FileMaker, Inc. (www.filemaker.com) has released the second in a three-part series of free how-to ebooks that lead teams through the process of creating a custom app using the FileMaker Platform. You can download it at http://tinyurl.com/jmj3qrp .

The steps to creating a custom app for your business team include:

° Organizing your data: One of the first steps in bringing your app to fruition is to examine your data and how you want to organize it to meet your unique needs.

° Design the user interface and workflow: Creating the user experience is an iterative process. You'll start by thinking about the users and the activities they are trying to accomplish.

° Set up security: When your custom app includes confidential information, you'll want to ensure that those who should have access are the only people who can access this data.

"Once an organization has started the planning process for custom apps, the next step is the creation process. Custom apps are quick and easy to build and deploy, and the potential cost savings is huge,” says Ann Monroe, vice president, marketing, FileMaker, Inc. “With custom apps, our customers are reducing manual processes, data entry errors and inefficient tasks. Teams already have a lot of subject-matter expertise, but they may not know how to translate that knowledge into a custom app. That's why we've developed a new set of guides to demystify the process and guide our customers through the planning, creation and deployment of custom apps.”