Fertile Crescent
by Dick Barnes, Principal, The Freeland Group

The long standing relationship between Alaska and the Puget Sound region blossoms once more as the personal business computer comes of age.

Archaeologists tell us of the beginnings of civilization in a land called Mesopotamia.  It lay where the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers formed a vast, rich plain where city-states thrived and writing first appeared, extending the concept of communication beyond that of the spoken word.  Historians have dubbed the region “the fertile crescent.”

Written communication was probably the most dramatic tool for change in history, advancing the whole of human knowledge millions of times over by enabling people to share, then build upon, each others thoughts and accomplishments.  The last few decades have witnessed the beginnings of the next step in intellectual evolution.  With the proliferation of the affordable personal computer, the world has again changed dramatically.

Not only scientists and educators are beneficiaries.  The modern businessperson now has the tools to increase personal productivity to a degree unimaginable only a few years ago.  The new tools include not only the computer itself but, more importantly, the software that has been designed for the specific needs of business.  It is the software that actually makes the personal computer indispensable.

Today, the world’s “fertile crescent” lies along the shoreline of Puget Sound; the traditional gateway to Alaska.  From Vancouver, British Columbia, you can travel south to Seattle, Washington, and in the process pass the world’s best known software design firms. 

Ever since the days of the great Yukon gold rush there has been a special bond between Alaskans and this region.  Every day ships and aircraft leave Puget Sound for points north, and many of them carry one of the region’s most famous products; software for business applications.  Much of this software has been designed, or customized, specifically for businesses in Washington, Western Canada, and Alaska as firms in these regions are often unique and have their own special needs.

Microsoft, the corporate giant of Redmond, Washington, is known to all and has produced software for the more common needs of businesses small and large.  Most business managers are familiar with products such as Excel, Access, and Project Manager, to name just a few of that firm’s best sellers.  More importantly, the Microsoft operating system has become the standard around which most of the world’s software is now being built.  Having a standardized system makes it far less expensive for business software designers to create programs to match specific business needs.  Those software firms may be the least familiar, but are perhaps the most important, to managers in Alaska.  Let’s take a quick look at some of these companies and at what they are doing for Alaska’s business community.

Mining in The New Millennium

In September of 1997, Gemcom Software International (www.gemcom.bc.ca) of Vancouver, British Columbia, introduced the first true Windows 95/NT 3-D geological and mining software in the industry.  Gemcom for Windows is the first fully-integrated data management, analysis, and three-dimensional geological modeling program using this Microsoft operating system. 

With true 32-bit performance, the program allows engineers and geologists to use the data obtained through mapping, remote sensing, and drilling to determine ore reserves and to plan and design mines.  It combines Gemcom’s most popular DOS-based programs in one integrated, easy to learn, package.

The new system allows the user to build 3-D models of ore deposits, complete with visual representation of the distribution or ore grades, and to then cut and paste these into any Windows application.  The software enables several users to access and update the database simultaneously, regardless of their physical location, thanks to its multi-user open database.  This saves time and money throughout the exploration process, very important in the far north where working seasons are short.  Major mining concerns in Alaska already using the Gemcom product line include Placer Dome North America and the Hawley Resource Group.

Using Gemcom for Windows, Geologists may view and edit drillholes, polygons, solids, surfaces, block models and status maps in full 3-D.  Models show slopes, shafts, headings, ramps, and ore passes, and can relate them to the orebody before calculating volumes, tonnages, and grades. 

The bottom line is that decisions can be made on whether to go underground or open pit and to then design the most efficient production plan for either.  The software is then used to monitor the mine’s progress.  With Gemcom for Windows, the days of hit-and-miss ore exploration and mine design are going...going...gone.

Remote Access Made Affordable

Traveling Software (www.travsoft.com), located in Bothell, Washington, has long been a leader in products designed to help speed up file transfers, assuring companies that their remote computing applications run at peak efficiency.  Their newest remote access product includes the first of a family of products they call Point B.  Their Point B Remote Net-Accelerator (v.1.0) speeds up file transfers over a remote access server by 300-400% without interrupting work flow.

