My first job in A/E was in 1983 as an Architectural Administrator, when DOS was the operating platform, and accrual accounting on green general ledger was the rage. One of my earliest projects when Windows 1.0 launched was to simulate the AIA Contract in WinWord, to speed up the process for the principles. Actually that was a fail since kernaling and exact placement were not controllable. What an irritation to my inner geekness! Yet, the 1980's were an exciting time in software development for the end user and it was my job to search out the best tools to deploy for efficiency. Eventually I discovered CFMS by Harper & Shuman, an elegant DOS financial management system. From there I went on to test, play and deploy several financial management products specific to the A/E arena at other designs firms I worked with across the Nation and into Hawai'i.
In 1996 I was assigned to bring out of dormancy an under-utilized system. That was Sema4. I was so impressed with the functionality of the product because it was customizable. I was a systems analyst before gravitating to the A/E field, so I went to work for the company, first supporting the Sema4 product, and then moving on to consult for both Deltek Sema4 and Deltek Vision. Since 2008, I have added InFocus by Clearview and PraestoAE by Base Builders LLC to our product list. I’ve moved clients from legacy systems like Advantage and Sema4 into InFocus and Deltek Vision while continuing legacy support for Sema4.
One of my specialties is implementation strategy, developing training sessions specifically for project managers. My focus has been in the accounting, billing and resource planning modules of InFocus and Deltek Vision including PraestoAE, a dedicated project management product.
