A few months back I referred to the Apple slogan “There’s an app for that” in reference to software written for mobile devices. Well, I’m currently working on a new project that I’ll refer to as ‘Project X’ until it’s released in the coming weeks. Project X is a cross-breed between different technologies that should prove to be both fun and profitable.
Project X started with me forcing my company on an unsuspecting new friend one Saturday night a few weeks ago. During the time with my new friend, she disclosed an idea to incorporate her profession and mine into a small portable package. As soon as I heard her idea I was immediately intrigued and started formulating possibilities.
Finding software for standard applications is quite easy. Pretty much everyone is familiar with the Microsoft Office suite, QuickBooks, PhotoShop and Adobe Acrobat; and most people can tell you how each is used. Locating non-standard software, like that for Project X, can be quite difficult and sometimes nearly impossible.
Part of the work I do within my company is helping businesses launch new ideas that involve computers. Usually a customer will come to me with a software package and scheme and ask my company to create a system around the idea. Most of the time customers have a good plan of what they’re expecting and how they want their design packaged.
Several years ago we had a project – referred to internally as ‘Bobble Head’ – which the customer needed an extremely fast computer with eight DVD burners. Bobble Head was a video device which utilized specialized software to transform customers into dancing figures and simultaneously burn DVDs. The Bobble Head machine was very expensive and very fast based on the software requirements.
‘Chicken Ranch’ was another oddball project where the customer used radio identification tags to keep track of his chickens. A custom software integrator created a program to monitor the individual weights, feed amounts and egg yields without manually entering the information. Since then we’ve done similar projects for other farms in the area.
Maybe one of the weirdest integrations we’ve been involved with was for a small company in New Hampshire that makes circular forms. One of my employees dubbed this one ‘360’ for obvious reasons. The founder of the company came to us with an idea to automate the cutting of circles for a proprietary design he created. Because this machine was unique, custom software needed to be designed by an outside vendor specifically for this application.
No matter if it’s Chicken Ranch, 360, Bobble Head, Project X or your own you’ve been pondering, there’s probably a piece of software already designed to handle the task. Most of the customers who present us with ideas have already chosen commercially available software designed to handle the task-at-hand.
However, there are times when using commercially available software is not possible due to availability or a project mismatch. In these rare cases it is sometimes feasible to have software rewritten for an additional fee. Rarely will a new piece of software need to be created unless the project is very obscure.
If a project (like our Project X) is something you feel is worth investing in, there are a couple things you need to do. First, take a look and see if any other companies are already doing the same – or similar. If there are companies already producing the item, then find out how they’re making it work. If the idea is completely original then it would be worth talking to an experienced integrator and programmer. You never know, a venture like Project X may be well worth investing your time.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him at (978) 413-2840 or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)