Announcements

Pathfinder Development Helps Deliver PlantCollections.org

(Chicago, IL) Pathfinder, a leading software development and user experience design firm, announces the successful development and launch of PlantCollections.org.  PlantCollections provides a wealth of data and information about plant collections across the globe and was developed for the Chicago Botanic Garden, in conjunction with 29 partners.

"PlantCollections.org is the first internet application designed to serve the information needs of scientists, students and gardeners alike using spreadsheets, maps and images" said Boyce Tankersley, director of living plant documentation at the Chicago Botanic Garden and project director.

PlantCollections will notably improve the process of collecting plants and address conservation issues; it will also contribute to education and enable research into complex biological relationships in the environment.   At present, data has been contributed by 16 national and 4 international institutions.

For more information contact Eleanor Taylor at 312-372-1058, email etaylor@pathf.com, or visit www.pathf.com.

Children's Memorial Hospital 12th Annual Car Raffle

Drawing: July 25, 2008

Chicago

The 12th Annual Car Raffle to benefit Children's Memorial Hospital is underway! This exciting event provides ticket holders with the opportunity to win one of seven luxury cars or $40,000 in cash. This year's raffle will conclude with the seven winning tickets being drawn on Friday, July 25, 2008 at the UBS Tower, 1 North Wacker Drive, Main Lobby. 

For the past 11 years, the car raffle has supported programs, departments and patient families at Children’s Memorial, including the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and neuroblastoma research. The 2007 Car Raffle successfully raised $420,000 for the kids at Children's Memorial.

This year, 7,000 tickets will be sold at $100 each. With seven grand prizes being given away, that gives you terrific odds of walking home with a prize! Get your tickets today and give yourself a chance to win while helping the children served by Children's Memorial.

Learn More! Order your tickets online today!

Capital Data Announces... Tim Terry, Chief Technology Officer

Capital Data, Inc. is proud to announce the hiring of Tim Terry in the newly created position of Chief Technology Officer. In this management role, Tim is responsible for all of Capital Data's professional services. The addition of Tim to the Capital Data Team represents its ongoing commitment to thought leadership by providing exemplary data centric solutions. Tim is an award-winning technology and business visionary with over 16 years of executive and hands-on experience in the design, implementation, management and automation of IT solutions across all business verticals. He brings the proven ability to leverage the benefits of IT to solve business issues, generate incremental revenues, and improve customer satisfaction while managing costs and risks. Tim also recognizes the criticality of providing customers with a strategic direction and vision in aligning their IT infrastructure with their overall business strategy.

If you have any technology or professional service issues that you would like to discuss with the newest member of the Capital Data team, Tim can be contacted at tterry@capital-data.com.

Pathfinder's Matt Nolker Invited to Speak at Inaugural RIApalooza Conference

Pathfinder Development, a leading user experience design and software development firm, is pleased to announce that Matt Nolker, Pathfinder's Director of User Experience Design, has been invited to speak at RIApalooza, taking place in Chicago, May 30 & 31, 2008.

"I am looking forward to being a part of RIApalooza," Nolker said. "Rich Internet Applications (RIA), can greatly enhance user experience, productivity and satisfaction. RIApalooza provides a great opportunity to build the community and learn from each other."
Nolker's presentation will explore the intersection of user experience design and Agile development best practices to rapidly create RIAs that are easy to use. His presentation, "Fast. Smart. Agile. User Experience Driven Agile Development", addresses some of the most common mistakes in software development and highlights proven strategies to drive enhancements, lower development costs and accelerate time to market.

For more information contact Eleanor Taylor at 312-372-1058, email etaylor@pathf.com, or visit www.pathf.com.

QuickArrow is Platinum Sponsor of Pervasive Software’s Metamorphosis 8.0
SaaS Services Leader to Present its Integration Strategy at Partner Conference

Austin, Texas – May 22, 2008 -- QuickArrow, Inc., the leader in SaaS Services Automation, today announced it is a Platinum Sponsor of Pervasive Software’s Metamorphosis 8.0. Now in its fourth year, Metamorphosis is a unique venue that brings SaaS vendors, ISVs, systems integrators, and data processors together to discuss best practices for delivering integration, share successes, and foster partnerships for growth.

