So, I started talking with a fellow consultant of mine and he had similar ideas. He didn’t have the programming background, but could write a great spec and knew production inside and out. He had this idea for that small companies would be begging for. It was an MES (manufacturing execution system) without any bolt ons, interfaces, extra hardware, etc. Just an easy way to get their job done. It sounded good to me, and I knew I could build it. So I started the coding, and eventually we came to realize, it would be better to go on this journey together. We started brainstorming. We both had a military background so we finally settled on Javelin Solutions. The problem was that the URL was already taken, by a military company of course 🙂
So, we came up with JaveLLin (notice the 2 L’s). The 2 L’s stand for Lean Logistics. Looking back on much of my marketing literature, this really isn’t covered, and at the end of the day, perhaps doesn’t even matter. But that’s why we have JaveLLin and not Javelin 🙂 We went through all the obligatory legal issues, formed a new company and waited for the money to start rolling in. Strange, but it never did 🙁 We started doing trade shows, another incredibly expense when you are a start up. We learned some expensive lessons on how to market ourselves at a show. All the while, I was coding what was to become Proximity – Production Execution. It took another 18 months before I finally realized this is what I needed to do for Service Management. Meanwhile, we made an iOS application, presented at regional ASUG’s and even at the SAP Manufacturing Conference in Vegas. We started building leads, but we were still fighting the uphill battle of a small fish in a very big pond. We started to get smarter and got rid of a bunch of other applications. It was a hard decision, especially for me, given the amount of time and energy I spent developing and refining them. But it was the right move. Soon, we were down to just Production Execution and Service Management. Then, it was time to go back into learning mode for me. I had to figure out ABAP Web Dynpro. I slowly mastered a new skill and replaced all the old BSP code we originally designed. So I spent my nights and weekends learning and coding… finally getting apps that looked better on the web. Now to meet customer needs, we are moving to UI5 for all our applications.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike