Tuesday, 21 December, 2010

A Year in Review: 2010


2010 is almost over - time flies!  We've achieved a lot over the last year, but it feels as though there're more ways for us to improve than ever before.  We'll have our hands full in 2011! 

We started working with thirty three new clients this year including Allied Properties REIT, IBM Canada, Greenwin and Whiterock REIT.  We are extremely grateful to all our clients, old and new.  Thanks for working with us and for trusting us to manage your data.  We'll continue to work hard to continually earn your business.

On the technology front we've made several advancements:

There's much more under development, so stay tuned during 2011!

We completed our year end on October 31st and we are delighted to report that we've had yet another great year.  Our 14th profitable year in a row!  We've never posted a loss since we were incorporated.   Some years we did not make much, but we always made something.  We have a strong balance sheet: next to no debt and no outside investors.   We have built our processes and developed our software on our own dime. We're not beholden to anyone - except our clients of course! - and our staff.  There's no one out there that could 'pull the plug' on us.

These good results in tough times are due to team effort.  We're lucky to have a great group of smart and hard working people.  Not only do they fully apply themselves to the work at hand, they also put considerable effort into continually developing themselves and getting better at what they do.  It's very flattering that several of our folks have been head-hunted this year.  It's even more flattering that they have stayed with us! 

On a sad note, we regret that John Zsolt, our founder, friend and colleague is not around to see the success of the business that he started.  On March 1st we will be marking the second anniversary of his passing.  If he were still around, I am sure that we would be even further along.  But if he could see how we're doing now, I hope he would still feel proud. 

Wednesday, 8 December, 2010

Enhanced Resources for Marketers and Web Designers

We've beefed up our resources for marketers and web designers. We've built a set of pages with code and implementation examples of how commercial real estate sites can use our managed content to build powerful and rich leasing sites.

Space Database creates CAD and marketing drawings of buildings. We keep this info up-to-date as the building changes over time. We calculate areas for leasing and we provide software to make this data available and accessible online. As this content is the basis of any commercial leasing activity, it makes a lot of sense to use it to drive the content of a leasing site.
The new section contains descriptions of the services we offer in both XML and JSON. We provide live examples, field descriptions and code snippets to help programmers access the data. We've also added a gallery to showcase how other companies have used our content in these sites.
Unfortunately, these pages are not public and I can't link to them here. If you're a marketer or web designer and interested in learning more, email me at msandblom[at]spacedatabase.com and I will give you the link. One caveat is that these services are available only for buildings hosted by Space Database. Although there is no extra charge to use these services, we have to be managing the data to make it available.

Friday, 3 December, 2010

3D Floorplan: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

At home we have been working our way through the Mad Men TV series. (Season 1-3 on Netflix and Season 4 on Apple TV) I was delighted to find this 3D drawing and model of the new office. This office is, of course,  different from the first three seasons - it would be a spoiler to say why!

The model was built by a fan: Tadej Štrok from Slovenia. He did a lot of rewinding and pausing to figure it out and it all looks correct to me. He used a free software tool called Floorplanner

Here are some images of the model:


And here's an interactive version:

Check out Floorplanner. It's a great little tool for making 2D and 3D floorplans. Like Google SketchUp it's free to use. But unlike SketchUp it works in your browser without a download and it's even simpler and easier to use.
There's also a Pro Version for real estate professionals that allows you to create walkthroughs and drawings that can be embedded in your website. It even lets visitors to your site add furniture! It costs $29 per month.