This autumn is getting hot for Rainer Stropek and his team at software architects. On 30 September, Google stops the support of the development tool Silverlight in the Chrome browser which opens new possibilities for their product time cockpit. “Currently, we are putting the finishing touches to the time cockpit HTML 5 client to provide a seamless migration from Silverlight to HTML 5 for our users,” said CEO Rainer Stropek.
The Upper Austrian startup’s software time cockpit provides a time tracking and project accounting solution for users, managers, developers and back-office staff. Time cockpit is currently available in twoflavours, an installable client for PC and a Silverlight version that runs in the browser.
Expanding with HTML 5
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In addition to their day-to-day business, software architects released the first public preview of the new HTML 5 client for time cockpit already in December last year. Up until now, there are several new version of the HMTL 5 Client and the team is improving its features on a regular basis. “Our goal is to increase our reach,” says Stropek. At the moment, time cockpit is not available on Android and iOS devices, but with the HMTL 5 Client, this will change.
“In addition, clients want solutions that are as light-weight as possible and don’t necessitate time-consuming software management,” he says. “With HMTL 5, we meet this requirement and by doing so, we hope to further grow our client base.”
Like the current version of time cockpit, the HTML 5 client is intended be an open platform for time tracking related data within a company. According to Stropek, “one of the time cockpit’s advantages is that it is no standalone solution for time tracking, but it should be integrated into a company’s existing software ecosystem.” To accomplish that time cockpit provides dedicated interfaces like its OData Web API to exchange data with other systems. “Opening time cockpit using a Web API was a real enabler. Clients use the API in ways we would not have thought about, as notification systems, data imports or exports and so on.”
Using the electronic footprint
Time cockpit is a network consisting of software – as well as hardware-based sensors that record various aspects of a person’s activity, including calendar, user behavior in regard to electronic devices, as well as communication, among others. The sensor data are then processed heuristically and statistically and with the help of algorithms from the field of machine learning before being analyzed. Put in easier terms, this means that time cockpit allows employees to “do their job without the burden of having to note time,” Stropek writes in his blog.
Instead of time-consuming data entry in time sheets, time cockpit makes use of the “electronic footprint” that everyone leaves while working, cofounder Karin Huber noted, thus recording the user’s behavior and activities without them actually having to log data into the software.
More busy times ahead
Founded in July 2010 by business informatics expert Karin Huber and software engineer Rainer Stropek received support from tech2b, the Upper Austrian High Tech incubator. The team has since then grown to seven people. “Organic growth and a healthy net cash flow are important to us,” says Stropek. “It’s not our main goal to become really big as fast as possible.”
The Upper Austrian startup will definitely need to make good use of its manpower in order to continue its busy routine.
“In the next two quarters we will focus on stabilizing the HTML 5 client to replace the Silverlight client. Afterwards, we will start with building the other two key features, offline-capability and activity tracking, in HTML 5. Besides, we want to further continue expanding our time cockpit-related business,“ said Stropek.
This story is brought to you in partnership with AplusB, a programme funded by FFG.
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