Software Engineering and Ayrmer Software

October 9th, 2008 8:38 pm General Leave a comment

Software Engineering is a buzz word that was talked about when I went to uni – oh, some 25+ years back. Engineering being the “job” of carrying something from a mere speck of a thought right through to design, implementation and testing to final delivery. I think it’s fallen out of favour in these modern days, alas… Or I did until today.

Charlie Collins of Ayrmer Software is someone I’ve known about for some time. A couple of years back, we met in a pub with some mutual colleagues and he introduced me to the NRG networking lunches. One important factor of these networking meetings is the One to One and you know what? Until today I’d not actually had what you might call a proper One to One with Charlie.

We met at his office in Heathfield, had coffee and set the world to rights. Charlie and his team have an amazing approach to bespoke software design and implementation. To say they’re a web design company would be a gross understatement! For his clients, the website that you see is merely the tip of the iceberg compared to the workings that go on underneath – and what’s underneath? You name it – CRMs, accounting packages, asset tracking, database management, and so on.

The back-end platform they have developed looks great, is adaptable and even emails them if it thinks something is wrong – often before the client even knows about it! Charlie and his team understands how things work at the nuts and bolts level, they know how to optimise their systems to make them snappy, fast and more importantly, usable. They use just enough of the so-called “web 2.0″ tools to enhance a sites usability, but not so much that the site is slow and clunky.

25 years ago we were taking about developing libraries and “software re-usability”. Charlie and his team have this to a fine art and that’s what proper software engineering is all about: Starting with the client, listening to them, developing the initial design, implementing the design and system, right through to delivery, and beyond.

Ayrmer Software. Engineers of the 21st century.

Workers of Plymouth – Go Home! (And Telecommute)

October 8th, 2008 6:33 pm Whinges 1 comment

Aargh! This would be filed under rants if I had such a category, however whinges will have to do!

Yesterday afternoon saw me having to drive across Plymouth. A drive of about 3 miles at about 4pm. I had a meeting to attend at 5pm. Plenty of time I thought. How wrong could I be! The traffic was crawling or stationary for most of the journey. Why? I’ve no idea, but it didn’t get any better in all the time I was stuck in traffic. I’d have been better off leaving my car where it was and walking. I eventually got to the meeting at about 5:30. Half an hour late.

Why all the traffic? I’m told “sometimes it’s like that”.

And people put up with it!

If there was ever a time to look into telecommuting/working from home, now must be it. Why wait in traffic when you can have an extra 2-3 hours a day at home! We have the technology – Internet, VPN and VoIP. It’s all possible these days.

So stop whinging about the traffic and the commute, get with the 21st century and lobby your bosses to allow you to work from home. Get them to get a decent Internet connection and VPN server and also get them to get a good VoIP capable PBX. And I know a man who’ll be more than happy to sell you one too.

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