version of the site went live in July 2002 - how many other consultancies can boast a live, .NET-based site so soon after the release of .NET itself?

Visit Agony Uncle Online.

  • Yellow Sticky
 

Yellow Sticky is designed to be a simple "reminder" service.

Again based on .NET in order to build on MicroCrest's already substantial .NET skills, Yellow Sticky is currently in the stages of planning and design.

It is possible that this service may include an element of pay-per-use, and so investigations are currently underway regarding possible income generation, and the most cost effective ways of processing payments.

It is anticipated that the hardware and infrastructure already in place by virtue of Agony Uncle will be reused. Yellow Sticky promises to build on these strengths, then, all the time increasing MicroCrest's technical competency.

So again, it can be seen that regardless of the subject matter of the site, lots of serious work has been - and is currently being - performed in order to make this second offering as successful as Agony Uncle.

(October 2004)

Terms and Conditions

Any additional web sites are operated on a completely separate basis from this web site (www.microcrest.com). Accordingly, if you decide to visit or subscribe to any of the services offered on any of MicroCrest's web sites, please note that separate Terms and Conditions may exist for each site. If specialised Terms and Conditions do exist for a site, you will need to agree to such Terms and Conditions before you will be able to make use of the site.