Portfolio

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I worked with Abetech to create a custom intranet portal using DotNetNuke. The project called for direct integration of DotNetNuke with Abetech's backend sales processing systems. The final system had heavy personalization features so clients could log in and view their orders, contact their specific sales team, and place orders using their purchase order accounts. The backend integrated directly with Microsoft SQL Reporting Services using web service calls.

http://www.amplatzer.com/

I worked with AGA Medical to migrate their US and International sites into DotNetNuke. These sites were initially imported out of Dreamweaver template files using various custom scripts and tools. Once the content was in a raw database format I wrote custom import tools to setup the pages and content in DotNetNuke. The site then ported the current design and added additional functionality through modules that were either custom coded or purchased. The final site offers the client the ability to easily customize their content. We recently completed upgrades and enhancements to the international side of the site. The challenging aspects to this site were the legal review processes required while working on any medical site.

http://www.agstar.com/

I worked with Agstar on customizing and revising various internal processes. The project involved streamlining the loan application processing systems in addition to feeding the information into proprietary systems for applicant credit approval. I also performed various server configuration and security audits during my time at Agstar. The staff at Agstar was great to work with and made commuting to Mankato from Stacy daily for 6 months a non-issue.

http://www.livenow.info/

I worked with Baxter Medical to create the LiveNow.Info patient portal for various in home dialysis offerings. This site was created using DotNetNuke with several jQuery plugins and custom scripting to implement the front end functionality. As always the challenging portions of any medical website are the lengthy revision cycle processes that occur as the site progresses due to legal concerns. The site itself is very straight forward from a technical perspective, but the information it will provide to people dealing with these issues makes me proud to be involved in a project with such impact.

http://www.bioscrip.com/

I worked with BioScrip to create a new DotNetNuke driven corporate portal. The site offers the ability for customers to lookup various information on changing disease programs and find a pharmacy close to their location. This was one of the earliest DotNetNuke projects I worked on and goes a long way to show the longevity of a system like this. The system has been online for close to 4 years now and has required very little maintenance aside from regular content updates that the client can take care of themselves. Once again the site is important to me due to the services BioScrip provides to their customers on a regular basis.

http://www.cathaypacificcargo.com/

I worked with various airlines to bring their cargo booking systems online from 1998 to 2000. The project involved many extensive upgrades to the legacy Unisys backend systems (my employer at the time). Once the backend upgrades were complete we entered into a multi-year project to create the tools to talk to these systems from classic ASP and ASP.NET methods. The series of projects allowed me to work on my international business skills, with the highlight being 3 weeks of work on site in Hong Kong that I still look back on fondly to this day.

While most of these sites appear to have moved on to different technologies, it is good to see the company I did the most work for (Cathay Pacific) is still using some of these tools I built way back then. If go to the link provided above you will see the shipment tracking and calendar tools are still serving their purpose proudly for over a decade now.

http://www.thecontour.com/

I worked with Contour to develop an online store for their corporate presence and generate sales of accessories and product. The project called for heavy customization of the Catalook storefront module. I was required to integrate the purchases with three different fulfillment houses over the lifetime of the project, each with varying credit card processing, encryption and data transfer mechanisms. The client was great to work with through the process and it was fun to work on a project with such high sales volumes due to heavy television advertising. The current site has been pulled into the final fulfillment house systems and does not reflect the work I did (I have my preference on which version I like better of course).

http://www.coppertonelenses.com/

I worked with VisionEase Lenses to build a sub-section of their main corporate website to build the Coppertone lens brand. The project was a great effort to change the presentation of the information to be more consumer friendly, while updating the design to carry through more consistent brand messaging. The final result is a platform we will soon be extending to other brands in their lineup. My favorite part of this project is the UV index tool which makes a webservice call to the EPA's Sunwise system to find the current UV index for your region. That was a pretty quick thing to implement, but the final information presented to the user helps to build on the need for both UVA and UVB protection.

http://www.progressivefarmer.com/

I worked with DTN and Progressive Farmer magazine to build a new publishing system to replace an outdated Time Life system. The process involved using my favorite CMS (DotNetNuke) to setup an environment that was easy for the authors to login and quickly update each section of the site. In addition we assisted with building scripts to import the content from the old system into the DotNetNuke structures. I also assisted in several custom coding projects for different sweepstakes and other member activity programs.

http://www.employersinc.com/
http://www.eaconnect.com/

I worked with Employers Inc. to build a platform for other member associations to use in supporting their users. The main challenges of this project are that to some degree it pre-dated the existence of DotNetNuke, so the system was built the old fashioned way, from scratch (I really miss those days). I built a CMS that would run multiple websites, allow user restricted content, and had multiple levels of both workflow, and user-group permissions. The system was used on the two employer association websites listed above. Eventually we hope to port this client over to DotNetNuke since the developer (me) has a hard time going back 5+ years and remembering how to support this system. Luckily the developer got it right the first time though and doesn't have to do very much to support this client. Luckily the developer is blessed with such great clients also.

http://www.fairview.org/locations/

I've worked with Fairview for various small projects that support their main website. My first project with Fairview was to upgrade their location finding tools using the Google Maps API. This involved converting server formats of data into one common workable format, then customizing Google's sample code to support specialty clinic searches and other custom filters. The final product is still being used in some form, although has recently gone through a redesign that uses a subset of the functionality.

http://www.uofmchildrenshospital.org/healthlibrary/

My second project with Fairview was to create an import tool to bring the KidsHealth article information into a format they could support, and then build the front end presentation logic to display the information in an indexed and searchable format easy for users. The challenges for this project were simply several inconsistencies in the KidsHealth data provider. I had to work with the vendor to help update their documentation and find ways to work around these issues. In the end like all of my medical projects the information that parents can use to educate their children on these issues has a lot of value when it is needed.

