Assiniboine Technology Offers Innovation to Building Industry.

It has taken patience and persistence but Rick Downs, President of Assiniboine Technology & Innovation Inc. says his software, the Builder, is ready to be introduced to the industry through retail home centres. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience as a home builder in the Yorkton area, Downs has developed software to database building projects linked directly to actual production specifications. The software generates accurate customer price estimates based on individual material and labor part costs contained in a single, customized database catalogue.

Downs had many years experience as a home builder behind him when he started working on computer-based solutions for the residential construction industry in the early '90s. Off-the-shelf software could perform some operations but none were comprehensive enough for setting up a home building operation filly integrated with a retail home centre.

There were software products intended for estimating using formula-based calculations, however, these were not accurate enough. Other programs, like CAD (computer assisted design) software, attained the accuracy but were unable to present sales information to customers in a clear and understandable way. Over time Downs figured out what worked or didn't work, using this to aid in the development of his own software.

Research was conducted in 1998, with financial assistance provided by the National Research Council, to finalize the basic concept and design. In 1999 Assiniboine Technology partnered with AB Data Sales Inc. to obtain technical expertise, and their programmers made Downs' ideas a reality. The product has now gone through two versions, with the second completed in the spring of 2000, and is ready for market.

The Builder software can keep prices in the customer project database current by using the Internet for cost updates on material and labor parts. It can link to web sites for product information and maintain sales brochures as scanned images. Accurate project estimates, customer upgrades, and purchase orders are a breeze, and the Builder can even calculate complicated taxes charged only in the construction industry.

The software has been designed to be an operating system for both residential project sales and the necessary production management. It is capable of handling projects from decks to new homes, and labor services from electrical trades to home builders. Set-up services for both the software and Internet options are also part of the A Tech Builder e-business package to be marketed to home centres and their retail and contractor customers.

In addition to the NRC assistance, Assiniboine Technology has received financial contributions for development of the software through Revenue Canada's Input Tax Credits for research and development, and as a Metis business from Industry Canada's Aboriginal Business program. Without this assistance Downs believes he would not have been able to complete the software, because there are few other options available in Saskatchewan for obtaining private placement funding in the initial stages of software development.

After completing the software, the company joined Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership to obtain market intelligence services and export business training. As a result of the market intelligence provided by STEP, Downs identified retail home centres as the logical market to target in the trillion dollar (U.S.) residential building industry, and realized that Internet services needed to be included with the A Tech Builder software and services package.

Downs recognizes the need to target the U.S. market immediately because the software industry provides significant advantages to first movers, and puts up major hurdles for competing products that enter later. The company will use direct marketing to present its total e-business solution to executives for major retail home centres in Canada and the U.S. Simultaneously it intends to work with local business to set up users for demonstration purposes, and to develop its website 'ATechBuilder.com' to promote its e-business solution for the industry.