The new Octane logo I love. It looks powerful and hot. The rocket ship in the logo along with the flames trailing off the “O” make it look futuristic. And of all people my mother actually came up with the idea! I then created a favicon, that small little icon that goes in the web browser address line using a great online program called flavicon, www.flavicon.com. Enjoy!
My alma mater the University of Illinois, has finally to their credit, made a listing of myself and my company in their January/February 2008 Illinois Alumni magazine. Page 38, come check it out!
Octane our web based engineering data management product started years ago. I was working as an engineer for a large international company. We processed ECN’s (engineering change notices) like allot of companies, on paper.
Of course this was slow, inefficient and always caused for shouting matches or he said she said episodes. So to help reduce the confusion and increase productivity I was tasked with finding a software package to do this. I searched and searched but could not find anything. Sure there were some large ERP/MRP software vendors, but we were not in a position to replace our whole business system.
So, I took it upon myself to create something. I was not a programmer. I have a degree in Aerospace and Aeronautical engineering from the University of Illinois Campaign-Urbana. But I charged right ahead.
I created something very nice quickly using Access. It was crude, but had all that we wanted. Secure log in, electronic approvals and e-mail notifications. It worked great. The whole organization loved it and we began using it right away.
It did prove to be invaluable. As one episode arose where manufacturing and engineering had a dispute about what was to be changed and when it was approved. I simply searched the database, displayed the recorded approvals from manufacturing with the clear instructions. Problem solved with no further dispute.
Then I left to work in Germany. Before I left, my manager who was impressed with my creation suggested I sell the software. It was at this point, knowing nothing existed that I decided to start Enginuity Development and begin developing ECN software. I hired a programmed and we developed and released “EDM” a windows based version of my database.
Over the years, that evolved and we released Octane. Octane was a huge step forward, providing a web based solution and new features. Today Octane is in my opinion the best and most useful ECN software available.
Coming in December (cross your fingers) will be version 2.0. This release will continue to improve the ECN process and also include new project and meeting minutes modules.
That is the story of how Octane came to be and as for what is next? Well we have a lot of tricks up or sleeve still!