However, most management and sales personnel are aware of Traveling Software because of the firm’s award winning LapLink for Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1.  LapLink enables a user to remotely access and control information from one PC to another via a modem, dial up connection, network, isdn, or internet.  It has proven to be an invaluable tool for executives on the go and for the mobile salesforce equipped with laptops.  The new LapLink for Windows NT is the most powerful remote access software on the market today, allowing file transfers as large as 4GB, while giving the user the ability to remotely access company desktops and networks.  Amazingly it does all of this, and more, for less than $150.

Now Traveling Software has gone one step further along this road with the unveiling of their brand new Remote Desklink software for Windows 95.  This is a product that may well revolutionize the way we all work.  If you have a PC at the office and at home; you can now, using Remote Desklink and a modem, access your office PC from your home as if you were there.  This product is secure, easy to use, and enables you to read and send e-mail, access databases, work on documents...anything you would normally do at the office...right from your living room.

The really great news is that this product is priced under $50, so even smaller companies can afford to give the package to every employee who uses a computer.  If you calculate how many work days are lost due to illness, caring for sick children, automobile problems, snow storms, and other assorted reasons for not making it to the office, it becomes clear that such a tool will pay for itself in a very short time.  No businessperson with a home computer or laptop should be without this handy, and cost-effective, product.

Super Networking Capability

Attachmate Corporation (www.attachmate.com) of Bellevue, Washington, has been a world leader for more than fifteen years in the development of network connectivity software, winning a bucket-full of awards in the process.  The firm prides itself on the capacity to connect to information on any host system...from any desktop...anywhere. 

Attachmate’s product line supports secure communications between desktops, networks, hosts, and the internet.  Their management software, remote access products, and application development tools help more people access and use corporate data.  The company now has offices in more than thirty countries and counts more than 400 of the Fortune 500 companies on their client list.  Products are designed for use with Microsoft Office, BackOffice, Windows 95 and Windows NT, and Novell YES.

The firm’s core products fall into three areas; Client Access, Host Access Management, and Developer Access.  Client Access products like EXTRA!, RALLY!, KEA!, and InfoConnect allow access to a company’s data by desktop clients.

Access Management products include titles like HostView Server and HostPublishing System; used to allow remote and occasional users access to the host and to give the unidentified Internet user access to limited areas of corporate data.

Developer Access tools are for companies that need to incorporate host data into custom built applications along with unlimited customization of host data into new applications.  The business process significantly benefits from the more streamlined, more intuitive, and more user-friendly interfaces.

As an example of what may be done, Attachmate recently employed their HostPublishing software in the creation of a cyber registration system for a major university.  For the first time students can check on class schedules and class availability, review their grades and their progress toward degree requirements, register for classes, and actually receive an advisory report along with a current transcript; all through the internet.

Accounting and Financial Reporting Made Easy

For nearly twenty years, Timeline Incorporated (www.timeline.com) of Bellevue, Washington, has been designing financial reporting and accounting management software for the mid to high range company.  Alaskan clients include such well known organizations as Sealaska Corporation and the City of Seward.  Altogether nearly one-third of Timeline’s products serve companies in Alaska and the Northwest. 

“Unlike California designers,” John Calahan, Vice President of Business Development explains, “our designers and installation consultants travel to Alaska on a regular basis.  We understand the territory and the special needs of our clients there.”

All of Timeline’s products are based on the Microsoft operating system and some of their software has been developed in a collaborative effort with Microsoft.  MV Analyst, for example, is a professional financial reporting and analysis product that uses Excel and integrates the information with Microsoft Office and BackOffice.  MV Analyst incorporates integrated components that are used to transport financial data directly from an accounting system to a desktop computer.  That information can then be turned into reports that can be sent to users anywhere in the organization.  The software allows you to build custom data filters which can import accounting data from any source, such as your mainframe, and then to create reporting templates and entire workbooks for dissemination to others in the company.

MV Budgeting software provides a complete budget solution for the busy executive.  In an easy to learn Windows environment, the program allows the budgeting manager to define a standard budget model for use throughout the company.  Organizational assumptions and instructions can be built into the budget model so that department budgeters can prepare their budgets quickly, easily, and uniformly.  The program maintains flexibility while allowing automatic retrieval of information from your accounting system, giving you the power of spreadsheets without the usual headaches.

