John Raleigh
Brightwork Solutions, LLC
139 Woodland Road
Hampton, NH 03842
603-926-6611
jraleigh@jraleigh.net
Looking for a Microsoft Dot Net Pro? You have arrived at the right website!
Since the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981, John's activities have evolved. In the first year, there wasn't much to work with, but he did a couple of jobs for local builders using Lotus 1-2-3. Then, when the first compilers came along, some other programmers joined and it was apparent that the team would specialize in database projects. A short period of Pascal programming lead to expert work in dBase III then Clipper and specialization in database work. Microsoft Windows arrived on the early '90s and this led to an easy decision to go forward with solutions in Microsoft Dot Net as well as Access.
(BWS) is a custom database application development company specializing in Microsoft Dot.Net applications with SQL Server integration. We subscribe to agile coding for all types of data solutions for small to intermediate size businesses. John Raleigh, the alpha geek is apparently in charge because he seems to do the long range strategic planning as well as take out the trash. The other programmers tend to ignore his rants/soliloquies and focus on getting the real work done.
.NET is a secure, reliable, cloud-based,and high-performance application platform.
C# is the programming language for .NET. It's strongly-typed and type-safe and has integrated concurrency
and automatic memory management.
C# is a modern, safe, and object-oriented, programming language that spans from high-level features
such as data-oriented records to low-level features such as function pointers.
.NET is a cross-platform developer platform from Microsoft for building various applications like web, mobile, desktop, and cloud services. It consists of tools, languages (like C# and Visual Basic), and a rich set of libraries for developers to create applications more easily. A key component is the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which executes the code, while the class library provides reusable code for common functions.
We often find ourselves explaining to clients exactly what type of applications that can be built with Microsoft Visual Studio. It offers a variety of features for differenct application needs, mainly Cloud-enabled, multi-user applications. --Small business apps --Departmental apps --Corporationwide apps --Web applications
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Other noteworthy sites:
FPI Inc. (Jonathan Pond, LLC) Newton, MA
Dotnet Programmer
Jonathan is a nationally known financial planner with close affiliations with AARP. For many years,
his firm has produced a very substantial and complete set of financial reports and advice based on extensive
questionnaires sent in by conference attendees as well as respondents to public TV presentations.
Done in VB6 and Borland, the report generation became very slow compared to current technology, but more
seriously was breaking down. They lost support from the prior programmer and I was called.
I set them up with a LogMeIn connection so I could transfer editions of my work to their site frequently.
This became a content management project with dependence on complex combinations of responses concerning
age, family, investments, retirement plans, risk preference and many other items. In some cases one of
50 possible responses were determined to go into a particular report section.
Contact: Jonathan Pond 617-243-0020
Custom Electric Merrimack, NH
DotNet Programmer
Developed a complete business management application in Microsoft Dot Net for this Electrical Contracting firm.
A very big feature for this client was getting this to work remotely through Windows Remote Desktop being hosted
at a local IT company. Client contractors can go to jobsites with their tablets and using wireless connections
to a shared data source (in Access) can input data to the central data tables. In effect, this is classic Access
but on the Web!
Contact: Jeff Kibbie 603-424-7557
Disetronic is a subsidiary of Hoffmann LaRoche. In a clean-room environment, they manufacture clinical devices,
especially insulin pumps for diabetics. They had a pressing need to improve the tracking of numbered work lots
to track the entire manufacturing cycle. We divided the4 work into two major tasks: Warehousing and Production.
Oct 2004 - May 2006
PAX World Funds, Portsmouth, NH, Stanton, MO, Schenectady, NY, Portland, Maine (Access 2003)
Access Programmer
This mutual fund company hired me to finish the work started by a previous Access database programmer.
The program tracks commissions owed to brokers all across the country on all kinds of mutual fund
transactions. A quarterly import of data is required and I automated this to make life easy for the
administrator (Michelle). I later took on Access projects in several other departments. PAX continues
to use me for general database support.
