I have had the privilege of working for many great clients, and a summary of each engagement is listed here. Note: They fall in no particular order. For detailed information about technologies I have used, please see my technologies page.
Peachtree Software
Peachtree Software develops small-business accounting software, and has maintained a significant market share for two decades. Once purchased by ADP, a payroll company, and recently acquired by Sage, a European accounting software company, Peachtree remains one of the first names in accounting software.
I had the pleasure of working on Peachtree's software development team. I was responsible for gathering requirements for upcoming features and bug fixes, and thoroughly documenting those tasks. After ratification of those documents, I implemented the features and fixes among a team of six developers.
One of the nicest perks at Peachtree was the assignment of a dedicated QA specialist to my areas of work. Never since have I seen a company dedicate so much energy to QA as Peachtree did. The QA specialist, Project Manager and I collaborated using PVCS Tracker, and frequently reviewed project plans using Microsoft Project.
Growth: Peachtree was my best exposure to full-life-cycle development.
Travel, Incorporated
Travel, Incorporated, a privately held travel management services company, was founded in 1979. TI focuses on the service of corporate travel, servicing thousands of clients across the country.
I served as technical lead software developer at Travel Incorporated, bringing some of their recent development efforts into component-based architecture. I also spent a great deal of time gathering requirements for additions and improvements into their systems.
I designed and developed a very granular and flexible security model on which their new applications were built, as well as a sophisticated distribution model under which the client/server applications were updated.
I had the privilege of mentoring several bright and talented developers at TI, bringing them up to speed on component-based techniques, development of ActiveX Controls, source code control usage and administration, and general effective software development practices. The experience was enlightening and I am thankful for it.
Growth: TI was my best exposure to business and software development consulting.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP
PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the largest and most respected consulting firms in the world. Their international presence is truly pervasive throughout the industry, providing services such as business and management consulting, auditing and tax services, and finance and recovery services.
I contracted to one of the organization's branches to assist in the development of a database building and reporting tool. This tool was built to assist in the auditing of certain services provided to PwC clients, ensuring that accountability was well observed.
I co-designed and developed a very flexible user interface, capable of displaying and maintaining all types of data. The interface was generic and table-driven, describing the objects in a given system and their responsible presentation collaborators. Though our application was written for local and peer-to-peer use, we designed and built the application to scale to multiple tiers as the need might arise.
We used SQL Server 7 and 2000, utilizing DTS scripting and XML technologies for a variety of uses. The project was written in distinct phases and closely tracked in Microsoft Project. All issues were tracked in Compuware Trackrecord.
Growth: PwC was my best introduction to SQL Server at a truly advanced level, as well as my first exposure to XML and its many amorphous uses.
SIMCOM International Holdings, Inc.
SIMCOM is an international trade conformity consulting firm, assisting companies with knowledge required to successfully gain access to markets across the globe. SIMCOM does this by informing companies on how to break non-technical barriers to trade, such as regional compliances with safety standards and conformity with guidelines and regulations.
I contracted to SIMCOM in order to run their technology department, both at a management level and a technical leadership level. One of my many challenges there was to build an online supplier relationship management application under incredible time constraints. The product was to be reviewed publicly by a consortium of huge companies, and carefully scrutinized. My team and I were able to complete the major areas of development on this product in time to demonstrate favorably in the eyes of our target industry.
SIMCOM also needed a Chief Technology Officer, to provide a strategic technology vision for products and services, maintain relationships with technology vendors, hire and run a technical staff, recommend and purchase hardware, networking and software, and run all other technology processes. I immediately grew into this role, alongside my development duties, and performed all tasks simultaneously.
Growth: SIMCOM was my proving ground for my architecture skills and my introduction into executive management.
Carter And Associates
Carter and Associates is the largest commercial real estate firm in the southeast. Some of their clients include Bellsouth, First Union, Equifax and Delta.
I had an opportunity to consult to Carter on the enhancement of a reporting tool built in Access using VBA and Access forms. I spent the majority of my time implementing clean, reusable reporting techniques and sophisticated form logic as a front end for data entry into the system.
Growth: This engagement was one of my first consulting endeavors, yielding valuable requirements gathering skills.
ComCept Solutions, LLC
ComCept .Net is Distribution Management and Point of Sale software for the aftermarket auto body industry; this equates to the software on which auto paint distributors run the entirety of their businesses. ComCept originally outsourced all their development of ComCept .Net, but in 2002 made the decision to internalize all development. I was hired in July of 2002 to run the software development department and build this aspect of their business into a world-class enterprise-capable development company.
I built a development organization within ComCept by identifying and addressing the deficiencies in resources and processes. I took stock of the existing projects and resources, and hired developers and QA personnel with the talent required to move forward with ComCept’s software offerings. I also established processes and protocols under which our projects were designed, built, tested and released. Visual SourceSafe, a bug tracker, staging and production environments and issue reporting/development/release life cycles were among the improvements put in place.
My new team and I immediately began work stabilizing the existing code base. We then laid the foundation for our next generation of software offerings. We completely redesigned the architecture of ComCept .Net to utilize a true component-based multi-tier environment. This allowed us to support more users, implement more granular security, ease the development of new features, and use the full potential of Microsoft .Net. We built the new architecture in the very latest Microsoft .Net technologies, including ASP.NET, Smart Client Windows Forms and the .NET Compact Framework for mobile applications.
I also had the privilege of mentoring several very talented developers, as well as bridging the gap between executive management and the technology aspects of the company. In addition, I played a key role in the communication between ComCept and many large suppliers to our customers where technology partnerships were made.
Growth: ComCept allowed me to coordinate and direct all aspects of a software development organization, as well as prove my existing architecture skills.