One of the great cost benefits of Timeline’s software is that a company’s financial data can be translated directly from accounting systems into Excel, so that personnel do not have to spend thousands of hours rekeying the numbers.  A user can move information directly from the main accounting system to a completed report, and can do so in record time and with minimal expense. 

From a management viewpoint, this means more timely and accurate reporting, which can make all the difference in today’s ultra-competitive environment.  In the past, managers were sometimes forced to make decisions without having the proper financial analysis, literally going by intuition or experience.  It was time consumptive and costly to have a financial report put together, and the value of the additional information had to be balanced against those costs.  Sometimes a decision deadline simply flew by before a report could be completed.  With Timeline software these are no longer issues.  Reports can be done in hours, or less, at little cost, and managers can now benefit from having in-depth information at their fingertips whenever they need it.

Construction in the Fast Lane

The construction industry has long been considered unique; complexities in the areas of billing and accounting far surmounting those of any other types of business.  With payment and credits being broken down by project sites and types, it is not unusual for a contracting firm to have 1,000 to 1,500 invoice categories.  Add to this the complications brought on by having to report to and from remote locations, the cumbersome payroll provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act and the Prevailing Wage Act, and cross-jurisdiction tax problems, and one wonders how any construction firm manages to keep from being smothered by this number crunching burden.  Those that fail to do so can find project costs soaring over budget while profit expectations quickly evaporate.

Dexter + Chaney, (www.dexterchaney.com) is a Seattle firm that has been designing and supplying the construction industry with FOREFRONT Construction Accounting Software since 1981.  Half of their nearly 800 clients are located in the Northwest and Alaska.  This single entry system has been designed for, and only for, contractors and consists of up to twenty-three modules providing a broad range of functions that enable clients to manage their complex businesses. 

The newest version, 7.0 for Windows NT works hand in hand with Windows applications, including spreadsheets, scheduling, and word processing.  Companies as small as ten persons, or with hundreds on the payroll, can use the new FOREFRONT 7.0 to run all the business functions of the firm.  The newest version is three times as fast as the prior version, enabling a company to process a 500 person payroll in less than ten minutes.  Remote location users, logging in on standard telephone lines, can access the same information as the main office with the same processing speed.

The twenty-three available modules span the full range of construction needs, from basics like accounts payable, job costing, sub-contractor management, and invoicing, all the way to more exotic needs such as small tool tracking and fixed asset depreciation.

Each module is a complete system unto itself, and is also linked to any other module the firm is using, offering the ability to customize a complete solution for the firm’s particular needs.  The Job Costing module, for example, breaks down projects into separate steps and calculates how much of each step has been completed along with a running comparison of actual versus projected costs.

From that report a manager can analyze separate issues in depth.  If labor is running high on electrical work, the program can pull up each worker’s time card and show who is responsible for overtime.  If a particular material is over projected costs, the project manager can see the actual purchase orders and find out exactly what has been happening.  A new application actually allows FOREFRONT to be plugged into a truck scale so that material purchased by weight is automatically billed and recorded.

Natchiq, Incorporated, a fast growing contracting firm based in Anchorage, has been a Dexter-Chaney customer since 1990.  Toby Osborn, Natchiq’s VP of finance and administration is pleased that the Seattle company’s software has kept pace with his firm’s rapid growth.

“Because of their knowledge of the industry and communication with their customers,” he explains, “they have been able to meet the needs of our growing business.  When we need something, we often find that it’s already available in FOREFRONT.”

Knowing the time involved in major construction works, FOREFRONT software allows years to be entered in four digits, not two, thereby bypassing the much dreaded “Year 2000” software problem.  For companies using FOREFRONT there will simply be no problem; business will continue as usual into the new century.

With more start-up firms coming on-line every day, these established leaders in business software will not be the only Puget Sound companies for managers to look to for support in the coming years.  They are, however, a good sampling of the strategic partnerships being built between the high tech wizards of the new “fertile crescent” and the practical needs of the business professionals at the edge of the North American continent.  The traditional synergy between these two regions promises to go on for a long, long time thanks to the successful efforts of both.