Oct 2004 - May 2006
UNITIL, Hampton, NH (Access 2003)
Access Database Programmer
This is the local electric company. They have a program called Demand-Side Management (DSM) that imports data
from a wide variety of formats from many vendors. Formerly, it took a serious and tedious effort to handle
all the different import and data transformations and calculations in Excel spreadsheets. This was quite tedious
and error-prone--in fact there was a huge backlog of data to import. I automated this using Access.
Dec 2003 - May 2004
Fisher Scientific World Headquarters, Hampton, NH and Albany, NY (Access 2002)
Database Programmer
Now named Thermo-Fisher, this major supplier of laboratory instrumentation and equipment had a dozen Access databases
containing the results of multiple Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Surveys. They needed a data-aware programmer
to unify this data and migrate it into one so that it could be properly queried and reported on and
so information across quarters and across divisions would make sense. After merging all data into one
set of normalized tables, I have achieved functional equivalence. I am proceeding to rewrite existing queries
and add new queries/reports to address the new simplified schema. We are doing this in such a way that
an eventual merge of this "seed" data will easily transform into a full CRM system by means of migration
into a Siebel ODS (Operational Data Store).
Jul 2004 - Oct 2004
ProTracker, Inc., Hampton, NH, Chicago, IL (Access 2003)
DotNet Programmer
ProTracker is a software development firm with a product of the same name offered to a market consisting
of Financial Planners. Data needed to be imported from their ECommerce website into a local database,
and then out to Peachtree accounting.
Feb 2004 - May 2004
Acme Brick Company, Sealy, TX (VB.NET, ADO.NET)
DotNet Programmer
A large brick plant just outside of Houston located us by searching for our skillset on the Web. We created a
quality control program for their production engineer using DotNet technologies that monitored a high resolution
video camera.
This camera was continually focused on a production line of precured and precut bricks called a "slug". Periodically,
the line operator clicks a button to take a picture of the line going by at 1 foot per second. Our software grabs a
frame from the continuous video stream and displays it on a color monitor side by side with a picture of a known high
quality standard for that particular style of brick. Depending on the visual comparison, the operator can take
appropriate action such as calling for a change in mixture or other operating parameters. If quality is good, he
simply does nothing. We log the picture taking events in order to track the operator taking pictures on a prescribed
frequency. Hidden from the operator, there is a secured maintenance module so the engineer can periodically check the
log, add new standards, tune the camera settings, and perform other data management features.
May 2003 - June 2003
Tyco International, Exeter, NH and Portland, Maine (Access 2002)
DotNet Programmer
A local programming house named Compass Systems and Programming created an Employee
Performance program in Access that is deployed at 100 worldwide regions. There were
two very different versions done in Access, one for upper management and one for everyone else. I
merged the two code bodies and reproduced all the pre-existing functionality.
Just for fun, I changed some 'employees names and ids and published a subset of the data
to our password protected .NET website in an editable datagrid. I did this to demonstrate
our skills with DotNet and to show the value of centralized, up-to-date, and secure data as
well as XML and web services.
Feb 2003 - May 2003
BMR Thermal, Hampton, NH and Maine (Access 2002)
Access Programmer
BMR is a regional sales office for a major West Coast supplier of furnace/boiler equipment. I analyzed
the Excel spreadsheet system they had been using to manage the regional sales activities and built a
completely new territory and customer management system, including parts inventory and history. I
provided easy links from an Access app to Word documents for quotes and order processing under a MailMerge subsystem.
Feb 2003 - June 2003
Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Exeter, NH
Access Database Programmer
This is a highly visible branch of a nonprofit organization that matches and places underprivileged or troubled
children with mature and stable adult mentors. The staff needed to migrate their Excel-based data collection
into an Access database that would coordinate their activities and take them into the future. I did
that plus providing links to the national database which resides on the Web.
