Established in 1986, Chaparral has provided a wide range of customers with custom database-oriented solutions using a wide range of tools to deliver managed data to the desktop, over the web, and between systems.

Our custom database projects have literally included solutions from Auctioneers to Zoologists. One of the more interesting projects we worked on was for the US Olympic Wrestling Team in 1992, where we developed the database portion of a large project that indexed hundreds of hours of wrestling video, providing the coaches and athletes with one of the first interactive video training solutions.

Medical and clinical projects we've worked on have included clinical trials systems for a major university, a revolutionary system to link medical review offices and drug testing labs, and a solution to assist a startup obtain FDA approval for new biomedical devices by reducing the time it took to analyze results from days to seconds.

Operational databases for service businesses have included dozens of work-flow oriented projects that help groups of people track and manage jobs from client aquisition through service and product fulfillment, and into invoicing, inventory management, and finance.

Through our focus on custom database development, we have over time discovered additional client needs that fit our expertise. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, customers wanted a single point of contact for hardware and software procurement, network installation, backup services, and database development. So, we became an authorized VAR (Value Added Reseller) for Apple, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

When the internet began picking up steam in the mid-1990's we invested in a full T1 circuit, set up a secure hosting facility and provided managed hosting and web-based development services.

In the late 1990's we decided to stop offering hardware and software resale services, as margins had disappeared, and customers had become increasing sophisticated. Similarly, while we had some good ideas about the Internet, in retrospect we misjudged the hype factor and let the bubble pass. At the very least, we avoided getting caught up in the dot-bomb implosion too seriously, though we did lose several lucrative web startup company clients.

When the recent economic downturn began in 1999-2000, we decided to invest our available capacity into discovering what the next Big Thing would be on the technical front, and to develop products that fill immediate needs. Like the ocean, new technology arrives in waves, and like a surfer, a technical consulting firm needs to try to pick the right wave. We feel XML is an enabling technology that has a huge future potential and that fits very well with our prior experience. Our EZxslt product, XML Consulting Services, and Practical XML for FileMaker Pro training class are the first fruits of this new focus.

Throughout, data management software solutions have been at the core of what we do. The proper exploitation of this evolving technology should enable better, more accurate, and less expensive communications between people. In meeting the real strategic motivations behind system investment, it is our obligation to design for the big picture.