A Tale of Two Software Developers
Sun Review June 23, 2001

Is the Okanagan Valley poised to become the next Silicon Valley? Members of the Okanagan High Tech Council certainly think so, and have dubbed this area the Silicon Vineyard (see www.silicon-vineyard.com). Two Vernon-based companies making great strides in the area of software development are forestry industry leader Progressive Solutions, and an innovative start-up called Work-Order.com.

Progressive Solutions (www.progressive-solutions.com) is a privately held company headquartered in Richmond, BC with development offices in both Vernon and Sault Ste. Marie, ON. The company currently employs 70 people, of which 37 are located in Vernon. A new 12,500 sq. ft. facility is scheduled to open in Vernon later this year. The new building will accommodate up to 75 employees, and the company is actively seeking new members to join their team.

So what does Progressive Solutions do? They are the industry leader in the development of procurement, inventory control, productions management and logistics software for the forest products industry, with software currently deployed at over 450 sites. Their flagship product LumberTrack includes fully integrated sales and inventory control systems supporting sawmill and panel production, remanufacturing and value-added production, wholesale/brokerage, and now also features e-commerce integration.

Although the forest industry has been slow to adopt e-commerce initiatives in general, Len Williams, president and C.E.O., is confident that these web-based applications are the wave of the future. "The new buzz word is e-collaboration", he says. "Lumber Track users, who can currently confirm transactions with e-mail, EDI and fax, will have the added powerful capability to display real-time information, and create and confirm transactions via standard web browsers and the Internet." This new type of e-collaboration allows the sales force to keep in touch with the latest company developments, and also enables customers to log on through their web browser and find out the status of their order - Did it leave the mill? Is it on the train? Where exactly is it?

The success of Progressive Solutions lies not only in its innovative products but also in its people. In the constantly changing world of high tech, it is refreshing to know that Progressive enjoys high employee retention rates, an average of 5 years. Len Williams explains that the company is always interested in hiring qualified staff, and provides many incentives to encourage their loyalty. "We don't believe in the sunshine tax", he states emphatically. "Developers in Vernon are paid the same rate as their counterparts in the Lower Mainland". He adds "If you treat people as if they're going to work for you for 18 months, they will work for you for 18 months - it's a self-fulfilling prophecy".

Work-order.com is a brand new company formed in 2000 to market an Internet Business service which provides access to a custom written, browser-based software solution. Co-founder Doug Donaldson spent several years in the computer repair industry as a service manager and was frustrated by the lack of software available specifically for the repair business.

"As a guy partial to computers and the Internet, I was sure someone would write an online management tool for repair facilities. I went searching for an online offering, but there wasn't one," he says. Doug resigned as service manager and began designing the software of his dreams. Work-order.com provides easy to use, powerful repair facility information management without an expensive upfront software purchase cost. The software can be used on any computer with an Internet connection and web browser. And anytime the software is updated, all customers are immediately upgraded because the software is deployed through webservers.

The company is now nearing a funding agreement but has not yet released the product to the public. The software is currently in beta testing mode with a multi-unit repair facility in Washington state. Doug encourages any local businesses to participate. Visit www.work-order.com to sign on as a beta tester.

Questions or comments? E-mail inge@ingenius.bc.ca

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