My name is Sebastian Toet, I live in the Netherlands, and I’m the Chief Software Architect at Yuki, a SaaS (Software as a Service) company that offers online accounting and general business administration services. I was trained as a theoretical physicist (at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, and the Department of Theoretical Physics of the University of Amsterdam). I’m active in software development since 1993, first at Exact Software in Delft (The Netherlands), and since 2005 at the company I co-founded, that was first called FamilyWare, and is now called Yuki.

Since 1995 I have worked on web-based ERP/accounting systems, and some of my main interests lie in the following areas:

• Relational database systems and structures for complex data, complex reporting needs, and high number of concurrent users.
• Optimum strategies in Software Release Management for SaaS providers.
• Workflow systems that deliver the actual service in SaaS.

The last point is pretty important to me, as many SaaS providers don’t actually provide a real service, but just provide online access to software. At Yuki my main attention goes to building great workflow systems, that deliver the actual (accounting) service that really allow users to leave the work to others.

In this blog I want to talk about, and discuss, some of the experiences and insights I have had in the last 15 years in creating web-based ERP and accounting systems, and especially about those subjects that are generally not discussed very much, or at all, live macro-scale database infrastructure  and design, internal workflow system for SaaS providers, patch management for SaaS providers , etc.