FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What does your company do?

Floatingrock.com specializes in building advanced business information systems through rapid software development, complimented by our advertising, marketing and collateral creation and branding services.

Our objective with every assignment is to deliver a high-end service that improves your bottom line. Our work typically involves 2 streams of activity through 4 major phases.

What kind of software do you build?

We focus exclusively on business information systems.
WE EMPOWER BUSINESS THROUGH INNOVATION.

What do you mean by "business information systems?"

We use the term in a broad sense to distinguish between software system classifications. Our expertise does not cover military systems, industrial automation systems, shrink-wrapped commercial applications, or low-level applications such as device drivers and operating systems.

Our expertise is in 4 basic areas:

1. Performance Measurement. This includes software tools for scorecarding, standards compliance, quality control, assessments, and surveys.
2. Financial Management. This includes tools for accounting, planning, and budgeting.
3. Resource Management. This includes business systems such as inventory control, asset management, human resource management, and scheduling.
4. Relationship Management. This includes tools that facilitate communications, customer/supplier relations, and employee relations.

   We have delivered projects of these types to nearly every major business area/function within an organization, including: Accounting, Engineering, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Information Services, Inventory, Maintenance, Payroll, Production, Purchasing and Leasing, and Quality Control.
   

How do you go about a typical project?

When we "build" a business information system, the work we do usually involves a combination of things:

• First we conduct an assessment to identify the business needs of your organization, and then we provide you with a set of recommendations to address those needs.
• We can then assist with requirements development and planning, in order to ensure that your needs are met the most cost-effective way possible. Planning is one of the most critical components to managing the risk on a software project.
• When it comes to implementing a solution, depending on your needs, we may build something from scratch - or we may take components from other applications we have already built in order to construct a solution - or we may take another vendor's existing product and customize it to suit your specific needs.
• We can then assist with deploying the system in your organization, and integrating it with other systems that you have in use already - maximizing your investment.
• We provide software system maintenance and support plans, and we deliver onsite training as well.

I don't need to outsource my entire software project. Can you provide me with a "contract employee" who has specific technology expertise?

Absolutely. We have preferred hourly rates for clients that need one or more contractors for specific, on-site technical work (normally for an extended period of time).

How big is your company?

Floatingrock.com is one of several closely affiliated companies. Taken together, it now has more than 40 individuals upon whom it can draw for knowledge and expertise (most of whom hold undergraduate or graduate university degrees).

How much experience do you have?

Floatingrock.com has contributed to the success of more than 150 software projects for more than 90 small and large organizations. The company was first established in 1995.

How much do you charge?

All of our services are competitively priced. Recognizing that every customer (and every project) is unique, we offer several pricing options, including time and materials, cost plus, and fixed price. Our hourly rates range from $75 to $175 per hour for consulting services, depending upon the nature of the work., and product prices vary from product to product.
Our clients see our services as an investment.

We always work to ensure that the total cost is outweighed by the benefit. So a better question might be how much can we save you?

I am not sure I know what I need…

That's normal. The first step in every project is to learn your business in order to help you identify and prioritize your business needs. With our experience and our extensive library of software systems, subsystems, and components, we may be able to help solve problems that you didn't even know you had…

We start with your business needs first. Once we understand your needs we identify the technology that best suits you, and try to align that with whatever technology investments you have already made. Other companies focus on a specific technology platform. We focus on the success of your business.

Why I should I hire Floatingrock?

We deliver what we promise. You'll get a reliable solution that solves your business problems.

Do you guys design as well as develop web pages?

Yes we have professional graphic designers in house to handle all graphic design work, everything from web design to print based collateral.

Where are your offices?

We have Canadian locations in Calgary, Kelowna, Prince George, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, Nanaimo. We have US locations in Chicago and Lafayette. (Some of these are affiliate company offices and sales offices)

Our head-office is in Calgary, Alberta.

What are the customer's benefits when they outsource a software project to you?

