SUMit's history
1996, the pre-sumit era
something new
- Henk Jan is in for something completely different after 11½ years as IT specialist at Royal Dutch Airlines
kuala lumpur
- With his experience in logistic planning, expert systems, OO Smalltalk he moves to Kuala Lumpur as a contractor for Software Alliance Malaysia (SAM).
sam
- sam is a joint venture of ibm, malaysia airlines and swiss air
- henk jan learns algoritms for shift roster planning at plaza ibm
internet
- the internet is emerging.
- everybody talks about the new, object oriented programming language: java.
oops
- Just a half year later an economic crisis strikes Asia
- Henk Jan has to end his contract work sooner than planned
Java
- Henk Jan
invests his Malaysian ringit in a IBM thinkpad.
- in java he recognises a lot of OO concepts of his beloved Smalltalk
sumatra
- in the cool, sunny highlands of Sumatra he works for months on a shift roster generator.
1997, the start up
back to nl
- Henk Jan ships his stuff back to the Netherlands.
- The cargo is lost for months.
1 shirt
- With just one shirt and tie Henk Jan sets out to find new customers in Holland.
- In the Netherlands Java is virtually unkown.
the name sumit
- Laurella Asselman, former KLM colleague of Henk Jan, devises SUMit, as an abbreviation of SUMatra Information Technology.
- The island of Sumatra (which is next to Java) returns in the 1st SUMit logo.
1st customer
- The first SUMit customer offers Smalltalk contract work for the staff information system Perman II.
SUMit
- During a lunch break on the 5th of May, Henk Jan formally founds SUMit, at the chambre of commerce in Rotterdam
- SUMit HQ roots in Gouda.
1st invoice
- Shortly after the founding the first customer recieves the first invoice.
1998, OO Smalltalk
www.sum-it.nl
- Henk Jan explores HTML. It is a surprising easy déjà vu.
- www.sum-it.nl goes on-line end of december 1998.
recharge
- End 1998 Henk Jan recharges his battery in tropical Malaysia.
- The worst of the Asian economic crisis seems over.
1999, www.sum-it.nl materialises
website
- In the Malaysian highlands of Bukit Fraser www.sum-it.nl materialises.
applets
- The build in Sumatra software finds it home on line:
- demo shift roster generator
- Demo minimal costs, maximum quality
contract work
- Smalltalk contract work generates the larger share of the revenue.
courses
- The 1st SUMit cource is a success: Home pages with HTML
- 2nd course follows quickly: E-Commerce with data driven websites, with PHP and MySQL
2000, Dot com hype
DB course
- In Ireland Henk Jan writes a 3rd SUMit course efficient database design.
- The dot com hype is at its peak. Internet is booming business.
on line stocks
- The first Java project, contract work via Devote: a web application for OHRA to trade stocks on line.
madness
- The second Java contract, for a big telcom is completely insane.
little sleep
- Henk Jan sees his programmers crawl under a desk at night to get a few hours of sleep.
exhausting
- Revenue goes sky high
- but the dotcom pace is devestating.
escape winter
- At the end of the year Henk Jan escapes from the dotcom hype.
- Hurray, the Australian embassy sticks a skippy in his passport
2001, SUMit shift roster generator
XML interface
- The final Smalltalk contract: link Perman II to a new web system using XML.
roster software
- a company at Schiphol Airport orders the first SUMit shift roster software.
- It is a milestone for SUMit.
development
- SUMit develops the shift roster generator, using the artificial intelligence made in Sumatra.
yardley
- sumit opens a temporary side office, a software development center in Yarley, between New York and Philadelphia.
2002, Focus on research
project planning
- SUMit's second tailored software project: a project planning tool that checks feasibility of deadlines.
- again, sumit develops a project Yardley.
route planning
- SUMit invests a lot of time in research, develops a very fast route planning algorithm for the travelling salesman problem.
page rank
- during a second research project sumit analysis the google ranking algorithm.
