In the
early 80's, she founded TOTL Software, one of the first companies to produce
practical software for the emerging home computer market. TOTL sold the
first commercial word processor for the Commodore 64. Ann created a
range of software including word processing, database management, and a
full range of small business accounting software. Although TOTL Software
was forced to close in 1986 because it was unable to compete with the large publishing
companies who had entered the market, a small group of loyal users
continued to use the TOTL database and accounting software for over 10
years! This is a tribute to the quality and usefulness of the software.
Ann moved on to develop enterprise software for
managing the maintenance of large plants and facilities, and later to
document management software helping companies keep track of and use the
growing volume of "unstructured data", like Word documents,
spreadsheets, etc. She also has done consulting work with medium sized
companies working on database applications, purchasing applications, and
database query and reporting subsystems.
In early 1999, Ann joined with 3 other partners
to create Oralis.com, an e-commerce business to sell and distribute
supplies to dental offices. This was one of the most successful on-line
companies dealing with dental supplies, receiving an award from Forbes
magazine for its web site. In late 2000 Oralis was acquired by
VerticalNet, a company running a variety of business to business
exchanges. Following Oralis, Ann joined a small Seattle software company
as VP Development to lead the company in building and delivering an XML
query engine to allow companies to easily access and integrate the data
stored in the many differing kinds of databases and repositories across
the enterprise. She led the development group through its first release
and numerous subsequent major and minor releases until the company was
forced to do major downsizing due to the failing economy.
So, in 2003 as Ann was contemplating what was
next in her career, she reflected on the experiences of TOTL software
and the satisfaction that comes from helping small businesses find and
use software that really helps them run their businesses better. The
interaction with small business owners and the feedback of what they
struggled with had been the inspiration for the whole line of TOTL
software products. She also recognized that the management of data,
whether in databases or in document files, is a key challenge for all
businesses, regardless of size. And helping them expand their internet
presence through vibrant websites is essential in today's marketplace. Even deciding what software to purchase
can be a challenge for a small business owner. Her experiences with
several small businesses of her own helps to guide her perspective.
Today, Ann and TechnoSense Consulting are
working as a resource for small businesses to help them choose and
deploy software and technology. After 20 years of working in the Seattle
area, Ann has a pool of specialists available to call on to help solve
any technology problem.
Please let TechnoSense Consulting help you make
sense out of the wide array of technology choices available today and
free you up to let you run your business as only you know best.
