|
History with the
company (AVeL-Tech, and now Ortivus):
I started in 1992 as the first
employee of AVeL-TECH [in addition to the founder, Michel Jarry and his
partner]. The AVeL-TECH
adventure - as I call it - was a school of life for me. Literally, I grew up
personally at the same time as the company did. I built a lot of self
confidence while being placed again and again in front of new challenges and
a lot of pressure; something inevitable in a starting company. Being part of
something that successfully grew as it did is something that I’m really
proud of. We were a company of only three when I joined, and now we are
about 40 [in the Montreal office].
With Ortivus, the
challenge remains and is even bigger since we have the opportunity of
building the best product of the market. Personally, I feel it is a great
responsibility because we are have the right people at the right time to
accomplish it. The development team is very strong and the company is
providing us the best environment possible: hardware, training, development
tools, etc. Of course, schedules are always tight...this will never change.
Current position:
I’m currently the Software Development Manager for the next CAD product,
both AVeL-CAD and Sweet-CAD. The new product will be fully
developed in .NET with the latest technology in order to provide a product
with improved UI (user interface), functionality and architecture.
Customization of the product will be facilitated also. Once ready, I’m sure
it will create a great hype in the market. We are really combining
everything we know with our experience in the Public Safety market. It is
really exciting!
Most memorable event since you’ve
been with the company:
I have so many good memories in
13 years.
I remembered our first live AVL
demonstrations in which we received applause as everyone watched an icon
move on the map live (real time) - it was like being part of a James
Bond movie. We had to be careful in scheduling the time of the
demonstration, as the GPS satellites
were not even fully deployed, and some time periods contained no coverage at
all.
I traveled a lot, gaining
extraordinary experiences. I had the chance to visit so many nice places:
Chicago, San Francisco,
Las Vegas (and the Grand Canyon),
Trinidad and Tobago, Malaysia, Singapore and more.
Most enjoyable part of your job:
We adopted a new development process based on RUP (Rational Unified Process)
and seeing the benefits in this product we are currently building is
probably the most enjoyable part of my job right now. It is an iterative
process where the stakeholders are involved to make sure that we are
building the right product. Also, QA (quality assurance) is completed on
every build, so we are producing better products with fewer bugs.
Other Relevant of
Interesting Information:
Public Safety is a great domain to work within - the sense of working for a
safer and healthier world is really gratifying. |
