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www.saturnsys.com
Saturn Systems
Keith Erickson
October 25, 2012
Presentation Goals
• Company Background
• Business Operations
• Software & Systems Engineering
• Project & Customer Summary
• Future Growth Plans
www.saturnsys.com
Location
www.saturnsys.com
314 W. Superior St.
Duluth, MN
Business Motivation
• Risks – Owners & families make personal sacrifices
– Typically work long hours
– Difficult to escape work pressures
• Rewards – Responsible for own destiny
– Can set own goals & objectives
– Customer appreciation validates hard work
www.saturnsys.com
Saturn Systems History
• Founded in 1990 in Duluth, Minnesota
• Origins in Device Control and Integration, Detailed Engineering
• Since 2000, Focus Changed to Enterprise Application Development
• 25% Growth Annually Since 2006
• Recognized in the Inc. 5000 for 2011, 2012
www.saturnsys.com
Rural Outsourcing
• U.S. alternative to off-shoring
• Saturn Systems Model
– Central U.S. Location
– Physical Office Space
– High Skill Niche (degreed engineers)
– Minnesota/Duluth
• Attractive, High Standard of Living
• Well Educated State
www.saturnsys.com
Competencies/Skills
• Design/Engineering Focus
• Microsoft Certified Partner
• Experts at Working Over Distance
• Technology Expertise – Microsoft – C#, C++, ASP.NET, SQL Server, SSRS,
SSIS
– Java Technologies
– Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP)
www.saturnsys.com
Staff Profile • Management Team
– MSEE, ECE, CS, Math, Accounting degrees
• Duluth Technical Staff – CS, ECE, related 4 year degrees – Project Managers, Technical Leads, Senior Software Engineers,
Software Engineers, Programmers, QA Testers
• Telecommuters – Saturn employees, working from their homes in outstate areas
• Grand Rapids office – Establishing remote office in Grand Rapids, MN (2013)
• Contractors – Business Analysts, Engineers and Programmers
www.saturnsys.com
Duluth View
www.saturnsys.com
Business Activities
• Operations & Scheduling
• Marketing & Business Development
• Recruiting
• Financial (taxes, accounting, forecasting)
www.saturnsys.com
Technical Activities
• Writing Proposals and Estimates • Writing Functional Specifications • System Architecture & Design • Software Development
– Device control & protocols, web applications, desktop applications, database design and programming
• Unit (developmental) testing • System-wide (beta) testing • Deployment and integration • Ongoing support and maintenance
www.saturnsys.com
Current Technologies
• Microsoft .NET Framework (C#, VB)
• ASP.Net web applications
• Windows™ desktop applications
• WinCE embedded platforms
• Java, C++
• SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL databases
• We also tackle legacy systems as needed
www.saturnsys.com
Process & Communications
• Project Portal for internal and customer communications (Basecamp) – Internal Project Checklist
– Issue Tracking
– Milestones
– Published documents
• Time Entry system for internal operations and customer invoices (BillQuick)
www.saturnsys.com
Revenue Generation
• Project based contracts – Time & Materials (hourly against budget limit)
• Off-site staff augmentation (hourly) • On-site consulting (hourly) • Timekeeping procedures
– We record all worked time in 15 minute increments, charge time to customer or Saturn administrative categories.
– We invoice customer for all ‘billable’ time, including activity comments.
www.saturnsys.com
Business Costs
• Personnel – Direct Labor (billable staff) – Management and administrative – Non-billable (i.e. “bench”) time
• Sales & Marketing – Billboards – Public radio advertising – Google Adwords
• Recruiting – CareerBuilder, newspapers, recruiters.
www.saturnsys.com
Software Engineering Approach
• Define project scope & requirements.
• Document system design, interfaces, test strategy.
• Development and unit testing.
• Beta deliverables and client testing.
• System QA testing and integration.
• Training & ongoing support.
www.saturnsys.com
Development Process
• Agile/Waterfall/Mixed – Adapted to Customer Needs & Preferences
• Staff Augmentation or Full Project Team – Architecture & Design
– Coding
– Quality Assurance
– Deployment
– Support
www.saturnsys.com
Development Process
• Lead Engineer Centric Approach
• Cloud Based Project Portal
• Consistent Project Process
www.saturnsys.com
Quality Assurance
• Developer Independent Testing
– Black/White Box Functional Testing
• Documentation
– Formal Test Plans
– Test Case Creation Tools
– Formal Test Results
www.saturnsys.com
Current Project Types
• Web applications
• Device integration and control
• Telemedicine
• Staff augmentation
www.saturnsys.com
Case Study
• Web Application
– AMSOIL INC., Superior WI
– Online Store and user account maintenance
– Dealer Zone – Customized portal for over 80,000 dealers
– MyGarage™ - personal vehicle tracking
– Project management, support since 2005
www.saturnsys.com
Case Studies
• Device Integration & Control
– Wireless network of air brake sensors
– Firmware
• ARM Cortex processor
• Gainspan wireless interface
– Windows user interface
• C#.Net UI
– UDP device communication
www.saturnsys.com
Case Studies
• Telemedicine
– Beacon Federal grant
– Video conferencing
• Patient camera
• Device cameras
• Blue tooth stethoscope
– Virtual appointment
– Remote provider (doctor)
www.saturnsys.com
Case Studies
• Staff Augmentation
– Call Center web application
– .NET/Java Technologies
– Two internal teams of 3 developers each
– Daily video scrum meetings with customer teams
– VPN communication
www.saturnsys.com
Future Goals & Opportunities
• Rural IT Outsourcing – Saturn is one of a handful of nationally recognized
firms in this industry. – Our model since 1990, it only gained the moniker in
2005.
• Twin Cities, other large metro areas – Marketing to these areas through public radio,
billboards, Internet search optimization techniques.
• Local customers – A fairly limited potential market
• Planning for strong growth over the next 3 years
www.saturnsys.com
Questions?
www.saturnsys.com
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