I joined Rand Associates in 1997 as IT Assistant, turning up at our Reigate office armed with enthusiasm and the technical confidence of someone who could restart things.  The building smelt of dust, smoke and the faint, unplaceable perfume of paper.  Lots of paper.  The office radio was invariably tuned to Radio 1 where Chris Evans regularly played Oasis, who were preparing for their upcoming world tour.

Our stock condition surveying team would pop in to feed the data entry team with piles of completed survey forms.  The constant sound was of number pads taking a bashing as the data was entered into our Asset Management System of the time, REPAIRS.  Any requests for changes in the software were communicated with our team in the Birkenhead office via faxed diagrams and telephone calls.

Early attempts at moving surveyors away from their beloved paper forms and Biros came with some Husky ‘portable’ PCs.  Luckily our software was simple enough to run on them, the problem was finding surveyors strong enough to carry them, and the risk of broken feet if dropped.  The advent of Microsoft’s ‘Pocket PC’ and compatible PDAs in the early 2000’s led to more success, developing Stock Mobile – a data collection partner to our own Asset Management System of the time (and first in partnership with M3), Forecaster.   The 2010’s brought us the iPad mini, a perfect size device for a surveyor out in the field, and for this we developed eSurveys.  The ability to quickly collect data and associated photos led to its continued popularity with surveyors.

The internet was quite different in the late 1990s.  “The cloud” was opening the door to the smoking room. If you wanted to send an email then dial up internet was a ritual: you waited, you listened to the modem sing its terrifying screech, and you hoped the connection didn’t drop halfway through.  We can now share vast amounts of data with clients in a variety of ways, far removed from zipping 10mb of data across multiple floppy disks because it was too big to email.

The real revolution during my time has, of course, been connectivity.  I used to enjoy delivering software demos or training in person, visiting towns and areas I would not have otherwise been to.  The idea of driving for hours to a place completely new to me, with a map on my lap, hoping I spot a turning, now seems alien compared to the world of Google Maps and in-car SatNav.  These days I can join multiple Teams meetings in a day, all from the comfort of my desk, with an excellent coffee machine in the next room!

Now, as an owner-director of Rand Associates I spend more time in spread sheets and meetings than tinkering with new kit, but my early experiences of technology, data and software design hooked me in, and they remain my main interests today. 

There have been many exciting changes in technology in the past 29  years, and I look forward to what the future will bring.  But despite all this development, some things stay the same – I am involved in the development of our latest Asset Management System, M3Vision; all devices still need restarting now and then; and Oasis have just completed their latest world tour.