"Our 5 year partnership with Pervasive has been critical to our success,” said QuickArrow COO, Kevin Bury, “and we are very proud to be a sponsor of Metamorphosis 8.0.” He continued, “The Pervasive team has been integral in helping us develop the SaaS-to-anything integrations that truly set us apart in our market, and we are excited to share our story and lessons learned with the Pervasive community.”

During the conference, QuickArrow will present “The Evolution of QuickArrow: Delivering Integrations at the Speed of SaaS.” The presentation will detail the company’s trials, successes, best practices, and lessons learned delivering QuickConnectIT – a universal data integration solution capable of integrating QuickArrow with any other application.

For more information, please visit www.quickarrow.com.

Pathfinder's Noel Rappin Unveils Rails Plug-In for iPhone Applications

(Chicago, IL) Pathfinder, a leading software development and user experience design firm, announced the initial release of rails_iui, an open source Rails Plug-In for the iPhone created by Noel Rappin.

"Due to the iPhone's popularity, Mobile Safari has quickly become the most commonly used mobile web browser in the United States, and it's market share continues to increase", stated Noel Rappin, author of "Professional Ruby on Rails" and Pathfinder's Vice President of Rails Development. "Many developers are choosing to redesign their sites to take advantage of the unique features and user model provided by the iPhone and iPod touch."

Mobile Safari is a new paradigm for web browsing that utilizes the iPhone's popular touch screen display along with new styles of interactions that include tap, pinch and zoom for bringing the content into view.

For more information contact Eleanor Taylor at 312-372-1058, email etaylor@pathf.com, or visit www.pathf.com.

Pathfinder Announces Brian Dillard's Latest Addition to the "Ajax Overhaul" Tutorial Series for IBM's developerWorks Site

(Chicago, IL) Pathfinder, a leading software development and user experience design firm, today announced the publication of "Ajax overhaul, Part 2: Retrofit existing sites with jQuery, Ajax, tooltips, and lightboxes."

Written by Pathfinder's Brian Dillard and published by IBM developerWorks, this piece marks the second installment in an ongoing series. Each edition of "Ajax overhaul" shows how to improve the user experience of legacy web applications using Ajax programming techniques. The tutorials feature "before" and "after" source code of a fictitious shopping application, allowing readers to see both versions in action and learn by example.

"In my examples, I show how open-source Ajax libraries can solve old usability problems in addition to providing new features. I chose to focus on jQuery, a powerful Ajax toolkit that makes it easy to design Ajax feature using progressive enhancement," said Dillard. "This approach guarantees that web applications stay accessible to all sorts of users, from those with physical disabilities to those using older browsers or cell phones."

For more information contact Eleanor Taylor at 312-372-1058, email etaylor@pathf.com, or visit www.pathf.com.

QuickArrow and Pervasive Software to Present at Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA) Spring Summit

Case Study Will Provide a Behind-the-Scenes View of Execution in Data Integration Services

Austin, Texas – April 28, 2008 -- QuickArrow, Inc., the leader in SaaS Services Automation, today announced that COO Kevin Bury and Bill Jacaruso, Senior Director of Client Services at Pervasive Software will be co-presenting at the TPSA Spring Summit, May 4 – 6 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara . The summit will showcase innovations in technology professional services that have led to superior business performance.

Jacaruso will present "Adapting Services to Your Business: A Behind-the-Scenes View of Execution in Pervasive Data Integration Services," a case study highlighting Pervasive Software’s success building reliable technology and delivering total customer satisfaction in the complex arena of data management and integration.

The presentation will reveal how Pervasive measures success through schedule indexes, budget indexes, utilization, and rates - and how they are collected from QuickArrow PSA.

For more information, please visit www.quickarrow.com.