“After working in the trenches, first as a consultant/programmer, and then as software developer to Banner institutions worldwide, it was apparent to me that reporting and information access were the primary concerns of our clients—again and again. After years of seeing and hearing this, we thought there might be an opportunity for us create something really exciting for our clients—and something we would like to use ourselves.”

“It started with long conversations with many of our best clients, some of whom have worked with us for years, and then I asked our own staff to share their experiences as programmers and report developers. We collected that information, organized it, and looked for common themes.”

“Time after time, we noted a complete lack of focus on the end-user. They were excluded from the process by security, complexity or cost. Existing products were extremely difficult to use and deploy and they required too much developer-user interaction. Many of them offered little/no security, or they required so much security administration that they were impractical to give to users. And cost—forget about it! The big firms were charging six-figures to start, and then it cost so much for individual users that nobody could afford to have everyone using it. They punished people for trying to push it to the frontlines. We reward them with ease of use and affordability.”

“Nobody recognized the role of the “power-user” in reporting. We saw that as a big stumbling block, because every client we work with has an array of really skilled non-IT people in their departments. They often know Banner well, the tables, possibly SQL, work with Access or other tools, crunch numbers, and generally find a lot of creative ways to squeeze what they need out of their systems. They’re not programmers by trade, yet they have a LOT to offer the reporting process, because they’re close to the point of information need, and they understand the users. Existing tools essentially ignore them, because either the products don’t offer non-IT folks these abilities or administrators can’t let them because of security. And, again, it’s often too costly to license them.”

“And since we work with DBAs and System Administrators every day (and several of us are or were), we had a keen sense for their interests. We built all kinds of features for them. Security was foremost in every way and then we went on through utilities, ease of use and user administration, and many, many features. I love hearing them murmur and nod approval at the things we knew would impress them. It’s not an easy audience, but we knew them and focused on them.”

“Although we say it is designed for the end-user from the start, and it is, we soon realized that this design inherently offers a huge benefit to everyone. When administrators can easily and securely set up a structure where they provide high-level development, allow power-users to add their skill and knowledge, and offer it to the entire user population in easy-to-use ways, everyone wins—especially the organization and the constituents. It gets spread out…used everywhere.”

“We didn’t believe in a static approach to development. We did our research and planned as much as possible, but we wanted to finish it “with” our clients, rather than “for” them. So, early-adopters played a key role for us.”

“Several sites had expressed an interest in being there, no matter how early in the process. The concept was so important to them that they insisted on seeing what we were up to. They attended early R&D conference calls, installed pre-release versions, and gave a TON of feedback. “Rather than the traditional ‘bug-fix’ approach, they noted those, but more importantly, we urged them to share ideas, suggest enhancements, and generally take ownership—and they did.”

“There are dozens and dozens of features in Argos that came directly from pre-release Banner clients. The majority of them were incorporated within days, if not hours, of suggesting them. It’s a mutualistic thing. They offer good ideas they’d like for themselves, we incorporate them, and then every subsequent user benefits. I’m glad we released to users before the typical ‘Alpha-Beta-1.00’ progression.”

“We will definitely incorporate more users, earlier, every time we develop a product. Pre-release folks like it too, because they get to find a home for their creativity and great ideas. It might take a little longer to reach general release, but when you get there, you have something to be proud of.”