The Female Athlete sold sporting goods and apparel via internet, phone, fax, and mail, supported by catalogs, email blasts, and outbound calling.

Continuation of business absolutely depended on knowing exactly where every order came from. That data was on the web back end, the ERP database, the phone system, the Amazon API, even the scanning system.

I built a "Catalog Performance" web dashboard to pull it all together and support ongoing marketing. A far cry from 3 people reentering data into Excel spreadsheets.

I implemented the world's largest mits BI system in 2 months: 21 million master, order, and ERP records updated hourly or daily, all SOX compliant. Reports were both bottom-up and top-down.

The hardest part was cleaning up existing data, which tooks tons of code and exposed hundreds of legacy bugs (funny what you learn from data).

What made such a grunty project so cool? The customers. No more Jira tickets. Just use MITS!

160 users building all their own reports from millions of my records. I love Business Intelligence!

B/E Aerospace, was 3 companies who planned inventory by either min/max, safety stock, or MRP, but their software only did min/max. They struggled finding a "best of breed" replacement.

I built a custom Inventory Planning system that satisfied the exact needs for all 3. It harvested and processed ERP data and presented it in a webpage. With help from all 3 teams, I finished in 6 months.

IT leaders never envisioned doing this, but when you can build software, almost anything is possible. 12 years later, the users love it so much, you'd have to "pry it from our cold dead hands".

Marklift made custom lifts, no two of which were the same. They had thousands of options and millions of possibilities. Unfortunately, their ERP system didn't handle that very well.

They had trouble keeping track of orders. Worse, it took all day to ship each one. One day, a frustrated shipping clerk cried, "Why can't they make software for the way we do business?"

So I did. They taught me what they did and I wrote Model Configurator and One-Step Shipping systems. I love when customers complain. Those can be the best opportunities to build something special.

Robey-Barber processed insurance claims without any IT. Their software was horribly slow but the vendor couldn't fix it so they engaged me. Right away I saw that the database was badly undersized.

The DBMS used a hashing algorithm to "spread" the data but hadn't been upsized in so long that 99% was in overflow. I wrote a program that computed proper sizes and rebuilt everything over a weekend.

On Monday users noticed a 95% reduction in batch and on-line response times, as I expected. They were so happy, they made me "Employee of the Month" even though I was a contractor. Woo hoo!

SGI doubled its size with one acquisition which came with an ERP system, but only for 8 months. I was engaged to find and deploy a new system.

SGI was a job shop with a complex bill of materials, a tough combo. I built a team, did a search, and selected the best option. We test drove it, liked it, and added our additional requirements.

Then the fun began. I mapped and loaded the data and wrote more software, staying current on releases. It all worked great so we cutover 2 months early. I still wonder why so many others take so much longer to accomplish so much less.

Paper-Pak's auditors insisted on new software to fix problems, which I knew were really caused by poor practice. The CFO eventually agreed with me.

So we focused on the business, not the software. I wrote a Project Plan to achieve Class A ERP in 90 days by fixing broken processes and writing more software. Our team changed how we did business.

We hit our targets and turned a 15% loss into a 15% profit, hitting every promise and delaying a million dollar software purchase indefinitely. Still my favorite project ever, the perfect storm of opportunity and management willing to seize it.

SAE made connectors in 3 factories that were losing money by inefficiency. I was engaged to build tools to address and resolve this.

Engineers built standards, workers tracked their work, I wrote software, and supervisors identified the cause of "lost hours" in their morning standup. The surprising results identified our biggest problems and solutions in decreasing importance.

In 3 months, we flipped annual output by $3.5 million, not bad for spending a little money for a lot of help. A classic example of software "printing money".

Witco manufactured chemicals with an ERP system that didn't handle Purchasing well enough. They wanted their own system to save money up front. I was engaged to find and implement it

Corporate made large chemical and container purchases while Divisions bought many small MRO items. Each thought the system should be for them.

I got all of them in one room to fight it out. We were more concerned about planning than process. We found enough common ground to pick and implement the best system for us. It's amazing what we can do when we come together!

As Russellstoll's IT Director, I inherited shared use of another division's ERP system. I tried to get them to address our needs, but it was no use. We were paying 3 times too much for wrong software.

I attacked the problem to find our own system. Technology had advanced so much that 2 systems would actually cost less than one.

Leadership finally understood as I dragged them into a new world. We implemented another ERP, reducing IT cost by 60% and generating $100 million the first 2 years. The tech part was easy. The people part was hard, a lesson I would never forget.

Boeing IT wanted to cut offshore because of poor quality. Why? They were capable and hard working, so what was wrong? Maybe it wasn't them but us.

I got a team of 12. Nothing went offshore without Tech Specs detailing exactly what to do. Programs, database, test plans, etc. Others said, "You might as well write it yourself." I peer reviewed all of it and rejected anything that wasn't perfect.

Their work improved immediately. "Tech Specs + Offshore = Software while I Slept." My peers were right. I could have done the work but what would have been learned and who would have learned it?

Matrix Group had one warehouse serving 9 different ecommerce systems. Inventory was combined but they couldn't take advantage of economies of scale because of printing. They had to mount custom forms to pick one company at a time and had been going nuts trying to resolve this.

Software provided a simple elegant solution. I wrote 2 programs to generate HP escape sequences directly to a single laser jet printer with blank paper. One for bar codes and another for logo bitmaps.

I modified the barcode program to do the same with SVG right here on the other side of this story.