Product Release Article #1
Product Release Article #2

I worked for General Mills to create an online presence for their cereal Sunrise Organic. I am sure you are probably thinking, wait, I haven't heard of that product. Well this project is an entry in the way back machine and took place back in "the year 2000" (yes, I am a Conan Obrien fan). It was actually the first cereal to be fully certified as organic. Technically this project was challenging because it was one of my first real heavy front end branding projects. It involved creating a lot of functionality that today would be trivial with flash and jQuery, but this was done with pure HTML, classic asp, and more Javascript than you can shake a fist at. The somewhat funny part about this project is that while searching for the announcement articles online I found somebody selling an original box of this product on ebay, yes, I bought it, yes, I will update this with pictures when I get it. While I am sad this product didn't last to see the light of day. I am proud to see that it is still remembered by those in this community.

http://www.nahan.com/

I worked with Nahan Printing and Harley Davidson to create an online holiday catalog customization tool for dealers. This tool was built from scratch and leaned heavily on the pipeline processing model I learned from my Site Server Commerce days. I created a tool where different portions of the process could be reworked or replaced as a whole from year to year as the demands of the different Harley Davidson dealerships changed. The project was used 4 consecutive years and allowed for dealerships to select not only what products they wanted in their catalog, but also provider their clients with personalized messaging and changing store hours during the holiday season. The end result was praised and one time when stopping into a dealership to grab a copy of the final output I was personally thanked by one of the dealership owners (that doesn't happen to us developers very often). Eventually Harley brought some of their printing process in house and the project does not live on to this day, but I had a great time working with the people at Nahan and Harley Davidson both.

http://www.hickorytech.com/
http://www.hickorytech-is.com/
http://www.enventis.com/

I worked with HickoryTech on what is probably my most extensive DotNetNuke project to date. HickoryTech wanted to replace an old and outdated CMS with something that was more search engine friendly and easy for them to enhance as they grew out divisions and acquisitions (something that happens often in the telco world). They also wanted to provide differently branded information to the business and IT clients through the subsidiaries. This project involved building one of the most complex custom modules I have faced still to this day, the plan customizer. I spent the course of several days working out the details of what this module needed to do on whiteboard before ever writing my first line of code. The project was extensive in the end since availability of certain products by zip code changes, along with certain products affecting discounts on other product combinations, not to mention the general complexities of ala-cart channel lineup selection for the offerings in your area. After several months of working directly with the client we have a tool that has been flexible enough for the end user, while still being manageable enough for the client to not impede order creation or acceptance. The client has also fallen in love with DotNetNuke, expanding the functionality of the site on their own through the purchase, installation and customization of different modules over the years.

I worked with Kraft and Nabisco to help create an online sales material ordering system through their warehousing provider. This project involved making heavy customizations to a Site Server Commerce pipeline (yes this project was a while ago) to integrate with warehouse backend proprietary systems. I was also involved in subsequent projects to improve the front end of this system to address sales process restrictions and create some promotional offerings. The interesting portion of this project was getting to sit in on meetings with heads of Nabisco and later Kraft since the duration of the project extended across their acquisition. It gave me a lot of insight into the restaurant business and what type of marketing goes into product placement in these franchises and mom and pop shops across the country and internationally in some cases.

http://www.mnmed.org/

I worked with the Minnesota Medical Association to create a new website that was more in line with their branding and capable of being a steady platform they could use for years to come. The project was my second to use the DotNetNuke platform and helped educate both myself and the client on this tool at the same time. The project also involved creating a custom module to pull in information and events from a back end medical association system. The client was great to work with and the website has been running strong without major issues or revisions for 4 years. The client has even recently begun to implement design changes on their own to list current information and promotions on the homepage.

