xGEL Data Systems

xGEL Data Systems, Inc. was founded in 2004 to provide a software solution for the geotechnical testing lab manager and the overworked lab techs that are doing all the eyeballing of the electronic scales....... writing the electronic readout info down on paper.......... running hand calculations......... and then giving that stack of paper (transposition errors and all) to a computer clerk so they could stick that same info back into the computer!

 

xGEL's flagship product, called xGEL LabMate^TM, is used by geotech lab managers. engineers, gINT technicians, Excel spreadsheet guys, boring log guys, .....and auto mechanics (well, not really). Unlike other solutions that drive your guys crazy trying to learn them, lab techs can learn how to use xGEL LabMate^TM in no time at all and immediately realize the benefits of an automated data collection solution that integrates seamlessly with their existing processes.

 

Located in San Antonio, Texas, xGEL Data Systems is a privately held corporation.

Art Koenig - Software Developer 

 

Art is the founder of xGEL Data Systems and got into the software development business in 2003 when he began to apply business and process optimization to the engineering soils testing lab. Observing the need for more modern processes to speed up the production of the testing lab and reduce human error associated with hand data collection methods, he began the xGEL Initiative, the result of which is the xGEL LabMate^TM software.

 

Art is a 1977 graduate of Rice University and is skilled in VB, MS Access, UI design, web prototyping, & systems information integration - all to the degree that he can hang himself at anytime and thus has to have real software folks around to keep him from choking himself.

 

In a previous life Art has been a US Army Officer stationed in Germany; a gas compression/ production engineer for Exxon Oil Company in South Texas; president of MDI Labs, an R&D engineering company, and president of GeoLog, a geotechnical engineering company, both of which he was the founder. Art is a Registered Professional Engineer (Tx), holds several patents, has been published, and aside from software, engineering, and reading about political and economic philosophy likes to take long distance rides on his personal watercraft - the longest of which was a 26 day trip up the Mississippi River to St Louis, MO. and back. Married since 1974 to "that girl he met in high school," he lives in San Antonio, Texas with Ninja the cat.

Memorable Quote:

"... the key to superior profits, and the main differentiator, indeed, practically the only differentiator, between the engineering firms of the future, will be their product delivery systems."
- Frizzy Haired Management Consultant That Gets It

Software as a Service, Pay-As-You-Go Metered Usage where a user sets up an account linked to their credit card, and then their credit card is charged as they use the service.

Traditional software licensing requires all sorts of friction-containing interaction with customers, and does not extract the true value of the software. This is because in the past there has not been a way to monetize except by "selling a disk", or doing some sort of paper-trail accounting-based licensing and billing. With the expansion of the broadband connectivity, software as a service/subscriptiiong based licensing is now possible.

We are a complement to other software packages that manupliate the data that our platform collects, and thus those software firms such as gINT have reason to "push" us.