James Foxall, President and CEO at Bellevue, Nebraska-based Tigerpaw Software, is a second-generation leader at the end-to-end software solution provider. His father was the founder and original CEO in 1984, previously having worked at Union Pacific Railroad’s newly developed data processing center.
“My dad decided he had had enough of corporate life,” said Foxall. “He was a type-A entrepreneur, I don’t think he even knew exactly what he was going to do, but he knew it was going to be related to computers.”
The senior Foxall started a computer-needs consulting business, which led him down a path writing software and doing computer networking for clients like VHS rental chain Applause Video, and writing collection software for attorneys.
“We got started doing whatever anybody needed us to do. It was kind of all over the map,” said Foxall. “We built computers in our office, and every batch of parts you’d get would be different; every video card you got was different. It was kind of the Wild West.”
The big break for Tigerpaw came when a telephone sales company wanted to automate their entire process. The software they wrote was a success, and they started selling it to other companies that sold phone systems.
“That’s really the kernel of what we are today,” said Foxall. “We got very good at focusing and dropped all our other product lines to focus on the platform we have now, which we continue to adapt as technology changes.”
Tigerpaw’s ability to adapt and change is what has allowed the company to stay relevant scale in the software space for 34 years.
Currently, their business management platform is used by over 40,000 technology services providers around the world to automate processes, increase collaboration, streamline project management, increase cash-flow, expand the sales pipeline, minimize costs and improve customer service.
Foxall said they’re in the process of evolving again with the recent release of a beta version for their new modern user interface, Tigerpaw One. The updated UI represents the company’s single biggest redesign of its all-in-one software solution since the late 1990s.
“Tigerpaw One is the most feature-rich software on the market today that touches all areas of a small- to medium-size technology business (SMB), from inventory and service ticketing to CRM, proposals and reporting,” said Foxall. “With this complete user interface overhaul, Tigerpaw One now looks like the modern, robust business automation platform it already is.”
The Tigerpaw team celebrating hitting their annual goal of adding 10,000 users to their platform in 2017.
Foxall said the overhaul was led by a realization that multi-generational workplaces and clients need user experiences that feel familiar to people who’ve used the product for years, but also feel fresh and current to younger users and new clients.
“We’ve got every age in our workforce,” said Foxall. “I have some people who’ve been with me almost 30 years in their 60s, and I have some interns that are in their late teens. We have that whole gamut and what we’ve realized is that’s what’s happening out in the real world.”
Designing and selling a software product to a generation that didn’t even exist when the company was founded can be a tough hurdle, but Foxall knew it was a necessary challenge to take on.
“We realized that a lot of business owners liked our [old] UI because it was based on Office 97. It was familiar, it was usable,” said Foxall. “But to the younger generation, it would be like me asking them to use a DOS app. I don’t care how great that app is, I’m not going to run it. We had to sit down and realize that this younger generation that’s moving up is influencing purchasing decisions.”
Staying flexible and keeping an eye on the future have ensured that Tigerpaw has had a long runway of relevance from their startup days, but Foxall said there’s a lot more to it than just that.
If he had to pin the success of the company on one thing, he would point to culture.
“Culture is the catalyst that allows success to happen, but a lot of it has to do with always having an attitude of being willing to change and always being willing to do something new,” said Foxall.
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This article first appeared on Silicon Prairie News.
The registration price will go up to $350 after Wednesday, July 18.
Registration includes all keynotes, breakout sessions, a welcome reception and MESH Party access.
HDC is the region’s longest running local software design and development event. It provides the opportunity for all software design and development professionals, from entry-level to those with advanced experience, to come together and dive into the latest technologies and techniques first-hand.
This year’s keynote speakers include Kathleen Dollard, a .NET expert and Microsoft MVP who has given talks around the world, and Doug Durham, CTO of Don’t Panic Labs.
Related: Heartland Developer Conference 2018 keynote speaker Kathleen Dollard on ‘loving legacy code’
2018 is the 15th year for the conference’s annual promotion of software knowledge and innovation.
This year’s sessions feature a variety of topics, including:
To see the full list of topics and speakers, check out the HDC 2018 schedule here.
OMAHA — The Heartland Developer Conference’s 2018 keynote speaker has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1998, and has given dozens of speeches and talks around the world.
Kathleen Dollard is on the .NET Core Team at Microsoft, where she contributes to .NET Core CLI/SDK, and managed languages, and she’s written multiple articles on a range of .NET technologies.
The title of her presentation is “Loving Legacy Code.”
“Programmers think about existing code differently than new code,” said Dollard. “Instead of trying to design and solve problems in fairly open space, they are working out the puzzle of solving a problem within the rules set by the rest of the current code.”
She calls working with legacy code a “huge and exciting challenge.”
