The too long didn’t read: North River Geographic Systems is now business partners with Fulcrum. Â I’m happy. Yeah – I know – that’s weird too.
So I started business something like 10 years ago as a part time “I wanna see if this can work” endeavor. I had a plan more or less – “All of my knowledge from working with the Federal Government is going to catapult me to fame and fortune”. I’ll wait here until you stop laughing. Â Granted there were parts that did help – but it was small bits and pieces. The first day I had left my comfy Government Job was the day I started learning.
The first thing I did was fill out all the paperwork and pay ESRI some money and I was a Business Partner. So I did everything I could do in my one man shop capacity to make that work. Just my opinion, because I’m probably breaking some sort of NDA , It didn’t work for me. It works for some – but for me not so much. So I stayed around a year longer than I should have and dropped the partnership. It’s a scary thing – you drop what is the largest commercial software firm in the universe as a partner. I don’t think anyone noticed as I kept getting emails 2 years later.
During that time period the number of companies I’m thinking “partner” start springing up. As a small business I want to expand. I want to partner. So I partner with a company and it wasn’t a good fit. I partner with another company and it almost ends up with me not being in business. I find a company and think “Maybe” only to realize I bring nothing to the table and they don’t want me. I’m learning a lot. I ended up at the point where someone would say ‘Partner’ and I would almost go NOPE before they pronounced the r. I turned into an island. I read an article a while back that pretty much put me back into the partnering mode. Your partners say a lot about your business. What makes sense for NRGS and the Partner? Where do I fit and where would they fit? Would I actually enjoy being a partner or is it a logo to stick on the website?
I became a fulcrum client a few years ago when working in the USVI . A job that was failing because of two different horrible attempts at data collection ended with Fulcrum fixing the problem we were having. Over the last three years it’s been my go to tool for mobile data collection. I enjoy using it. I like the good people at Fulcrum. For me that’s 60% of the problem on partnering. They have an awesome Product so there’s your other 40%.
My focus these days are services. I take bad data and I make it better. I help people with processes. My desktop tools of choice right now are QGIS, GDAL, GRASS, and PostGIS. I still use ESRI’s Toolset although I will try to get you to switch it up a bit. I’ve not had anything “solid” for data collection although I scream Fulcrum every chance I get. So I asked Fulcrum “what about partnering”. Yesterday I signed the paperwork and I’m a business partner with Fulcrum. They are happy – and I’m happy. We talked at length on where I can fit in…and I asked if I don’t fit please don’t do this.  It’s a high point for NRGS. So:
- If you want to know more about Fulcrum and how it can work – contact me.
- If you want to leverage your existing data  – Please yell..
- If you want pointers on data collection with fulcrum – I’m here.
- If you want to buy fulcrum ->Â http://www.fulcrumapp.com/plans/
It’s the first time I think partnering (i.e. signing paperwork) hasn’t made me sweat. I’m not being asked to push software at every breath which means I’m not a salesman. I’m still concentrating on data. I get a chance to talk to some very smart people on mobile data collection and other things. I can’t see any negatives for me at all. They may be going “if he tells the Penguin Joke one more time that’s it….”. Â I’m operating in less of a vacuum than before. Maybe I work Fulcrum into the QGIS Class just a bit. There will be more blog posts on Fulcrum moving forward.
It’s a good thing – and that’s a rare thing I say these days…..and – it’s not the only thing I’m about to announce either. More on that later.