• Improved access to specialized expertise
• Improved company focus 
• Reduced manpower fluctuations
• Improved staffing flexibility
• Improved re-use of existing investments
• Reduced problems with internal projects
• Reduced feature creep
• Shared project risk
• Reduced implementation schedule
• Reduced and better-controlled costs

What differentiates you from other software companies?
Competitive advantages over small firms:

1. Size and stability - no single point of failure
2. High-calibre people - focus on recruiting the top 5%
3. Standardization - pursuing SW-CMM Level 2

Competitive advantages over very large firms:

1. Personal touch
2. Agility
3. Flexibility for change

Market Differentiation

• Floatingrock.com differentiates itself by emphasizing its commitment to...
• Improve the customer's bottom line
• Focus on its core competency
• Attract and retain the best professionals in the industry
• Dedicate itself to the continuous improvement process

  It is worth noting that very few IT groups (whether in-house departments or external vendors) are able to quantify the business benefit of the products and services they deliver. Fewer still are able to demonstrate how their products and services fit within an organization's overall core competency and align with its business strategy. The IT sector struggles with cost and schedule over-runs on project implementations, and software development efforts often proceed without adequate management controls or engineering discipline. The dot-com crash and Y2K are frequently cited as examples of the degree to which IT has lost accountability for business decisions. According to a recent study, customer satisfaction in the industry averages only 47%. FLOATINGROCK measures its customer satisfaction regularly, and boasts a 94% customer satisfaction rating.

What is your target market?

Floatingrock's target market is best described as customers that have either (or both) of the following major characteristics:

1. Medium and large-sized organizations that outsource some (or all) of their software project needs.
2. High-technology, product-oriented companies that specialize in software product marketing, sales, and support.
3. Small to large organizations that are looking to streamline internal business processes by utilizing the Internet.

   The primary benefits that Floatingrock offers to customers in the first category are:

• Improved company focus
• Improved access to specialized expertise
• Reduced manpower fluctuations
• Improved re-use of existing investments
• Reduced problems with internal projects
• Reduced feature creep

  The primary benefits that Floatingrock offers to customers in the first category are:

• Reduced and better-controlled costs
• Reduced implementation schedule
• Improved staffing flexibility
• Shared project risk

  Floatingrock's primary geographical market is Western Canada, with a customer base that is heavily weighted toward forestry, oil and gas, and healthcare.
  
  Floatingrock's services are not industry-specific, and there is a strong potential for expansion into other sectors.

What kind of systems integration experience do you have?

We have experience automating data conversion processes, migrating applications between platforms, and building bridges between production databases to integrate disparate systems.

Our experience covers small-scale, file-based data platforms (delimited text, XML, Access, dBase, FoxPro, Approach, 1-2-3, Excel, etc.), as well as large-scale, server-based database platforms - including relational database management systems (Oracle, SQL Server) and non-relational legacy systems.

What about best practices?

Floatingrock alone has contributed to the success of more than 150 software projects, with development work spanning traditional client/server systems, Internet and intranet applications, and handheld data collection solutions. We employ a number of management best practices in our software development work.

1. Miniature Milestones

Reaching miniature milestones creates a sense of accomplishment and it allows rapid development to succeed. This Floatingrock best practice reduces scheduling risks and ensures the ability to provide daily status reports. Establishing confidence through this best practice gives increased visibility and unparalleled project control to our clients.

2. Measurement
Our experience has shown that measurement is an effective risk-reduction practice. We don't just collect data - we select our measures carefully and analyze them so that we can provide meaningful feedback to our customers. Our performance measurement activities are carried through every project with a high degree of detail. We understand how to help organizations identify and track "success metrics" that help them to improve.

3. Theory-W Management
This is a project management framework for reconciling competing interests. Theory-W allows all stakeholders to monitor the project according to their own "win" conditions. Floatingrock begins by setting up win preconditions and works to match those conditions for all parties. Theory-W allows clients to increase their involvement in a software project, reducing both cost and schedule risks.

4. Risk Management
Cost and schedule overruns plague organizations without a detailed, multi-level approach to risk management. The first step in managing risk is to identify the factors that pose a risk to the schedule. Feature creep, inadequate design, overly optimistic schedules, research-oriented development, and weak personnel - all are classic mistakes that can be assessed and resolved. At Floatingrock, we practice systematic risk management. Small-scale post-mortems after each milestone enable us to complete projects on time and on budget.
We also employ a number of software development best practices.

5. Evolutionary Delivery
Evolutionary delivery is a software project lifecycle that seeks to balance project control and requirements flexibility. The objective with this approach is to deliver selected portions of a system earlier than would be possible otherwise - improving the ability to change product direction mid-course (in response to end-user requests) without introducing rework or cost/schedule overruns. When this best practice is applied thoughtfully, it can lead to improved quality, reduced code size, and a more even distribution of resources.