- the sumit website reaches the top of the google search results.
2003, course design shift rosters
dutch telcom
- At KPN telcom sumit trains a team of programmers.
- object orientation,
- paper prototyping
- discount usability sessions.
t-model
- Henk Jan invents the t-model uit.
huizentoppers
- SUMit research and development creates www.huizentoppers.nl.
page rank
- SUMit develops a shift roster design training.
2004, standard shift roster software
shift roster design
- The shift roster design training proves to be a success at many customers.
- SUMit develops the on line shift roster software.
too busy
- Business gets too busy for contract work.
- In 2004 SUMit already serves 51 customers.
contract work
- SUMit finishes the last contract work near Utrechtse: match questino and demand of computer hardware.
route planner
- SUMit creates advanced route planner for the VCC Groep in Utrecht, using AI algorithms from the previous research project.
international
- SUMit cooperates with the Flemish Sara Borremans. For many years to come, Sara does graphical design of SUMit applications.
2005, tailored factory staff planning
rosters
- A stream of new customers flocks to the shift roster design training and the on line shift roster software.
international
- sumit designs a web application to match question and demand for trading meat for the Spanish Market Found.
staff planning
- SCA Gennep asks a staff planning system.
- It is complex, tailored software for about 40 decentral planners.
2006, returning customers
team works in
- Heijen, Limburg
- Gouda, Holland
- Halle, Belgium;
- Taiping, Malaysia
- Katherine, Northern Territory
- Kiruna, Sweden
welcome
- sumit welcomes dhl schiphol, philips and the amsterdam tourist board as returning customers.
- they find sumit's way of doing business worth repeating.
2007, small multi national
welcome
- While celebrating 10 years of business SUMit welcomes new, international customers like the Royal Australian Navy in Sydney.
dr. verhoef
- Leonard Verhoef has a huge impact on the webbased shift roster software.
- much easier, tailored to the power of the human mind.
imager
- visual artist Johan van den Boom translates ideas and concepts into images.
training
- the workshop shift roster design reaches a new high.
- Even a royal household becomes customer to roster staff at 2 palaces.
2008, Svenska
shift roster design training
- all over the netherlands, sumit's shift roster design training is now well known.
sweden
- during the long swedish midsummer days sumit cooperates with johan van den boom for the SCA staff planning system.
design method
- henk jan works on a method for information design, based on the function psychology of Dr. Leonard Verhoef.
prototypes
- the first paper prototypes made with the new design method see the Swedish light.
2009, Senang, rooster generator
senang
- SUMit develops Senang, the shift roster generator.
- SCA is the first to order a generator for automatic assignment of safety tasks.
2010, successful Turing test
generator
- SUMit develops the safety task assignment generator in Malaysia
- The safety staff fail to notice that a computer took over planning.
dreaming
- dragon dreaming, Aboriginal culture, is a success during a tricky shift roster design
- dreams come true, no matter how difficult
route planner
- the first customer for the sumit route planner
- sort via points smart using Dutch postcodes
2011
shift cycle generator
- the sumit shift roster software is extended with a generator to create shift roster cycles.
day generator
- the sumit shift roster software is extended with a generator to generate a roster for a day.
api route planner
- an API for the sumit routeplanner is operational so other web applications can have via points sorted to an efficient route.
2012
SCA, safety staff
- artificial intelligence plans office staff for safety tasks, easing production
- in cooperation with Karlijn Hoek, Minamor.
select recumbent
- developed a recumbent bike picker for ACE Recumbents
- styling by Sara Borremans
- based on design theory of Dr. Leonard Verhoef
plan rides
- safe, on time, low cost
- patientens in 1 vehicle?
- with Dr. Verhoef
and Sara Borremans - based on SUMit's Senang, artificial intelligence
Future, you as SUMit customer
- Will your organisatin benefit from SUMit, the specialist in shift roster software?
- Let SUMit contact you and discuss your situation.