Challenges and

Opportunities for the

Software Entrepreneur

Dr Olivier Lhemann
President, INT

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 What is INT?
(Interactive Network Technologies)

 Software and service company based in

Houston
 Started in 1990 in Minneapolis
 $12,000 investment + 2 sun workstations
(loaners)
 Develop visualization tools for oil&gas
exploration based on emerging workstation
technology
 No internet, no email!
 About 50 employees (Houston +
Novosibirsk)
© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.
 Products
From widgets to middleware

Products Technololgy Introducti

Geoscience widgets, X11/Motif /C on
1992
View3D
ChartObject & EditTable
Carnac & Geoscience C++ 1995
Library Motif/MFC/Q
J/GeoToolkit, tJava 1999
J/View3DPro,
J/CarnacGIS
GeoToolkit.NET C# 2003
CarnacGIS.NET .NET
INTViewer Java 2003
Wellbore Viewer
© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.
 J/GeoToolkit
For Java
J/Schematics

J/WellLog

J/GeoToolkit
J/Seismic
J/CarnacPro
J/ContourGeo
Java 2DTM CGMOutput

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 J/View3DPro

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Wellbore & INTViewer

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 What it feels like selling our
products…

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Services
Transforming a problem into a solution

 Our customers don’t always have the

resources or the expertise to use our
toolkits
 INT Professional Services provides
consulting services designed to help our
customers build solutions with our
toolkits
 Our focus/expertise is in the area of
scientific visualization, UI, and web-
enabled applications
© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.
 LithoTect- Geologic Systems

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Sismage - Total

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Reservoir Navigation
Baker Hughes INTEQ

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 eSQCPRO - Sercel

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Our Customers
 Major oil&gas companies (Exploration &
Production)
 Major software vendors and oil&gas
service companies
 Small software vendors (oil&gas)
 Other industries include: government,
telecom, finance, etc.

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Our people

“We hire the best and brightest, teach

them the state of the art in tools and
techniques, stand back, and watch
them accomplish amazing things in
8 hour work days”

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Hire the best and brightest

How can a small software company

hire the best and brightest
developers?

Where to find them?

How to convince them to work for
you?
Good pay, good benefits, free sodas… is
it enough?

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 It’s about passion…

“…The primary reason to work here is one

thing that's hard to find: Passion. We hire the
best and brightest, teach them the state of the
art in tools and techniques, stand back, and
watch them accomplish amazing things in 8
hour work days. They go home and spend time
with their friends and family with a sense of
accomplishment and pride in their work. ….
We're investing in our people because, in the
end, that's the only asset a software company
really has…“

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 State of the Art
Tools and Techniques
INT Consulting Service challenges
Relatively small projects (2-8 people)
Problem scope is not completely
defined
The requirements often change
during the project
Customer expects a fairly accurate
cost estimate

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 INT Agile Unified Process
 Agile methods embrace change
 Focus on feedback and collaboration
between developers and customer
 Short iterations (2-3 weeks)
 Emphasis on automated testing
 Adapting design rather than up-front
design
 Evolving requirements rather than rigid
specification.

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Benefits of Agile Methods
 Automated testing dramatically lowers
defect rates and improves software
design.
 Frequent releases lower total risk, and
mitigate risk by front-loading failure.
 Iterative development cycle provides
high project visibility and customer
control.
 Constant customer feedback greatly
improves the usefulness of the system.
© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.
 Some of the Tools used by
Agile Developers
 Developer Tools
 Build tools (Ant, Nant)
 IDE (JBuilder, Eclipse, IntelliJ)
 Documentation (JavaDoc)
 Testing Framework (JUnit, NUnit)
 GUI testing Framework (Carabiner, JFCUnit)
 Static Analysis (Findbugs, JDepend)
 Code coverage (Emma)
 Project Management Tools
 Task Management (XPlanner)
 Bug Tracking (Bugzilla, Track+)
 Source Control (CVS, Subversion)
 Project Documentation (JSPWiki)
 Continuous Integration Build System (Anthill, Cruise
Control)

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Stand back

“The environment that nurtures creative

programmers kills management and
marketing types--and vice versa”

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Challenges
 Outside factors
 Offshoring
 OpenSource
 Technology changes
 Competition
 Inside factors
 Our Customers
 Our Employees
 Managing time…

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Opportunities
 It’s a good time to be in our industry
 Many companies have more projects than
resources
 Visualization (especially 2D) is being viewed as
a commodity
 Developing new products (well schematic
toolkit for drilling)
 Higher level tools (Viewers) with plugin
architecture
->provide visualization platform for building
VA applications

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Entrepreneurial Success
Sample from Google search
(more than > 23M results)
 Entrepreneurial success in software is
5% great idea and 95% execution
 Plan big – Start small – Don’t Borrow
 Achieve the power of clarity!!!
 Here's the secret that every successful
software company is based on ….
 Find a need and fill it
 Work hard, have fun, make history

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.

 Can you help please!
 User interface specialists
 Domain expertise + software
engineering
 Good OO C++ programmers

© 2005 Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.