Software

All software developed by Innovation Foundry is being moved to Protogen Technologies.

Online Software

As SaaS (Software as a Service) becomes more prominent, Innovation Foundry strives to keep business in line with current market trends by utilising the flexibility of the Internet as a platform.

By leveraging the cross-platform nature of SaaS, Innovation Foundry can build complex software (with functionality usually found in desktop applications) and make your business available to a greater demographic with a higher level of interaction with your customers. Innovation Foundry uses a solid array of tools including DotNetNuke and LLBLGen to build custom modules and pages to suit your needs. Whether it be e-commerce, e-learning, or just a simple website, Innovation Foundry can cater to your needs. Innovation Foundry also utilising the emerging new framework from Microsoft, the Windows Presentation Framework. See a showcase of what can be done using WPF.

Innovation Foundry's content management system (cms) serves as a framework from which we develop most of our online applications. We pride ourselves on our tight integration with the framework and our customer's needs. We have had experience with quotation software, elearning software and ecommerce applications.

Capture information

The greatest resource of the internet is its information. Become people aware, and help your business grow. We can help you capture your clients information with simple or complex methods. From simple online forms to hidden trackers, we have what you need.

Information with purpose is so much more powerful.  We can help you integrate all of your information into your own databases, systems and utilities.

If you don't have an online application to manage your data, we recommend that you use a CRM (customer relationship management) system.  With a CRM, you can integrate all of your sales, marketing, and service data. This is a very powerful solution to ensure your business can grow.

Distribute information

The other cornerstone of the internet is its ability to distribute information. The internet has transformed from an over glorified brochure machine into a very valuable tool for companies and individuals to collaborate on much greater things. Is your business destined for greatness? Now it's possible to move many of your legacy business processes to the web. You save money and time, which will allow you to be more focused on your clients.

We provide many solutions to globalize your business:

	CMS (Content Management System) Manage all your public and internal business content and processes online. Provide customer service applications, and integrate these into your preferred CRM. Share documents. Sell your products or services. Tell people what you do. Market.		Web Services Provide access to your internal accounts, order systems, marketing information to your clients. Sell your information online. Pay per use (Software as a Service).
	Sharepoint Centralize your office, school or technical documents. Utilize integrated security to combine this solution with other impressive Microsoft products.		CRM Manage your clients, leads & prospects. Provide service, marketing and sales services online.
	Groupware Collaborate effectively together. Manage and share appointments, contacts, documents, e-mail and communications.		Wiki The best method for organising information on the web. We use wiki's within Innovation Foundry to document everything from support to internal quality management system processes.
	Search Engines If you would like to distribute information to any modern day user of the internet, via PCs, PDAs or mobiles we can provide you with the tools.		Encryption If you would like to provide information encrypted to your customers or other businesses, we can provide you with enterprise standard encryption tools.
	Transactions We can provide you with payment facilities, fully scalable and redundant systems for managing all of your business financial information.

Provide Functionality

We utilise the latest technologies to bring the endless possibilities of offline applications online.

Does your business have a service that it could provide users online? Can this service be distributed online or can it be monitored online?

We can provide software applications online, offline, or a mixture of both.

We can help you create and sell online web services or dependent applications.

A recently created buzz-word, SaaS (software as a service) has actually existed for a long time. This is a model where businesses can sell their software or service on a per use basis instead of an up-front cost. The end benefit being an application with online components which users can upgrade, support and use only what they require.

If you require any assistance in moving your business or applications online

Provide Functionality

Innovation Foundry has had extensive experience in developing solutions for businesses online. By leveraging the Customer Resource Management (CRM) side of DotNetNuke we make the integration between simple cart management tighter by utilising the power of DotNetNuke. Innovation Foundry use a feature-rich shopping cart framework that makes the process simple for both the customer and your business.

Off-the-shelf

Innovation Foundry uses a selection of off-the-shelf turn-key products to help you sell online. The benefits of having an outlet online are:

	you can reach a large market (billions of people)
	becoming the first point of call for finding products and services
	reach a larger geographical area
	target different demographics
	having branded distribution
	provide the customer with an informed decision
	rebrand and franchise easily
	reseller opportunities

Tailor made E-commerce applications

Not every glove fits. If you have a business that requires more sophisticated financial software than that available, we can tailor an application to your requirements

Enterprise Support

If you have existing commercial or financial systems in place, Innovation Foundry can help you manage them. We have had years of experience in managing legacy e-commerce applications, and migrating them where necessary.

