What does a software engineer do for you?

Some of the best-run ventures in the world use custom software to operate more powerfully and efficiently:

• They automate training by having employees learn at their own pace from a centrally managed presentation of key concepts.
• Those same concepts from training can be searched for and referenced at any time via a general-purpose knowledge base.
• Complex tasks can be presented as a walkthrough on a computer or other device, which can reduce "onboarding" time.
• Those same tasks can be iteratively streamlined and automated, reducing workloads and mistakes from repetitive activities.
• All manner of data can be tracked, stored, and analyzed to improve performance.
• And more! If something can be described to a computer, the computer's power can be used to store, retrieve, automate, or analyze it.

Of course, you likely know some or all of this already. You may even be using general-purpose software to do some of it. What you might not have, though, is the advantage of using software created specifically for you and what you want to do.

Your projects aren't everyone else's; Why run them on software built for everyone else?

When you use software that wasn't created just for you, what eventually happens is that you either ignore a bunch of elements you don't need, or have to live with a limitation that requires awkward external workarounds. A good example might be something like a monthly report. You can build it in a general-purpose spreadsheet, but that means getting the data from somewhere, pasting it in, and wrangling your own formatting. With custom software, an application is created where you press a button labeled "Generate Report," and the computer does everything for you.

This is where I come into the picture. I've worked on teams (BlueDoor Software and Pando Development) building enterprise-class internal and public-facing applications for mortgage and manufacturing companies. The solutions we created were tailored specifically to their needs, not cookie-cutter setups that we inserted some graphical changes into. I've also created my own toolkits for constructing applications. In fact, this website is an application I built for myself, running on an API framework that I architected essentially from the ground up.

Why work with me?

• I have real experience working on high-stakes projects. Yes, I once missed a semicolon and effectively crashed a server that people were using to set up mortgage transactions. That's not the end of the story! I learned, very quickly, how to uncrash that server AND how to avoid crashing it again.
• I do my own work. The "outsourcing mentality" is something I try to avoid. While I do partner up with other coders and engineers, my intention with any project is to be hands-on. If you're working with me, I want you to actually be working with me, instead of the bulk of the task being handed off to a third party.
• I build my own tools. My projects are important enough to me that I want to understand them inside and out, top to bottom. I'm not interested in just slapping together a bunch of pre-fabricated modules and saying "I'm done!"

Is custom software affordable?

The only honest answer to this question is "it's situationally dependent." A relatively simple website with limited interactivity might come in at somewhere around 30 - 50 hours of development time and $1200 - $2000. A complicated application involving business logic and a database can take much longer and cost much more. Custom software is an investment, and often a very significant one. The payoff can be very high, and that has to be balanced with what you can afford.

Is there something I can build for you?

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