Business

MIT's Lincoln Labs is one of the largest federally funded research laboratories in the country. They have a staff of highly educated and disciplined researchers that analysis various concepts. If the concepts are proven then they will build a "one of a kind prototype".

Business Challenge

Jim Daly, Software Consultant, focuses on radar surveillance technology primarily for the Department of Defense (DOD). If the DOD agrees with what Lincoln Labs has proposed, the technology is taken to a commercial vendor for the next step in the product development which should ultimately lead to final commercial production.

Prior to the start of a recent project, Daly's supervisor asked him to research the various configuration management tools that were available and to make a commendation regarding which one they should purchase. His group would be using the product initially for issue management and C++ development. After spending 3 months contacting and reviewing the various solutions that were available in the marketplace, he selected the Razor configuration management product from Tower Concepts.

Tower Concepts Solutions

Daly considers the key selling benefits of Razor to be ease-of-use and almost no learning curve. He didn't need to send people for extensive training which could range from 3 days to a week to become "managers" of the CM product as most of the other CM products required. He also felt that the other vendors "forced you to live in their world and by their concepts" not taking into consideration what already existed in your work environment.

When people ask Daly why he selected Razor he uses the "thud" factor. The other CM products require that several thick manuals be reviewed before even using the product plus attending a several day training course. Tower Concepts' manual is only 50 -100 pages. This alone communicated to him that Razor was an easier product to use and learn. Tower Concepts' approach to CM was more natural and provided a solution that enhanced and provided more immediate efficiency for ones work flow.

Daly believes that Tower Concepts doesn't try to convince the user that what they have been doing is all wrong and that they need to learn a completely different approach or concept on how to get their job done. Daly was able to set up Razor and provide only a 5-10 minute tutorial for the other software developers using the product. They've been using the product enthusiastically ever since. He's the only one that has even read the manual.

The Razor product does what it's suppose to do easily and provides several features that the developers really love to use. One in particular is the ability to review a list of files that they have signed in and with a double click on the mouse button you can browser or view one of the file without having to put it in memory or assign it some disk space. Click to take a peek then click again and it's gone. This is an excellent feature to use with C++ development since you are swapping numerous files constantly. Tower Concepts has provided excellent support.

Daly feels that they really listen to the comments of the customer and will utilize them in a future version of the product.

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