TimeControl started quite a long time ago.  By the time 1994 arrived and we had decided to publish TimeControl as a commercial off the shelf (COTS) timesheet system, we knew already that we would have to continue to work hard to update the product for technology that was changing dramatically even as we launched.

The first version of TimeControl was as a DOS product, a character-based interface.  That would be supplanted within the year with TimeControl version 2, with a Windows interface.  We were working on version 3 even as we launched that version.  TimeControl 3 featured support for client-server databases such as Microsoft’s SQL Server and the Oracle database.  Version 4 launched with one of the first ever browser-based interfaces for an enterprise product.  It was 1999.

Over the years, we have committed a portion of our development efforts to what we refer to internally as ‘infrastructure’.  It is, in our opinion, unavoidable.  The current term for this is ‘keeping a current technology stack’.  This is part of the cost of doing business.  There is a lot of technology to keep up with.

An enterprise product like TimeControl needs to support multiple databases and database versions.  These days we work with SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL.  Over the years there have been others.  Each of those products are also keeping up their technology stack.  They change all the time.  TimeControl also has to support different versions of Microsoft Server and different browsers including Chrome, Safari, Mozilla, Edge and Firefox.  Those too change all the time.  There are regular changes in malware protection, safety protocols and support for our product being used in our Software as a Service Online edition.  There is support for our free TimeControl Mobile App as well used by both Android and Apple iOS devices.   There are transportation protocols for data moving across the Internet that have to keep up with current standards to be more effective and safer.

TimeControl is well known for its links to Project Management tools like Oracle’s Primavera and Microsoft Project and Project Online.  These tools also change on a regular basis.

The very programming languages we use also change as do the interface controls we subscribe to in order to present different elements of our product.

TimeControl also including an Application Programming Interface (API) which allows other external systems to integrate to it without our intervention.  That too has to keep up with current language and protocol standards.

We’ve seen other products in our industry where, for whatever reason, the technology stack effort stalled.  Perhaps it was a short term plan to reduce costs and sell the company.  Perhaps the effort to update the technology stack was simply too challenging.  Those products quickly fell behind others in their category and, while not irrelevant, became harder and harder to sell, deploy and integrate.

That was never going to be us.

For TimeControl that means updating our underlying architecture all the time.  But, we don’t want to update in a way to make TimeControl unstable so we have to update that technology carefully as we do each major version.

I was noticing our most recent job posting for a developer which listed some of the technology we hope they will have experience in: C#, ASP.NET, Web API, RESTful services, Angular 4+, DevExtreme, OAuth/OpenID and, Bootstrap.  It’s quite a list and that’s not exhaustive.  Nor, do we expect we will find all of that in one person every time.

We haven’t even talked about changes that come about with modern desires like the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

We’re working on updating infrastructure in TimeControl now and I expect we’ll be doing it tomorrow and every tomorrow for as long as we can see forward.  Keeping up with the technology stack is one important way that TimeControl stays relevant.