Among the topics she’ll address are how expensive code rewrites are, readability versus the ability to reason about code, refactoring for size and complexity, and tricks to force tests.
A ‘space brat’ inspired by NASA
Dollard describes herself as a “space brat” who grew up in Huntsville, Alabama where her father was an aerospace engineer working on the Saturn V. She says growing up in that atmosphere taught her how much people can accomplish when working together on a common goal.
“NASA has estimated that 400,000 people worked toward the single goal of a few men walking on the moon. It was truly an amazing accomplishment for 1969,” said Dollard.
But Dollard didn’t love computers at first. As a child, and even into adulthood, she largely disliked working with computers, because making mistakes was “expensive and painful,” she says.
“The first computer I fell in love with was the IBM PC,” said Dollard. “For the first time, it wasn’t painful to make a mistake. Learning is about making mistakes, it’s not about being careful. That introduced me to a career where I can learn every day. First, just getting it to work. Then getting it to work in a solid and beautiful way as I became an architect.”
She says she now has a passion for technology and language design, and the people who bring it all together.
“Now, my greatest fascination is the way programmers interact with the process of building software. I feel very lucky that I get to work on making that experience better every day in my job at Microsoft,” said Dollard.
‘This is the code that runs the economy’
She hopes her presentation at HDC 2018 will help programmers with their approach to legacy code.
“The number one thing I hope programmers take away is respect for the people writing the legacy code they have or will work on. They were working without the current understanding of the problem. They defined that understanding along with the code,” said Dollard.
“The second things is the importance of tests for legacy code and a couple of tips for adding tests to legacy code, as well as warnings about when it’s going to be hard.”
Dollard says there can be a “range of fear” for programmers when approaching legacy code.
“It’s scary to work on code you don’t understand fully, and it can be hard work. But this is the code that runs the economy. It runs airports and hospitals. It could not be more important.”
For more information, visit the Heartland Developer Conference website.
For more information on Kathleen Dollard and all the other speakers, presentations and workshops at HDC 2018, visit the website here.
Infogroup Media Solutions, a provider of business and consumer media management solutions, announced on Thursday that it will provide data management and fulfillment services for Easterseals.
Easterseals is the nation’s leading service provider and advocate for children and adults with disabilities and their families including veterans and seniors.
“We are excited about the opportunities the expansion of our more than 20-year relationship with Infogroup will provide and look forward to the benefits of a holistic approach to our national fundraising efforts,” said Stacey Adams, senior director, direct response marketing at Easterseals.
The services to be provided will enhance Infogroup’s current relationship with Easterseals, which delivers strategic planning, data acquisition and analytics. Infogroup will also deliver advanced data management techniques and strategies that broaden list exposure and focus on increased revenue.
“Partnering with Infogroup for list management and fulfillment provides not only immediate cost savings but superior data assets that will help us open new exchange relationships and grow Easterseals’ list revenue,” said Karen Mayhew, executive vice president of consumer list management at Infogroup Media Solutions. “Additionally, having Infogroup handle both brokerage and list management will allow for better communication, streamlined reporting and real-time exchange records.”
The organization also looks to leverage Infogroup’s industry-leading data to gain a more complete view of the Easterseals donor base in order to execute advanced targeting efforts and enhance donor relations.
“We aim to provide our clients with the leading edge tools, expert insight and customer experience they can’t get anywhere else,” said Michael Iaccarino, chairman and CEO of Infogroup. “We are pleased to expand our partnership with Easterseals to deliver full-service marketing solutions that help them fundraise more efficiently and effectively.”
Photo courtesy of Facebook Newsroom
On Friday, Facebook announced its Facebook Community Boost program will be coming to Omaha on October 2-4. The program is part of a pledge to train 1 million people and small business owners across the U.S. with the digital skills they need to compete in today’s workplace.
The announcement was made at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston and pledges that training will be completed by 2020.
Facebook Community Boost will visit 50 US cities by the end of 2018, and partner with and train more than 60 organizations in twelve US cities.
A Facebook press release said: “As our CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said, we want to make it easier for people to find jobs and grow businesses. According to recent predictions, the skilled labor shortage in America could create 85.2 million unfilled jobs by 2030.”
According to a Facebook press release, Omaha’s most current unemployment rate at 3.3 percent and recent predictions that a skilled labor shortage in America could create 85.2 million unfilled jobs by 2030.
Facebook said they are committed to helping close the skills gap and provide more people and business owners the educational resources needed to advance at work, find new jobs, or run companies.
“Local business owners in the US tell us that digital and social media expertise are important both to running their businesses and as a consideration when hiring,” said the press release. “In fact, a lot of business owners value a candidate’s digital skills above where they went to school.”
To successfully train 1 million people and small businesses owners, Facebook will expand its in-person training programs, create more local partnerships, and build more eLearning resources.