Search Engines

Innovation Foundry recently developed a search engine and management system. The engine was custom-built to handle worldwide businesses categorised over various levels and locations. Innovation Foundry's application also impemented a multitiered reward system for referalls and a worldwide address inventory which produced relevant maps using Google Maps. Being specialists in all things database, Innovation Foundry can build bespoke search engines to manage vast amounts of data in a intuitive and readable format.

Search Engines

Innovation Foundry has found a number of customers require a documented investigation in their relevant market. Our tools help our customers manage their company better by keeping track of inventory, purchases, and other related statistics.

Compute Clouds

Innovation Foundry has also ventured into the foray of Compute Clouds which is a recently penned term to describe the utilisation of shared computing resources within a "cloud" of computers, usually the public Internet. By displacing centrical nature of the common webserver and distributing it automatically to various nodes we remove the possibility of a single point of failure. The recent success of Amazon's EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) has proven the successfulness of cloud computing as an industry standard.

Online Clustering

In connection with the Compute Clouds, Innovation Foundry has also made grounds in Online Clustering. We primarily deal with the distribution of memory and CPU load to better serve the underlying Compute Cloud for resources. This has also been integrated with a peer-to-peer data sharing system that alleviates the need for a central node which cannot otherwise provide a reliable distributed network.

Server Management

Innovation Foundry's history with server management is both lengthy and broad. We deal with entire management of the underlying website framework in both Microsoft Windows and various distributions of GNU/Linux. Deployed on both of these operating systems, we manage database engines (Microsoft SQL Server 2005, PostgreSQL, MySQL) and HTTP servers (Microsoft IIS, Apache, lighttpd) with the choice of platforms dependent on the situation and needs of the customer.

Online Software Experience

Throughout our history, Innovation Foundry has been involved in a number of projects, both Software as a Service (SaaS) applications and simple content managed websites.

	e-Commerce - use case We have built many e-commerce sites which utilise a Content Management System (CMS). One such site was for an international charity. We setup a donation site which could also be used with their call centre. As the charity had multiple arms, the CMS used could share content between portals. (Ie. content could be shared between the various websites for the underlying charity)
	Marketing & business analytics We have built statistical and business analysis software for one of the world's largest churches. Through this they were able to see, with better clarity, their churches, pastors, and communal members more succintly and legibly. Using our online software modules they were able to view their financials and attendance from any angle. The online presense allowed the pastors of the churches to submit and view their own metrics using a multimatrix access control level (ACL) from anywhere in the world.
	Content Managed (CMS) web site - use case Innovation Foundry built and hosts the website for mining and training consultancy Crestfern. Crestfern's website features among a long list of (mostly) DotNetNuke-based sites developed for a varied range of customers.   Crestfern's website also feature an Internet-deployed desktop training application with animated narration and tests at the end of each section.
	Online Distributed Services We have developed distributed online services for communication between servers and clients within a major Australian health network.
	Mobile & PDA Search Engine We have developed an international, web based, search engine application. This engine was based on Microsoft SQL server, and included hundreds of thousands of records. The engine was made to send a tailored version of the search form dependent on the individual capabilities of the requesting mobile device. The site also include a custom e-commerce back end for listing subscriptions. Business Software Innovation Foundry has had experience in developing Business Analysis Software, Quotation Tools, Search Engines, Asset Management Systems, Authentication Systems, and created tools to integrate with Microsoft CRM (Customer Relationship Management),  the DotNetNuke CMS (content management system)... and more. We have utilised many technologies in developing these applications and libraries. If you are investigating a particular or business-wide problem, we can help you architect the solution. Each solution typically requires thorough requirements analysis

Software Types

• Online Software encompasses all software following the client-server model.
• Distributed software:
  • Distributed software is a niche breed of software where the client-server model is inappropriate. For example:
    • when people can not connect to their internal network because of security constraints
    • or when there is expected downtime between networks within an organisation
    • when connectivity is completely missing from a network (and the system is reliant on clients to mutually update internal networks)
• Offline software:
  • Offline software is software with limited or no connectivity. This may be required when:
    • 100% utilisation of system resources are required (and clustering is not an option).
    • Software is required to run on hardware, firmware or mobile devices.
    • Legacy support of systems requiring native binaries are required.

