Systems Analyst & Software as a Service
AT A GLANCE
Who knew we would be swept up in a digital revolution offering more automation than you can shake a stick at. But did we build for scale?
One great thing in life is witnessing the rise of the Software-as-a-Service industry. Seems like Jira and Basecamp might have been the first, paving the way for an avalanche of tools - from scheduling and budgeting to publishing to knowledge management, and of course, coding. Before javascript and flash, there was...manual code! And there was hoping like hell the manual code would hold up and simply work! Enter today's sophisticated subscription-based services, and you get it - the rise of simple, intuitive tools (that just might talk to each other) is available for a price per month.
So it's been a pleasure to adapt Basecamp for commercials and videos, Filemaker Pro to store production information - and not have to update it for every project - and finally, to adapt Smartsheet, Asana, Jira, Sharepoint and Click-Up, among others. I've also had the pleasure of adapting QuickBooks (ouch), training agentic process with Zapier, and last but not least, developing dynamic web pages (from a database) for results specified by a user - meaning a user gives specific answers to questions at a webpage and, lo and behold, a database responds with tailored results that help them move forward.
Aren't we all now solution architects? So far, so good: in bold text = apps utilized
in blue text = skill sets
👉 It all started in college where I built a "route manager" system to help get our trucks where they needed to be, with the right ticket, equipment, and account specifications. 🚚
👉 An early adopter of Basecamp to manage music video and commercial production ranging from 2-8 weeks. 🎸
👉 An early adopter of Smartsheet...because Google Sheets hadn't been invented yet! Early versions had no calendar or dashboard integration, and were a bit crude or not mature.
👉 Built a Filemaker Pro database to handle standard production information we could utilize again and again - without transposing a phone number - something one only realizes when they're in the middle of a desert with an emergency call to make. Yeah, this was before cell phones. Not sure how we kept it all together, but we did. You name it, we tracked it.
👉 Built a complex project portfolio using FastTrack Schedule, handling scheduling for a dozen technicians across 5 areas of a post-production studio, such as graphics, editing, retouching, and mastering, etc. One of the biggest challenges was keeping track of different printing specs for each project (packaging, posters, mailers, etc), but those details became easily stored and retrieved. Tracking video specifications with client details was important too. Along with the Active Collaboration work ticket system, the post-production studio stayed on time and on track with dozens of deliverables per month. You name it, we tracked it.
(Asana, Google Analytics, SharePoint, CoSchedule, Zapier, Air Table, Click Up, JoomLA...)