Where we talk to the “Big Cheese” and find out more about who they are and their company. The choice of who you do business may come down to the look in the eye and a simple handshake.
Ten Questions for Jim Kruper with Kioware
James Kruper President KioWare
What is your company name, location and your position?
Analytical Design Solutions, Inc. DBA KioWare, York, PA, USA, and President
How is business these days?
Business is very good, though it is interesting how the market is changing now that OEM Android devices are available for the self-service market as well as new markets, so I am very glad that three years ago we developed an Android version of KioWare.
What is your most popular product?
While our KioWare for Android market share is growing, it is still our KioWare for Windows products out in front, and, in particular, our KioWare Lite for Windows product remains the perennial leader of the pack.
How large a company are you?
We remain a small and nimble company of 14 staff members all based in York, PA. One of our biggest strengths is the experience of our staff. Excluding me, our staff averages 7 years of tenure with the company, and our technical staff is even longer averaging 8 years of tenure. New for 2015, we will be opening an office in England starting with a staff of two. This is an exciting expansion for us and will help us better support clients in EMEA.
How many years have you been in business?
I formed ADSI in 1991, and while our early years were doing engineering consulting and IT consulting in the electronics industry, we gradually concentrated on IT consulting across all industries, and in 2001 we landed a self-service project from which KioWare was born, and we have never looked back.
What is your biggest market(s) or skills focus, or do you have multiple?
KioWare being self-service system software and thus the foundation upon which a self-service application is run means that we are viable in all vertical markets. Our largest markets are retail, healthcare, financial and government. Our focus is to provide the self-service framework upon which your application resides, so that you don’t need to re-invent the self-service wheel, and you can concentrate on the value-add of your application and let us be concerned with the self-service integration issues.
What are the strengths of your company?
Many times, our customers want us to develop the application that will run on KioWare, so we have very talented and experienced graphic designers and developers, and I am very proud of the industry awards we have won over the years. One of our biggest strengths is the commitment we make to customer service. When you call in with a technical issue, you will speak to one of our developers or sales representatives and should your issue be significant it is likely you will talk to the developer responsible for that section of code. Naturally, we want our customers to have the best experience with KioWare, but there is another benefit to our being readily available to our customers. Speaking with existing and prospective clients provide us with valuable information about product features & customer needs. So while it is expensive to provide personal customer support, in the long term it is absolutely a win-win for everyone.
What market trends can you share with us that you think are pretty obvious?
Android is broadening the market for self-service, in particular expanding the need for KioWare in the Purposed Device market. Employers supplying tablets or phones to their staff need to limit how the device is being used, so this isn’t a classic self-service deployment where the device needs to be used by the general population, but rather a device which is only being used by a single person, but the device needs to be locked down to ensure it is used only in a productive and safe manner. In addition, Android OEM quality hardware solutions are increasing, so it is clear that deployers will have additional good options moving forward.
