PowerMapper Software Blog

Here's a month-by-month review of the important events of 2010 for our company and customers:

• Jan - PowerMapper 5.0 Released
  PowerMapper 5.0 was released to support and maintenance customers. New features included: new map styles; analytics data import; data visualization; map notes.
• Feb - Management Buyout
  PowerMapper Software completed the acquisition of Electrum’s PowerMapper and SortSite product business as part of a management buyout (MBO).
• Mar - Draft of new Section 508 accessibility standards
  The US Federal Access Board released a draft refresh of the Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Guidelines
• Apr - Customer base expands to 30% of Fortune 100
  Sales figures revealed that PowerMapper and SortSite were used by more than 30% of the Fortune 100.
• May - SortSite 4.0 released 
  New features in the release included: English and French spell checking; accessibility and link checking inside PDF documents; link checking inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
• Jun - IE6 usage fell below 5% in US and Europe
  Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) usage fell below 5% for the first time. First released in 2001, and bundled with Windows XP, this version has plagued web developers with browser compatibility issues for a decade.
• Jul - Partnership with Shaw Trust announced
  Shaw Trust (a UK charity which supports disabled and disadvantaged people) started using SortSite as part of their web accessibility services. 
• Aug - New Headquarters 
  We moved to new headquarters in the center of Edinburgh, providing lots of options for expansion and a linchpin for our growing global operations.
• Sep - Google Instant released
  Google released Google Instant, which provides real-time search results as you type.
• Oct - Transition of Yahoo organic search and PPC to Bing
  The transition of Yahoo's search results to Bing, concluded with the transfer of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to Microsoft's Adcenter platform. 
• Nov - Donna Jodhan wins accessibility case against Canadian government
  Justice Kelen ruled that Canada’s federal government must deliver key websites in a usable format for blind and partially-sighted Canadians. The court gave the Canadian government 15 months to make government websites comply with WCAG 2.0.
• Dec - BSI publishes BS 8878 web accessibility standard
  BS 8878 Web Accessibility Code of Practice was published by the British Standards Institute (BSI) to address the growing challenge of digital inclusion. It's useful to anyone new to accessibility as it gives guidance on process, rather than on technical issues.

The winter festival has just finished in Edinburgh. For 6 weeks, from the start of December to the start of January, the city centre streets come alive day and night with:

• Outdoor skating in Princes Street Gardens (photo below)
• Christmas markets with plenty of tasty food and glühwein
• Ferris wheel, helter skelter and other rides
• The Hogmany street party - about 80,000 people crowd into Princes Street to celebrate New Year and watch the annual fireworks display

There are more winter festival pictures over on our company Facebook page.

Just back from the Business of Software Conference 2010. Met some interesting people and heard lots of great speakers, but two really stood out.

Firstly, Derek Sivers, a musician who founded CD Baby, then sold it for $20 million and gave the money to charity. He set up the site to sell his band's CDs, then people from other unsigned bands asked him to sell their CDs as well. Fast forward 10 years and he's running a thriving business. They say the best presentations are like stories, and Derek was a humane, engaging story teller.

Professor Youngme Moon, a Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School. She was a great speaker, but didn't let style get in the way of substance. Her thesis is companies striving to be the best at everything results in a world of identical products (new! faster! washes whiter!). If you can't tell the difference between brands of toothpaste, or the difference between phone companies, you'll understand her argument. She gave Google, Ikea and Apple as examples of companies that aren't afraid to be different, and stand out as a result. 

We've just moved to new offices in Edinburgh in the rather stunning St Andrew Square. We spent a long time choosing offices since they had to match quite strict sustainability criteria:

• Easy access to public transport (the train station is 3 minutes walk, the bus station is the other side of the square, and the new tram system will run through the square)
• Accessible to wheelchair and low vision users (quite hard to find in Edinburgh which is full of very old buildings that are hard to make accessible)
• Energy efficient with recycling facilities (the office has recycling bins everywhere, with special bins for toner cartridges which go to a recycling charity)
• Plenty of space for future expansion

The new offices fit the bill perfectly, with the bonus of a great view across to Edinburgh Castle. The square itself is currently a hive of activity due to the Edinburgh Festival - Krakow Opera did an open air performance there yesterday.

We've just switched this blog from Blogger to a self-hosted solution. Blogger was great, but we have more control over the look and feel of the new platform, which means better integration with the rest of the site.