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THINK YOU CAN'T WRITE APPS? THESE COMPANIES PROVE OTHERWISE
What makes these 10 solution providers worth knowing? Their experiences with application development, customization and integration might inspire others to build new lines of business.
Explore Consulting, for example, has developed a lucrative practice integrating and writing applications around software delivered as a service over the Internet. Blytheco has leveraged its application-writing expertise into millions of dollars in sales for the accounting software it resells. Development InfoStructure, or DevIS, combines its understanding of the public sector with expertise in opensource software to serve the needs of a global community. And 70-employee Tierl Innovation competes effectively against the biggest systems integrators in the world with its know-how for building a services-oriented architecture (SOA).
In almost every case, application development represents only a portion of these efforts. Yet thanks to their software acumen, all have either created entirely new revenue streams or enhanced the desirability of their existing lines of business. With any luck, their stories will ignite a creative spark that leads other solution providers to explore new opportunities they hadn't previously considered. If that's not worth knowing, then what is?
* ASCENTIUM
Bellevue, Wash.
Ascentium's claim to fame is its expertise in infrastructure technology, application development and integration, and data reporting. That expertise prompted Koster Finance to choose the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner over other solution providers to move the Las Vegas-based company from its legacy Visual FoxPro/QuickBooks implementation to a new custom application. Ascentium developed a loan origination and tracking application using Visual Studio (especially C#), SQL Server and Great Plains accounting software. Ascentium touts its quick implementation of reporting applications, usually in 30 to 90 days. The company, which has a second office in Spokane, Wash., also partners with Mondosoft on data reporting.
* BACK BAY TECHNOLOGIES
Needham, Mass.
Back Bay Technologies prides itself on deep domain expertise in applications for fast-paced capital markets and insurance companies. It is an expert on J2EE custom development and is also a Microsoft Certified Partner that can spec out .Net infrastructures. On the Java side of the aisle, Back Bay is a member of the Sun Microsystems National iForce Partner Advisory Council...