Washingtonian magazine’s annual “Great Places to Work” issue hit newsstands today, and we got an honorable mention. I haven’t seen the article yet, but as soon as I do I’ll post a copy here. For now, check out the press release for all the details.
Fresh on the heels of our CMS 1.4 product release announcement, we have just put up a new automated product tour showing off the application. Pay special attention to the reporting section – it’s all brand new.
Spider is proud to offer our new updated CMS 1.4 complete with a brand new user guide. We have compiled all of the necessary information along with many screen shots to simplify the learning process as well as provide a good reference for any questions you may have. You can always find the latest versions of our documentation here.
Found this wandering around the web and it is a very entertaining explanation of what Web 2.0 is all about. We are very quickly moving towards the future where the internet is more and more interactive. We are no longer just passive observers of the information, but are now active participants modifying, using, and accessing the data real time. Spider Strategies has been on the forefront of Web 2.0 technologies because we realized at the very beginning, that Web 2.0 was the future for both the internet and web applications.
Our customers don’t want to just look at their data, they want to use it. They want to be able to modify, manipulate, and manage their data. The process for doing so shouldn’t be an entirely new process to learn and manage. Working with the data should be as seamless as any other administrative task. That is what CMS is all about. Designed to work just like any other web page, it requires no special training, and users can quickly find, edit, and share data as quickly as doing a Google search.
Recently I learned that our development manager is having all of our developers read Repeat After Me: I Am Not In The Software Business. I hadn’t read that blog post so I went to it and read it.
Some days the sun shines even when it is raining. Reading that post made this such a day. When we started Spider Strategies, the four of us spent a long time writing our Mission and Vision. In particular, it was very important that we make ourselves different in one particular way:
“Our key distinguisher is, and will always be, our customers.
In today’s world of corporate performance management software, we see the customer left out of this equation all too often. The common formula seems to be simply codifying industry theory and delivering that template via outdated technology.”
Over the past four years, we haven’t changed either our Mission or our Vision. Nor, over the past four years, have we made it a particular point to stress them with our employees. Yet, today, I find that our development manager is passing on the spirit of our Mission and Vision through things like Repeat After Me: I Am Not In The Software Business.
When we say that “Our key distinguisher is, and will always be, our customers.”, we are saying to our employees exactly what Christopher Hawkins says to the software developer community:
“You are not an artiste.
You are not even in the software business.
You are in the problem-solving business.
More to the point, you are in the business-problem-solving business.
The technology problems you solve should always be in the context of solving a business problem.
If the solution to a particular business problem offers less benefit than the effort required to solve it, you should be working to solve a different problem.”
It may be a cloudy, dreary April day in Minnesota today, but for me the sun is shining.