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The legacy of Owl Den One

Owl Den One was the first product that I produced way back in the late 80's/early 90's.

I rediscovered a lot of the artifacts that I thought I lost due to moving, family cleansing, and other events that occur over the course of a lifetime. However, in cleaning out an old storage locker I rediscovered its rich history. I am still proud of the accomplishment.

The company and product went belly up in the early 90's at the tail end of the recession. Losing the company was a painful experience for me but it never deterred me from the great challenge it is to build something from scratch.

In many ways Owl Den One taught me how to take an idea, no matter how ill defined, and internalize it in order to convert its idea into a functioning model. Then with the model in hand create, implement, and deploy. Throughout my career I have honed the skill to endeavor designs for customers that were as far fetched as you can imagine with stunning results. Owl Den One wasn't far fetched, but it was such an endeavor.

I am eternally grateful for all the efforts of BarbaraLee Copas who was the office manager, tester, friend, and lover, who loved the product as much as I did. John Wrenn who was responsible for the project status screen and the first manual during the development of the third major rewrite. Though he did not stay long his impact was as profound as his knowledge and left a void that was never filled. As the programmer and writer of the second manual, John was really missed 8^). I would be remiss if I failed to give a shout out to Gary Wagner who was our salesman who striven valiantly to sell in the mist of a recession, to those who faced a similar fate.

My Uncle Bubba (1928-2001), gave me a printed reproduction of a quote from President Roosevelt's, man in the arena speech, as I struggled in producing Owl Den One.

President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904 By Pach Brothers [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The man in the arena

It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Owl Den Technologies, Inc.(1987 - 1994)

The image displays the Owl Den One Construction Management System.

The making of Owl Den One

One Den One was a journey that traversed the universe of technology from hard core development to product marketing. I’ve come a long way since the creation of Owl Den One in some ways but in others I remain the same.

Owl Den One started as a custom system written for Apro Corporation, Henry Archibald, a family friend who to this day I still enjoy his company and support. I spent an entire summer sweltering in the attic of my parents’ house and many a chilling winter day before the delivery of the initial system.

I wasn’t very pleased with the initial system though Henry thought it was good. It would be another two years before Henry would use the system in earnest, by researching construction cost estimating, cost budgeting, and spending countless hours watching Henry work. The system began to take form and I had dreams of selling a gazillion systems.

Every product on the market has to meet the standards of the day and back in the late 80’s that required a manual. I had caught the interest of Barbra Copas who understood the value of the system and joined in the long arduous hours of research, design, and keeping things moving. I am ever in debit to her for all her efforts along with John Wren who also joined in and wrote the very first manual in Ventura Publisher.

At the time we were all working from Barbara’s house spending nearly every moment talking, discussing, and working on the system. John designed the status screens, Barbara the AIA billing, and we worked hard to create a viable system that would provide a complete low cost solution to contractors.

I thought our big turning point was securing office space in cummings park and thanks to staff there they provided us with desks and a couple of chairs. It wasn’t luxurious but it was big enough to hold training sessions and drive sales.

Timing is everything. The Keating Five savings and loan scandal forced the FDIC to bail out the SDLC which impacted the Northeast, and devastated the construction industry during the following recession. The banks pulled credit from construction projects leaving a vast void in construction financing that drove many a small company out of business. Unfortunately, we were one of them.

At the end Owl Den One contained a complete estimating system, integrated with a sub contractor, vendor, inventory (very rudimentary), and employee database. The estimate was used to form the budget actual costs were recorded against. John’s status screen rivaled the best dashboard of today’s time providing a complete overview of the entire project from the initial estimate, job budget, change orders, and billing all on one screen. It was a robust system providing well over 100 job costing reports and analysis.

I want to thank Barbara and John, where ever they may be, for their dedication and efforts as I present to you the legacy of Owl Den One.

Legacy: Owl Den One