James Crain Email & Phone Number

St Louis, Missouri, United States

One of two founders and managing partners.

St Louis, Missouri, United States

One of the founding partners and manager of Group W Systems.

Managed software development for BridgeCom's Unified Messaging platform for phone, fax and e-mail. The system presented an IVR interface to callers and a web interface to Internet users. BridgeCom web servers ran Apache under Win32 and used a database that was developed in-house (prior to my tenure). Voice servers used NMS gear, running under Win32.The IVR interface was nearly complete and my goals focused on development of the web interface, along with adding enhancements to the voice and fax interfaces. Since BridgeCom was positioning itself as a service provider, my group also developed callable interfaces to the system for use by reseller clients.I started at BridgeCom when got its first round of venture capital. Unfortunately, that was the same year that the 'dot com bubble' burst. BridgeCom released staff and suspended operation in early 2001.

Early in this period, I worked on a laboratory data collection and analysis system for chromatography. I was one of a fairly large team (10-12 people) involved in that effort. That work was development in FORTRAN 77 on DEC VAX minicomputers.I also developed analysis software for SODAR instruments at Los Alamos National Laboratories under contract to Met Associates. Also working for Met Associates, I developed a meteorological data collection system for use while the EPA Times Beach Superfund project was active.Later in this period, I developed a field data collection system based on TELXON data collectors, which were used for agricultural research. This work expanded into developing data transport systems to submit the field data to a central database and to retrieve and analyze information from that database.

When I arrived at Chance Load Management, the company had recently finished moving its TWACS application from PL/M running on custom-built microprocessor boards to PL/I running on DEC VAX minicomputers.My primary tasks were to support the company's beta test sites (Kansas City Power & Light and Northern States Power) and to debug the newly-ported PL/I application in the field.

I was a newbie engineer on a 3-man team that installed and supported a SCADA / AGC system built by TRW Controls. The system monitored the company's distribution and transmission substations and dispatched its generators according to schedule. My work focused on training and managing the electronics technicians who did hardware interfacing and maintenance.The system combined fail-over-capable ModComp Classic micro computers with TRW-developed communications and consoles controllers. The ModComp applications were written in FORTRAN IV, while the TRW-developed boxes were programmed in their own assembly languages.