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Métier, Ltd.

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2013 American Business Awards

Company: Métier, Ltd., Healdsburg, CA
Company Description: Métier, The PPM Company, offers cutting edge project portfolio management (PPM) solutions. Ranked as a PPM leader by third party industry analysts, Métier's software and services can mature any organization, regardless of size. Métier is the thought leader in the PPM industry, and holds an extensive portfolio of industry-enhancing patents.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Product Developer of the Year

Nomination Title: Jim Matysczak, Lead Systems Architect

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Jim Matysczak is a master of cutting edge technology. His approach to developing software is driven by the needs of the business, and his deep understanding of those needs drive how the software is conceptualized, coded, and maintained across his entire team. Jim Matysczak is devoted to creating the richest, most cutting edge interface to deliver the power of the software he creates for the end user. Jim’s achievements in product development in 2011 are vast and many, and his contributions to Métier’s product make it unparalleled in our market. In fact, an independent market research firm ranked Métier’s software as a leader in Project Portfolio Management (PPM).

In early 2011, Jim designed a new interface framework for Métier’s software product. The move to the new framework was a proactive reconstruction to centralize and ease future advances to the product. When Métier decided to rollout a new software interface mid-year, Jim’s framework supported the transition seamlessly, and the interface conversion was complete in less than 90 days. Jim’s mantra for the framework was, “Respect the click,” meaning that if two mouse clicks were good, one click was better.

Jim also worked in close collaboration with the Marketing department to build a rich, modern user interface consistent with the company’s brand. Marketing designed the elements of the product’s interface, and Jim brought the vision into development. The design and development of PPM Central created a dialogue between Marketing and Engineering that has shortened our time to market and is now the model for all future product enhancements.

One of the biggest differentiators of Métier’s software is its predictive algorithms. In 2011, Jim advanced this capability by building a semantic matching engine that utilizes natural language processing (NLP). The semantic matching technology, combined with a rich, social interface, delivers recommendations to the end user that helps them improve their performance at work. One algorithm actually builds new project plans from previous, similar plans. This forward-looking technology received the Bronze award for Best New Business Intelligence Solution by the Stevie® Awards for Sales and Customer Service in February 2012.

At Jim’s suggestion, Métier’s product also utilizes the latest in HTML5 technology. Métier’s innovative Portfolio Explorer allows users to navigate their portfolios interactively without the use of Flash. In addition, Jim’s mastery of javascript technologies had led to various thick client capabilities, such as drag and drop, throughout our application.

Jim’s approach to product development is best summed up by one of his other mantras, “It’s software; we can do anything we want, we just need to understand the end user experience.” His approach to product development leverages the best of Agile, with his own take on traditional product development strategies.

He integrates the latest technologies, business needs, and end user experience to create award winning software. His innovation produces tangible results for our company and advances the capabilities of our industry. He is a product developer like none other, and without hesitation should be considered for the Product Developer of the Year award.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Métier Launches PPM Central
http://www.metier.com/#/news/press-releases/métier-launches-ppm-central.aspx
PPM Central wins Award for Best New BI Solution
http://www.metier.com/#/news/press-releases/ppm-central-wins-recognition-for-business-intelligence-capabilities.aspx
Métier Launches workforward center at DEMO
http://www.metier.com/#/news/press-releases/m%C3%A9tier-launches-workforward-center-at-demo.aspx

 

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Jim Matysczak is the lead systems architect at Métier. Over his five and a half years with the company, Jim has risen to a leadership position and has contributed greatly to the most cutting edge features of Métier’s proprietary software, PPM Central™. Among his contributions, Jim was responsible for the interactive mGantt, the Portfolio Optimizer™ algorithm, and the interactive Portfolio Explorer navigation system. Prior to his work with Métier, Jim worked at American Management Systems as the lead software developer for their EPA technology. Jim attended MIT and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.