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/

I have worked with Pearson Education on several different occasions. The most extensive project has been the multiple variations of the Pearson Assessments through the acquisition of a prior client AGS Publishing. The project has had several different iterations. First being the conversion of the AGS Publishing site to being branded for Pearson after the acquisition, and second converting and porting the content of that site over to the Person Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) systems. I have to say by far conversion to MCMS was the hardest. Not only did we have to create templates to pull off the branding, the product documentation offered for that version of MCMS was highly non-existent. We also had several layers of VPN to work with during the development of the project which created another challenge. In the end we did succeed and the current Pearson Assessment site is an amazing achievement once you know more of the back story. I do have to say working with Pearson is an honor and a pleasure, even with all the adversity faced on the project the client was always right in the trenches along our side. The project could not have been successful without that drive.

http://www.mounts.com/

I worked with Premier Mounts for several years. There are several projects I could discuss but in general we were the sole implementer of product information and promotions for over a decade. While the project was recently brought in house our framework still survives and is highly customized to deal the all the complexities of pairing products to their respective mounts. I have to say I learned more about what it takes for a manufacturer to support so many different standards coming from so many different product vendors it makes my head spin. My favorite part of this project was changing the data structures to be less human entered and more logically paired via code I developed. This allowed for Premier to spend less time doing data entry and more time supporting their vast dealer network and store relations. This project was one of the more technically challenging and allowed me to use some of my college education developing different algorithms to deal with these variations. The client was great and I always looked forward to the weekly status updates when we had a project in the hopper (I kind of miss them now).

http://www.ricelake.com/

I worked with Rice Lake Weighing systems to perform a general network and security audit. Of course this one will be short, I can't really talk about anything I did, suffice to say, they were pretty good when I started, and a little better when I was done. It was a great project because in my current job I don't get to use a lot of the skills I developed at Shavlik, when I do I jump at the chance since I do spend time trying to keep this information as current as possible. This was a great client and I hope to get to do more work for them, hopefully on site due to the proximity of Rice Lake to the summer cabin in Shell Lake, Wisconsin (read the about page).

http://www.smithsystem.com/

I worked with Smith Systems on various projects. Smith Systems has been a client through my current employer for well over a decade (maybe several, I have to check). I am by no means the main developer on the project, but have been asked to help on some interesting revisions to the back end coding throughout the years. While most of these projects have involved performance tweaks this entry is more to denote the client has been great with our whole development team. Currently they are building some front end configuration tools that are going to be pretty slick, so stay tuned to their website if you are in the school furniture market.

http://www.sunwayinc.com/

I worked with Sunway Inc. to make updates and design implementations to their e-commerce platform. The fun part about this project was I got to leverage some of my PHP/MySQL skills that don't ever get used and remain fairly rusty and forgotten (it was my language of choice in college, however, I also solely used Macintosh computers, oh how things change in a decade and a half). The project involved making revisions to the XCart logic and Smarty templating system to pull off the design and functionality the client requested. I also got to tour their facility and see what goes into the creation of some of their ergonomic furniture (the vacuum molding machine is amazing).

I worked with United Health Group to develop a site explaining the transition for their clients to the (at the time) new Medicare Part D system and how it related to their diabetic supply purchases. The system used DotNetNuke and was I believe my third project using this system. This project was my introduction to the medical website legal review process you will hear me speak so fondly of (patiently might be a better description). Like with all my medical sites though, the technical challenges are low, the content being provided is valuable to those that need it and these sites I am always happy to take part in. The website has since been deemed out of date and consumed by other internal systems.

http://providers.uofmchildrenshospital.org/

I worked with Fairview and the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital to create a mobile provider directory for their patients and other doctors. This was my first smartphone project and with all firsts it had a decent sized learning curve. Initially we evaluated doing the project in native Objective C but settled on the JQTouch and custom backend coding to implement this project. The backend of the system was coded in ASP.NET and will retrieve an XML data file from a remote server, cache the file, then perform XSLT transformations to present the information to the end device. The front end side of the project involved customizing the output for the JQTouch library and some custom jQuery and JavaScript for tools like the pediatric dosage calculator. There is even some HTML5 for the storage of use selected favorites in the user's local cache. If you do browse to the site in a browser make sure to use a webkit friendly client such as Chrome, Safari or Firefox. We are in talks to bring this final tool to both the Apple store and Android market as an actual application using the PhoneGap set of tools in the near future.

http://www.vision-ease.com/

I worked with VisionEase Lenses to create a corporate presence for the providers and customers. This project has had many phases over the course of several years. We developed the site using the DotNetNuke platform and several custom modules. The site has promotions customized to their dealer network and allows providers and dealers both to login and order promotional materials. The recent phase of the project was a restructure of content and prep work for international customizations, along with the Coppertone Lenses project which I listed separately. This site is custom module rich, the barcode lookup tool was very fun to work on with both custom barcode fonts, image generation and PDF output all on the fly. The provider lookup tool was a heavy customization of an existing module and involves constant import and changes to the data as more providers come online. In the behind the scenes sales material ordering the providers and dealers can generate their own sales material with their information using more PDF generation and custom PDF templates. If I were to play favorites (okay, so I do) I would say this client takes the cake. The projects are always intriguing, the client always seems to be on the same page as I am, and offers up consistently challenging projects (I love a good challenge).

http://www.wildlife.com/

I worked with Wildlife to create an online presence and community. This project was completed using DotNetNuke and also completed (due to a miscommunication) over the course of one long day (Saturday) by myself handling the back end coding and another developer handling the front end. The project itself had a few technical gotchas that were handled by some custom development or tinkering with modules that existed, but I look back on two main points about this project. First, we went from a design file to a deployed site over the course of a day using DotNetNuke and second, the client loves the site and still uses it to this day, making updates and customizations on their own. The site also includes a user forum and hunters photo gallery submission process to help keep their community members coming back for more every season.