Adam Thomas, Principal Solution Architect
Over the past year, TOPHAT LTD has gone through quite a transition. We’ve hired our first employee, Charles Ogborn, hosted two IWU interns, Christina and Cody, and are now bringing onboard a high school intern, Abigail Montalvo, as part of a program between Launch Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern schools.
Overcoming Our Aspirations
Not only has the TOPHAT team been growing, we have been refining our business. When TOPHAT LTD first started, we had aspirations of being a full-service IT firm offering services from systems and hardware support, custom software development, and internet marketing. That’s a lot…in fact it’s too much for a startup to offer in a quality manner.
At TOPHAT LTD quality matters. As our slogan, “Business Technology That Works,” indicates, we think it’s more important that a technology solution just works instead of being cool or slick. In order to achieve that, it needs to be developed in a quality manner.
To maintain this high level of quality, some things had to change. We didn’t want to stop being able to provide a full range of services, so, over the past year, we’ve been building partnerships with other companies that are proficient in providing those services we chose to remove from our portfolio.
At TOPHAT LTD quality matters. As our slogan, “Business Technology That Works,” indicates, we think it’s more important that a technology solution just works instead of being cool or slick. In order to achieve that, it needs to be developed in a quality manner.
To maintain this high level of quality, some things had to change. We didn’t want to stop being able to provide a full range of services, so, over the past year, we’ve been building partnerships with other companies that are proficient in providing those services we chose to remove from our portfolio.
The Benefits of a Subtractive Process
If you haven’t heard the story behind the FedEx logo, I encourage you to take some time and read up on it. The design firm that designed the logo prefers to use a subtractive process. They keep taking things away until they’re left with the core essence of the concept. What they find is, if they do this the “right” way, the end result can end up having extra meaning by removing things that previously got in the way or arranging things in a certain manner. In other words, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” or, as it’s explained in the narrative about the design company, 1+1=3.
I have also found that this subtractive process has been a very beneficial process. We’ve met a lot of great companies! Additionally, all of these companies have their own unique personalities which allow us to match up the right partner with our clients when we need their assistance on a project. This also allows TOPHAT LTD to tackle much larger projects than we could previously.
I have also found that this subtractive process has been a very beneficial process. We’ve met a lot of great companies! Additionally, all of these companies have their own unique personalities which allow us to match up the right partner with our clients when we need their assistance on a project. This also allows TOPHAT LTD to tackle much larger projects than we could previously.
What's Left
From the beginning, TOPHAT LTD has been focused on using modern technology to achieve working solutions for our clients. As we went through the subtractive process, the two key areas that we felt embodied that the best were cloud-based apps and mobile apps.
The cloud has proven itself to be a viable and powerful alternative to traditional self-maintained hardware and self-hosted applications. It provides users the ability to access applications and data from a variety of devices and locations. It also provides small businesses the ability to leverage enterprise-grade hardware and technology for a fraction of the cost. Finally, its scalable architecture allows it to grow and shrink with your demand when it happens instead of requiring your business to forecast your future resource demand.
Mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets, and now smart watches, are becoming ubiquitous. This is an area that has experienced tremendous growth and is continuing to grow as the devices themselves become more capable. Information is worthless if you can’t access it. Information technology (IT) is driven by the purpose of providing the right information to the right person at the right time. Devices that enable you to touch that information with your fingertips, hold it in your hand, or wear it on your wrist are powerful vehicles for advancing the mission of IT.
At TOPHAT LTD, we believe the combination of these two modern technologies, cloud and mobile, can really move businesses forward in powerful ways.
The cloud has proven itself to be a viable and powerful alternative to traditional self-maintained hardware and self-hosted applications. It provides users the ability to access applications and data from a variety of devices and locations. It also provides small businesses the ability to leverage enterprise-grade hardware and technology for a fraction of the cost. Finally, its scalable architecture allows it to grow and shrink with your demand when it happens instead of requiring your business to forecast your future resource demand.
Mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets, and now smart watches, are becoming ubiquitous. This is an area that has experienced tremendous growth and is continuing to grow as the devices themselves become more capable. Information is worthless if you can’t access it. Information technology (IT) is driven by the purpose of providing the right information to the right person at the right time. Devices that enable you to touch that information with your fingertips, hold it in your hand, or wear it on your wrist are powerful vehicles for advancing the mission of IT.
At TOPHAT LTD, we believe the combination of these two modern technologies, cloud and mobile, can really move businesses forward in powerful ways.
Feet on the Ground, Head in the Clouds
Don’t worry though that TOPHAT is going to push you forward faster than what would be comfortable for you. We’re still a company that has a couple of farm boys trying to use common sense and modern technology to provide high quality custom software solutions to businesses.
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