6. Designing for Change
Floatingrock's approach to software implementation encompasses several change-oriented design practices. In order to prevent the ripple effect from changes made to an application, early in the project we work hard to identify likely changes, develop a change plan, and "hide" design decisions through proper use of object-oriented programming techniques. This is one of the most difficult software development best practices to implement successfully, but when it is implemented well, it lays the groundwork for long-lived applications with enough flexibility to minimize the cost and schedule impact of late-breaking change requests.

7. Reuse
Reuse is a long-term strategy for building a library of frequently used components, allowing new applications to be assembled quickly from existing components. When supported with a long-term management commitment, reuse can produce greater schedule and effort savings than any other rapid development practice. We have committed ourselves to a reuse strategy from our inception. Not only do we help our customers to implement reuse strategies, but also we bring an extensive library of components to every project we do. The subject of software reuse is one of our top three research areas.

8. Tools Group
This practice sets up a group that is responsible for gathering intelligence about, evaluating, coordinating the use of, and disseminating new tools within an organization. A tools group decreases software project risk and helps ensure long-term success by reducing trial and error development work, and minimizing the number of developers that will be handicapped by the use of inadequate software tools.

Do you use a formal software engineering methodology?

We have specific knowledge and experience with leading methodologies (such as the Rational Unified Process, CxOne, Extreme Programming, Unified Modeling Language, etc.) and our staff has practical experience with formal university-directed R&D projects that focus on software engineering methodology.

The methodology adopted by our team has been tailored from the world's foremost methodologies (such as RUP, CxOne, and XP), and incorporates elements from leading business management processes (such as linear benchmarking, performance management, and continuous improvement).

Methodology is embedded in the mindset at Floatingrock. More than 80 percent of its software developers hold a minimum of a university undergraduate degree in computer science, complemented with several years' real-world experience. The remaining 15 percent hold a minimum of a two-year diploma from an accredited college or technical institute (e.g. BCIT), also with several years of applied experience.

What is the collective educational background of Floatingrock's personnel?

• University Training (partial list only)
  Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Chemistry, others
  Bachelor of Arts, Applied Sciences, Political Science, others
  Bachelor of Education
  Master of Business Administration
  Master of Arts, English, Psychology
  Bachelor of Commerce, Marketing, Accounting
  
  
• College and Technical Training (partial list only)
  Computer Information Services
  Multimedia Software Development
  
  
• Relevant Professional Training and Certification (partial list only)
  "First Things First" Certification (Covey)
  BC Teaching Certification
  Conflict Resolution
  Interpersonal Skills, Leadership Skills, Administrative Skills
  Management Auditing Certification
  Management Skills for Supervisors Certification
  Managing Multiple Projects, Objectives, and Deadlines
  Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Certification
  Oracle Database Administrator
  PDP Certification
  Performance Management
  Situational Leadership Certification
  Software Project Estimation
  Supporting, Troubleshooting, and Optimizing Windows NT Certification
  Training for Trainers Certification
  
  
• Certifications currently in progress include:
  Java Developer
  Master of Software Engineering (M.Sc.)
  Microsoft Solution Developer
  Oracle Developer
  Professional Software Engineer (P.Eng.)
  Project Management Certification (Project Management Institute)

Do you apply object-oriented design and programming principles?

We have extensive knowledge and experience applying object-oriented principles in the development of business applications designed on relational database management systems. Data modeling is a standard practice on every software project we undertake.

Our experience with object-oriented design and programming practices dates back to the early 1990s, when object-oriented concepts first entered the mainstream. We have more than 60 years of combined experience with relational database platforms - primarily Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Access.

Platforms with which we are familiar also include Borland dBase, Microsoft FoxPro, Lotus Approach, Pervasive bTrieve, MySQL, and PostGres.

One of the risks in outsourcing a software project is the lack of knowledge transfer back to my own people. How do you address that risk?

Our clients can attest to our highly developed training skills. Floatingrock, through an affiliate developer is the only software company to be contracted by the University of Northern British Columbia to instruct computer science courses (lectures, tutorials, and labs). Our staff has also conducted professional development workshops for faculty at the College of New Caledonia. Most of our developers have worked as teaching assistants and/or research assistants throughout their own undergraduate education. Our marketing and education director has 14 years of experience as a college-level instructor as well as experience as a trainer of instructors. He co-founded the Writing and New Media technology programme at the College of New Caledonia, and he was acknowledged Mentor of the Year in the 2002 Prince George Business Technology Awards. In short, we possess significant skills as technology trainers, curriculum developers, and project managers.