Quotation Software

Want to truly open your market share? Conside a global commerce solution.

Imagine being able to sell your products in any language, manage your business, clients and infrastructure globally...

Innovation Foundry can provide you with a turn-key Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, or tailor a global commerce and management system to suit your needs. We have experience in developing fail-safe transactional databases, with emphasis on global support. Migrating data from existing legacy databases is one of our skills to help make the local to global transition easier.

Deployment of systems where other software packages and users running various applications via the web can also be tailored for any solution you require.

We have recently been involved in a project for a consumer and commercial retail business which required complex calculations and visual representations of their products to accumulate a precise quotation comprising costs and respective parts for a listed form  assembly of their product. Global reports and control of the business for the owner was a major consideration.

Growing your business

Innovation Foundry has had extensive experience with financial and quotation software. We have designed both offline and online software to cater to our customers needs. Larger companies requiring data analysis combined with specialised quoting or costing tools is usually a requirement for a growing business. With a combination of off-the-shelf tools and some custom products to fill the needs of your requirements, we can help your business grow.

Some off the shelf products we recommend for growing businesses are:

	A customer relationship management system
	Sharepoint, or other document sharing system

Starting your business

Innovation Foundry has had extensive experience in developing solutions for businesses online. By leveraging the Customer Resource Management (CRM) side of DotNetNuke we make the integration between simple cart management tighter by utilising the power of DotNetNuke. Innovation Foundry use a feature-rich shopping cart framework that makes the process simple for both the customer and your business.

Off-the-shelf

If you are a small business, a turn-key (ready made product) solution should solve all your requirements. We use a number of e-commerce applications which can use:

	combinations of products		resellers and affiliates
	different locations, language options		easily customizable
	multiple different payment gateways (options such as paypal,NAB,etc.)		add products at your will
	customer feedback forms		rating of products
	payment ordering and shipment systems		order tracking
	flexible tax system

Database Design

There is nothing more important to an online business than the design of its' database.

Although we specialise in Microsoft SQL Server. We can also provide design services for other relational and object based databases.

Innovation Foundry can help you:

	Migrate legacy databases		Improve indexes within your databases
	Normalize your databases		Cluster databases
	Fix your databases		by providing adequate hardware
	Design your databases		with server agents (log shipping)
	Redesign your databases		with redundancy strategies (including HA - High availability, Continuity)
	Audit database designs		Provide performance statistics of current databases
	Test performance of your databases		Improve query execution times

SQL Management

At the core of good analysis is good data.

If you require:

	a database system		database optimisation
	data input tools		functionality written for your database
	help with database design		general database maintenance
	functional applications to connect to your data
Then you may want to call us. Depending on your requirements, we have expertise to help everyone from small business to large enterprises. We specialise in MS Sql Server, Oracle and Postgres.

Data Migration

If you have legacy database applications which you may want information extracted from we can help. We can migrate your old data to new systems.

We can also connect these systems to newer applications or help you design them, which will in turn allow your database to grow.

We recommend MS Sql Server, Oracle or Postgres.

Network Design

Ideal networks could cost the user millions of dollars in equipment and expertise. We understand that the world is not ideal. We match the budget, requirements and specifications to a specific solution for the user.

We can help:

	Design your network		Fix network issues
	Help you budget your network		Provide an efficiency audit for your network
	Scale your network		Provide a security audit for your network

Business Analytics

If you have data, we can help you do analysis on it.

With experience in everything from artificial intelligent algorithms, to flat multidimensional analysis, to basic reporting and graphing, we offer it all.

With an Engineering background, analysis is our specialty.

Whether you want your analysis tools available online, distributed or offline, we can help.

