Archive for June, 2010

Woody Torrez is joining us as a software developer, and we’re excited to set him loose on our projects with Fairbanks, among other ventures. Before joining Table XI, Woody served as Lead Developer for CCIM Institute, where he created online tools to help the organization provide commercial real estate education and services to its members. He hails from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a BS in computer engineering. When not programming in PERL, PHP, and JAVA, Woody wanders forest preserves, children’s museums, aquariums, and zoos with his wife, son, and daughter.

Patrick Stein will be coming aboard as a software developer to assist on several client projects. While working toward a degree in computer science at the University of Toronto, Patrick has developed custom software for investment firms and Web sites for the Fio Corporation, a health technology firm. In his downtime he plays guitar and soccer, and can often be found tinkering with electronics.

Kathryn Achenbach is entering the fold as a part-time copywriter. Kat is flexing her fingers in anticipation of Table XI’s growing writing needs, from its upcoming Web site redesign to copy for client sites to the very newsletter you’re reading now. In fourth grade Kat discovered a peculiar love for diagramming sentences and never looked back, eventually graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in English and art history. In addition to her copywriting gigs, she has ghostwritten children’s fiction and even penned a cartoon or two.

The term “e-commerce” probably brings to mind sites like EBay or Amazon.com. We recently had the opportunity to develop a less conventional type of e-commerce platform for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago.

Instead of clothing or books, the YMCA’s inventory is its programing: Twenty-one centers in the Chicago area offer a number of different classes that vary in type, size, and participant age. However, information and nomenclature for these programs lacked consistency across the Y’s Web site and its network of centers, making it difficult for people to find and sign up for the classes that interested them.

Our goal was to update and simplify the online registration process to make these programs more accessible to members and prospective members. In addition to establishing consistent titles and descriptions for classes, we turned the catalogue into an online platform easily searchable by criteria, such as program type, sport, league, time, age group, and center location. Need to find out what centers offer kids’ swim classes on Monday nights? Now that info is only a few clicks away.

This streamlined process of searching and registering for programs will increase class enrollment while relieving the clerical strain at centers during registration periods. It will also improve the Y experience for current members and widen the Y’s visibility to potential customers.

We are thrilled to be partnering with the YMCA Chicago and are excited about our future projects together!

Google is conquering the world, or at least the Internet, one invention at a time. By now it’s far more than just a search engine: The company has introduced a number of inexpensive but comprehensive online applications, including email, calendars, and word processing, that your business can use in lieu of pricey office software, and that offer some unique benefits.

Google Apps are hosted, which means that data lives online and is accessible from any computer with Internet access. You’re not tied to one computer that has your Outlook account and Word documents saved to it. With Google Apps there’s no maintenance on your end, and you don’t have to mess with software updates. $50 per person per year gives you access to Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, among other products. Here’s a further breakdown:

Gmail: The mail program gives you all the benefits of a Gmail account with a corporate email address (xyz@tablexi.com instead of xyz@gmail.com) and integrates seamlessly with mobile devices.

Google Calendar: Every employee can create his own calendar, but they’re visible to anyone in the company. You can see when a colleague is available and schedule meetings or events on multiple calendars.

Google Docs: This application functions like a stripped-down version of Microsoft Office (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.), and gives you the primary features of these programs without the extraneous functions you rarely use. In addition, multiple people can edit a document simultaneously, track historical changes, and revert to earlier versions, making collaboration simple and transparent.

We are a company full of tech nerds and we’ve decided to entrust the lifelines of our business to Google Apps.  We couldn’t be more pleased with it.

A benefit of running a Web consultancy is that you can ostensibly do it anywhere there’s an Internet connection. In the spirit of Table XI’s “work hard, play hard” mentality, we recently took our twelve staffers (plus five significant others) to Costa Rica for a week of rejuvenation, strategic planning, team building, and corporate reflection.

February 27-March 6 saw us zip-lining through rainforests, surfing, and hooking fish in the deep sea (well, attempting to, anyway). But the week wasn’t all sunset cruises and spa treatments: We also used the time to have those conversations that never seem to materialize amid ringing phones and nonstop emails.

We spent two full days on strategic planning and development, reviewing projects, assessing new technology and infrastructure needs, and discussing ways to improve processes. We took the time to thoroughly examine and make transparent the company’s financials, allowing every employee to see where dollars were coming in and going out, how their time contributed to our continued growth, and how unconventional programs like our in-house meals are actually making us money.

Our trip was also the perfect opportunity to launch an activity we’re calling “Pet Projects.” One of our company’s greatest assets is its collection of big brains, and it is a future goal to produce our own content in addition to the work we do with our clients. To that end, we developed and vetted staffer-generated concepts that included everything from Web sites to iPhone games and applications. This exercise in rapid prototyping and evaluation resulted in some pretty fun work that we’re excited to explore further, and which you may be hearing more about in the months to come.

Of course, no week would be complete without an excellent meal concocted by our very own Ellen Brast, who cooked a delicious red snapper dinner on our final night. As if all that weren’t enough, we also found our new mascot, Bert, an eight-year-old green parrot that loves to eat, goof off, and play with computers. Appropriate, no?

We recognize that not every company has the means to take its employees on such a trip, and we count ourselves lucky that we were able to do so. It may seem like an unconventional–some might say crazy–expenditure, but our Costa Rican adventure gave us opportunities to focus on Table XI’s long-term goals, prove our company culture, and grow closer as coworkers and team members. We came back refreshed and excited to dive into 2010.