At Powder River Technologies, Inc., we feel that there are four key factors to making any project a success: hard work, skilled and knowledgeable people, a disciplined approach, and spending time up front with your customer to get an accurate picture of what their needs are. There is no substitute for hard work. If you don't work hard, your competition will. There is also no substitute for skilled and knowledgeable people. With skilled and knowledgeable people, you can solve problems that you will encounter more quickly, and many times with more imagination. When you work to solve a problem, you don't want to solve just the issue today, you want the solution to be able to grow as your business grows. There is no substitute for experience when you look for that kind of solution.

Spending time up front with your customer is important. Alot of work has been done to improve software development and IT projects, with a focus on consistently delivering the project. However, most projects fail at the beginning, often due to a lack of understanding of the problem that the project is trying to solve. One of the most difficult parts of any project is identifying the problem to solve and then setting the stage for creating a workable solution. This is where experience comes in. We have the business experience to understand your project needs and the technical experience to create the solution.

Our Approach.    This is the typical approach that we take when developing a product or solution.

• Start by getting a clear set of requirements from the client by someone who knows both software and business.
• Create a clear statement of work which lists what will be delivered. A clear statement of work (SOW) helps stop scope creep and arguments over what is to be delivered, keeping costs and delivery dates in check.
• Develop the requested solution, applying the same quality measures that we use to audit other systems.
• Deliver the tested solution, and where appropriate, bring online and test until online problems are resolved.
• Deliver project documentation.
• Provide training and support where applicable.

Our development and business philosophy.    Our development and business philosophy is that you should spend your money on getting the solution that you need, and not on expensive licenses. Where possible, we recommend using proven Open Source products, such as the world's most widely used and reliable webserver, Apache. The cost savings can be significant, especially on smaller projects or projects where funding is tight. Despite marketing claims otherwise, many large scale Enterprise solutions have been developed using Open Source software, and often have a better support and operations track record than commercially provided software.

Regardless of your choice of software components, our goal is to deliver a solid, working and reliable system at the completion of the project. If this sounds like the approach that you would like to take on your next project, call Powder River Technologies, Inc. to talk about getting started.