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Decision Design
"Homeshores" at Hacienda
By George Walsh Decision Design Corporation, a custom software development firm that currently has offices in Hacienda at 5980 Stoneridge Drive, announced in January that it has entered into an agreement to lease 7,000 square feet of new office space at 4420 Rosewood Drive at Hacienda’s CarrAmerica Corporate Center to accommodate growth in its Homeshoring segment. The new facility is expected to be fully operational in March of this year. “We added four additional employees last year and our current space in the Pleasanton office was becoming too small for us,” says Monty Davis, president of Decision Design. “We’re happy that the new space is still in Hacienda, and the fact that it is more than double the size of our Stoneridge Drive location should help us to accommodate our company’s growth.” Because Decision Design serves as a contractor to other companies, none of the software they create bears their company name. “We develop software products for the sale or internal use of our customers,” Davis says. “Our products are owned by our customers and usually the end user doesn’t even know we worked on them.” Decision Design’s business focus is in “homeshoring” and “software remediation” in software development. Software remediation is targeted at rescuing failing software development projects. For example, sometimes a company will contract a software development company to do work for them that ends up being unsatisfactory. They can then hire Decision Design to get the project back on track. Homeshoring serves companies looking for local low-cost alternatives to contracting software development projects to companies outside the U.S. In fact, Davis attributes much of his company’s success to the challenges of outsourcing development projects overseas. “There’s a gigantic flow of work to companies outside the U.S., but working with these companies isn’t always the best option for companies looking to outsource development work,” Davis says. “We actually set up an offshore center ourselves at one point to lower our costs and ran it for two years. We found that, by and large, it was not as cost effective as we had anticipated. The product quality wasn’t as good as what we expected of ourselves. We then closed that operation and shifted our strategy to make our U.S. operations inexpensive, effective, and high quality to see if we could compete with the offshore companies.” While some of the projects undertaken by Decision Design for its clients are contracted as an alternative to having them done outside the U.S., an increasing amount of the company’s business is in bringing failed projects back here to be completed to the customer’s satisfaction after an unsuccessful offshore effort has been attempted. In addition to its facility in Hacienda, Decision Design has offices in Bannockburn, Ill., in the Chicago area. The company has 20 employees overall, with seven located in Illinois and the remainder located in Pleasanton. Decision Design celebrated its tenth anniversary this month. “We wanted to be located in California because of its software development resources,” Davis says. “Silicon Valley and the Bay Area are very rich in technology. Hacienda has been the right place for us because it is what we like to think of as a ‘friend’ of Silicon Valley. Pleasanton allows us to have less expensive operations while still having access to all the resources that are around the Bay Area. It’s a great place to be.” ABC Takes a Merit
Shop Approach to Labor
The “merit shop” construction philosophy is intended to encourage open competition and a free-enterprise approach that awards contracts based on merit. While dedicating itself to the merit shop philosophy, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Golden Gate Chapter, which recently expanded to offices at 4309 Hacienda Drive, offers its members an organization that helps them deal with construction-related job issues on an industry-wide basis. “We represent companies, but we also provide benefits that allow the companies to prosper as well as their employees, says John Robinson, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Golden Gate Chapter.” ABC's activities include government representation, legal advocacy, education, workforce development, communications, technology, recognition through national and chapter awards programs, employee benefits, information on best practices, and business development through an online contractor search directory. ABC committees work with legislators, business councils, and the media to get the merit shop message out. The ABC Golden Gate Chapter doesn’t only represent and support contractors, but looks toward educating those who are seeking training in the building trades. “We provide state-approved apprenticeship programs, sanctioned by the state of California, that allow us to provide someone a career in construction in five trades: carpentry, electrical, plumbing, labor, and painting. Our mission is to bring to into these apprenticeship programs, which are a combination of classroom training and working with contractors, to achieve a goal of a career in construction. We think there are some very fine careers available in the various vocational fields. We’ve been trying to work with high schools up and down Northern and Central California to let students know that there are excellent jobs out there for young people through the ABC apprenticeship programs.” Those apprenticeship programs are only a part of the services that the ABC has to offer. The organization also provides a wide variety of construction-related seminars. These include education on management and workforce development, as well providing information on medical and dental plans that its member companies can offer to their employees. “The ABC is a non-profit association that was founded in 1950 in Baltimore, MD,” says John Robinson, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Golden Gate Chapter. “We have approximately 85 chapters around the country, around 23,000 member companies nationwide, and approximately 575 member companies in the ABC Golden Gate Chapter, which encompasses the area from Fresno to the Oregon border.” The ABC has four other chapters in California, located in Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. |
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| Last modified: June 17 2010 06:38:29 Copyright © 2010 HBPOA |