We also have the capability to deliver extensive, large-scale, end-user training programs. Our team trained more than one hundred non-technical employees to use a sophisticated new maintenance control system in Canfor's Northwood Pulp mill. The system was an enterprise application designed by another software vendor - our staff learned the system and then delivered the training program through interactive classroom sessions.

Our education and training skills have been incorporated into our regular software development tasks. Clean and consistent user interface design has shortened (and sometimes eliminated) end-user training on our software products. For example, we provided the City of Prince George with a handheld solution for administrating parking tickets. It required minimal training because our design adhered to the usability standards defined by Palm, Inc. As another example, our clients within Canfor's engineering department use our Bluebird system for project tracking and action planning - their training time was non-existent because they were fully engaged in the development process. Our development group understands that knowledge transfer is a function of teamwork and involvement.

We have experience working with in-house IT staff (both support and development) in large, distributed corporate environments (e.g. Canfor, Weldwood, City of Prince George) to ensure software project success.

At Floatingrock, our development process is involving and transparent. We share our information and our knowledge, and we strive to maximize our customers' productivity.

What client/server tools and technologies are you familiar with?

We have extensive practical and theoretical experience with all of Microsoft's development tools, office productivity tools, and database platforms. Our experience with SQL Server extends from version 6.5 to the latest version (SQL Server 2000), with more than ten years combined experience, and professional certification. Our experience with Microsoft Access extends from version 2.0 to the latest version (Access XP), with more than twenty years combined experience, and professional certification pending. We have developed more than a hundred software systems that leverage Access, including Internet/intranet applications, handheld applications, standalone applications, and client/server applications - integrating with a wide range of external systems and platforms. Our experience with Microsoft Visual Basic extends from version 1.0 to the latest version (VB.NET 7.0), with more than twenty years combined experience, and professional certification pending.

We have more than 40 years combined experience with application development and administration on Oracle database platforms (with systems written in Power Builder, Visual Basic, Oracle Forms, PL/SQL, ASP, Java, and many others).

What languages and/or database platforms do you develop with?

Floatingrock is a platform-independent company. Therefore we maintain a healthy cross-section of expertise in all of the leading tools and technologies. We have web development experts that specialize in Microsoft's latest .NET technology (including Visual Studio, C#, and VB.NET) as well as Java and XML programming.

Our technology experience profile is as follows:

• Windows
  .NET, Win32, COM, and ActiveX desktop applications
  .NET distributed applications
  .NET, ASP web development

• Unix
  J2SE desktop applications
  J2EE distributed applications
  Apache web development
  
  
• Visual Basic
  Distributed Windows applications
  Client/server applications using COM/DCOM
  Database applications using ADO, SQL, Oracle, and Acces
  
  
• C# .NET web development
  
  
• C / C++ Windows applications using Win32 and COM
  
  
• Java
  JSP/Servlets web applications
  JDBC database frameworks with MySQL, PostgreSQL
  J2SE desktop applications using JFC/Swing
  
  
• HTML and XML
  DHTML for Internet Explorer and Netscape
  XML / XSL applications
  Other Platforms / Languages
  Oracle, Delphi, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, FORTRAN, and others

Brief overview of Serenity

1. Serenity is an application whose primary function is to the reduce the time and expense to develop web-based applications that are customized (or at least customizable) to the unique needs of your business. 2. Out of the box, the application includes a database for web site content management, and built-in features to handle role-based security.

Database-driving your Internet site or corporate intranet site is one of the things that Serenity is very commonly used for. We have a number of pre-built application subsystems - modules that have been added to the Serenity framework at the request of one (or more) of our customers.

3. Obviously you can build your own custom modules. We find that most of our customers are more interested in having our development group customize and extend the product to meet their specific requirements - leveraging the fact that this is our core competency (and it is almost always faster and least expensive).

4. However, we do have clients that have developed a business case for doing their own customizations and enhancements, and the toolset certainly provides that option to you.
Serenity gives you better access and more control over your content, data and information. It also allows us, as developers, to build and customize a web-based application more quickly and less expensively than it would otherwise take.

Our focus on customer satisfaction, clean design, and creativity is how we do business each and every day. Our staff is our strength, and we couldn’t be more proud of their dedication and desire. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding our products, services, or general site layout, please drop us a line from our contact section.

We are proud members of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce and Calgary Chamber of Commerce.