Aug 2001 - Oct 2002
UnumProvident Insurance, Portland, Maine
Access Programmer
Created and tested two Websites for HR. One that allows employees to register
questions regarding their benefits and which sends EMail to a UNUM HelpDesk and one
that allows employees and retirees to view their pension benefits. Used Visual InterDev,
Visual Studio/Visual Basic, and MS Office components, SQL Server7.
Pension Administration. As part of a large team of
pension managers, analysts, and technicians, I managed a transition
of a large database involving over 30,000 current employees plus
retirees (pension annuitants) from an outside vendor to in-house
usage. Used Microsoft Access and Visual Basic.
Jan 2000 - Jul 2001
State of NH, Concord, NH
Access Programmer
Created WIA Tracking and Reporting System (Dept of Labor mandated)
Created Dept of Youth Services Tracking System.
Sep 1999 - Nov 1999
Holyoke Mutual Insurance, Salem, MA
Access Developer in Access 97. (Contract)
Created complete multiuser system to track all Agents, Staff, Lines
of Business, Agent Evaluations, Business Volume, and other entities.
Sep 1998 to Feb 1999
Cabot Corp., Billerica and Boston, MA
Access Programmer
Using a wide variety of modern tools on a Windows NT platform to
render enhancements and support to five major areas:
1) The company's WinLIMS application, a globally used lab sample/results/finance
tracking system
2) The Analytical Billing System (ABS) and 24 other lab-oriented Access databases.
3) Y2K compliance studies of all systems
4) Long Term Incentive (LTI) program developed from scratch in Access.
July 1998 - Sep 1998
State of Mass. Dept of Public Health, Boston, MA
Women, Infants, Children program ("WIC")
WIC is a statewide program (140 sites) administered with complex software
written in Clipper 5.2. This was primarily a Y2K job which
used my Clipper, Access, and VBA skills to thoroughly analyze the
system to insure that no little children will starve after 1999.
May 1998 - July 1998
Cambridge Technology Partners, Cambridge, MA
Senior Developer for globally deployed Sigma Sales Software
Visual Basic and Access 97 used to enhance this large Siebel Systems
Sales Management system. Client/Server with Windows NT/Oracle.
Jan 1998 - Dec 1998
Liberty Mutual, Dover, NH
New Life Business System
Full life cycle development of this complex data mining and
reporting system including fully automatic downloads from their mainframe. Extensive
use of SQL and very complex joins of up to 30 tables/ queries and
subqueries. Liberty continues to call me in to add new reports
and tweak older ones.
Mar 1996 - Jan 1998
The New England, Boston, MA
Lead Designer/Programmer for Sales Illustration Software
3500 life insurance agents and brokerages around the country depend
on this complex multi-product software which was written in Turbo
Pascal. Although The New England has a more powerful Windows product,
the older (legacy) code must be maintained at least through 1998
since many of their user sites are not Windows capable.
Apr 1994 - Mar 1996
Watson Wyatt Company; Wellesley, MA
Contractor/Programmer in Compensation Analysis and Flexible Benefits
Wyatt's Boston office is responsible for the maintenance of elaborate
Human Resources software, called WyComp. There are Clipper and Access
versions installed at many worldwide Fortune 500 client firms, hospitals,
and universities. While on contract to Wyatt for a year and a half,
I made extensive modifications and wrote many new utilities. I was
responsible for design, coding, testing, customization, and maintenance
updates on complex multiuser software. I served as technical expert
on phone support as well as field trips to client sites with the
the HR consultants.
Chemistry (Math minor): Bowdoin College (BS 1966)
Chemical Engineering: UC Berkeley 1969-70 2 yrs on campus
Computer Science: UNH 1984-85 2 yrs on campus 20 units of core computer science
Computer Science: 1995 MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) - Access
Computer Science: Northeastern Univ 1997 - Advanced C course
Computer Science: NH Technical Institute, Concord, NH 2003 - DotNet (.NET) 6 day course