At Innovation Foundry we can provide you with more tools to for your training requirements:

• Offline Tools
  • Multimedia rich software
• Online Tools
  • e-learning software
  • collaboration tools (wikis, CMS, groupware)
• Student Software
  • Online collaboration and student evaluation (ie. MS Sharepoint, Moodle).
  • Problem based learning (custom)
  • Problem based learning (ie. Moodle)
• Educator Software
  • Helping provide tools for trainers to architect lesson requirements and workflows (LAMS)

We can help you design systems within your educational environment to help you succeed in training your students. We can assist you with open technologies such as LAMS, Moodle and integrate other technologies or custom solutions you may require.

Complement learning with a source of information that never sleeps!

Innovation Foundry has had the joy of helping many education providers with e-learning solutions. Let us help you get the most out of e-learning online!

If you are school, or training provider and re-use content, resources and systems to help you manage courses, this could be for you. Course management tools typically provide a 'top-down' approach. They look at over-all learning objectives, and assessment requirements from the students perspective. They can facilitate online learning sessions and collaboration between students. All facilities integrate tightly with the course plan, and are typically part of the planning process.

For teachers with limited time, a way of communicating material and resources when not in class becomes absolutely necessary. With standards and course objectives constantly changing, consolidating your information for online distribution becomes an obvious necessity. With a single change, all of your students can update their learning objectives, and understanding. Your course materials will leave your clients or students always wanting to come back.

Online systems aren't always appropriate. If you require a distributed e-learning solution which includes all learning content, objectives, assessment and feedback systems we can help you design it.

We can provide you with mutimedia intensive applications to help you train your students, and keep them up to date for longer. Assessment and evaluation can also be included as part of software packages. We can provide games, presentations, contextual and interactive tools to engage the student unlike anything else available.

• Sometimes it's better to provide as close to the real thing when educating students or providing reference material.
• Studies have shown that providing sufficient learning materials and keeping skills up to date in the workplace are necessary for mitigating risk
• Internet access isn't always appropriate for student use within the context of a secure workplace

Innovation Foundry has recently demonstrated a successful E-Learning software product at the recent Australian Flexible Learning Framework conference in Sydney. We partnered with Crestfern and BHP Billiton to provide a fantastic on site solution to training in some of BHP's facilities. There was a huge interest in our product, and it will be presented as one of the prime examples at another forthcoming conference. Find out more.

Technology Consultancy

All consultancy services provided by Innovation Foundry is being moved to Protogen Technologies.

Consultancy Specialsts

• We consult to small businesses, government and the enterprise.
• We can provide consultation over the phone, in a function room, or at your own premises.
• We are GITC approved.

• Programming Languages
  • C#
  • C++
  • PHP
  • C
  • VB.NET
  • SQL
• Services
  • Microsoft IIS
  • Apache
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Microsoft DNS
  • BIND (DNS)
  • MediaWiki
  • Virtual Machines (VMWare, Xen, xVM, Microsoft Virtual Server)
  • Linux (CentOS,RedHat,Ubuntu)
  • Microsoft Windows Server
• Frameworks
  • Microsoft .net
    • WCF
    • WPF
    • WF
  • Mono
  • QT
  • DotNetNuke
• Development Kits
  • Microsoft DirectX SDK
  • Microsoft Speech SDK
  • Microsoft Platform SDK
• Libraries
  • LLBLGenPro
• Hardware
  • Network design
  • Redundancy Strategies
  • Hardware recommendations

We have provided network design support, application systems support, and software design to integrate and improve efficiency of IT systems within a major Australian health provider.

We have provided technical assistance to a world class online reservation system. We believe with the assistance we provided the company is now able to simplify their existing system, improve efficiency, audit efficiency and consolidate disparate systems.

We have been able to assist clients recover from legacy unmanaged server security breaches.

• We can train small to large groups.
• A minimum of 5 people is normally required.
• A maximum of 200 is desired.
• Training is performed either as a half day or full day.
• Food and venue can be organised on request.
• We provide certified Trainers (Certificate IV).

Please see our consulting capabilites register for possible training topics. 

"Training on Demand" is a requirements oriented training solution to help you fill the gaps in knowledge of large amounts of staff.

Based on our consulting capabilites register, we can provide "Training On Demand" for your entire organisation. Usually consultation is done one-on-one with one of your staff. If you require an organisational wide upgrade of skills, a training seminar may be preferred.