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Summary – In the last two decades, the tech industry has experienced exponential growth, with the emergence of new technologies and trends that have transformed the way we live. Our company has been at the forefront of this evolution, with significant achievements. As we celebrate our company’s 20th anniversary, we reflect on the significant milestones we have achieved in the tech industry.
This month Wovenware kicks off our 20th anniversary celebration. When Christian Gonzalez and I co-founded the company in 2003, custom software engineering services were pretty much non-existent in Puerto Rico. Yet, the industries that drove the Puerto Rican economy – from tourism, to banking services and telecommunications – were beginning to understand that a software revolution was on the horizon.
From our work delivering software to local companies (many of whom remain our loyal customers), to expanding beyond our sunny shores to deliver Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence solutions to companies across the U.S. and the world, we’ve never stopped innovating. We’ve had skin-in- the-game for many of the tech industry’s most significant milestones – and we’ve put our own Wovenware spin on them. Consider the following.
In the year of our founding, Apple opened its first iTunes store; the entire human genome was sequenced; and Android was founded by Andy Rubin.
In 2004, Facebook was launched; cloud computing was gaining mass appeal (2006); and Apple released the iPhone (2007).
As Wovenware was just coming into being, we too were caught up in the innovations that were enabling a new way of working on the go, leveraging the power of data and connected businesses. We got our first break developing a web application to handle DSL provisioning for Claro, the largest telecommunications company in Puerto Rico. The next one was a web-based invoicing system for a major healthcare insurance firm. At that time, the Internet was just starting to take off and if you wanted to develop web projects, you needed to leave the island to get the expertise to do that – but we thought differently. We brought on-board world-class software engineers and programmers and from those first two projects – a spark of tech innovation was ignited in Puerto Rico.
In 2009, internet currency, bitcoin was launched; as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer 8. In 2010, quantum computing made its debut. And, in 2012, interest in AI and deep learning was just gaining speed.
By 2012 we were here to help customers navigate the huge changes that new tech innovation was bringing. We were servicing customers beyond the borders of Puerto Rico, with a staff far exceeding our six team members of the early days. The nearshore model of outsourcing was becoming quite attractive to companies looking for cost effective software development services, as an alternative to offshoring to far-off locations and Puerto Rico became a prime destination.
At the same time, “big data,” and business intelligence (BI) was taking hold as a precursor to data-driven artificial intelligence (AI). Wovenware was busy developing BI solutions, data warehouses and building ETL integrations for customers. And we grew our business delivering these types of solutions via the nearshore model.
In 2015, self-driving cars were introduced and Apple launched its first wearable. In 2017, Microsoft and Oracle added AI into their SaaS services; and Gartner coined the term AIOps.
AI was entering the scene in a big way around 2016 and we wanted a part of it. Pragmatic AI was just starting to help companies automate tedious, time-consuming tasks, and leverage data to uncover hidden insights to make better business decisions. We assembled a team of data scientists, built the infrastructure and became proficient in the cutting-edge tools and technologies driving this new AI era. We then got our first big AI break with Maxar Technologies (now our parent company), developing labeled datasets from their satellite imagery and helping them leverage a form of AI called computer vision to count and classify objects. From there, we developed chatbots for universities, deep learning tools for governments and predictive machine learning tools for insurance firms, to name a few.
In 2019 the world experienced a tech talent shortage that continues today, data privacy concerns grew along with the rise of social platforms and in 2020, a global pandemic changed the way work is conducted.
The last decade has created major changes in the technology industry and at Wovenware as well. We launched our Service Design practice and became a trail blazer, offering an interdisciplinary approach to digital transformation and AI projects, through design, development and delivery of digital solutions within a single consultancy. With a staff growing to exceed 150 employees, most recently we became a part of Maxar, serving as its Center of AI Excellence and working with customers across the country to deliver human-centric solutions that solve very real business challenges.
So cheers to us. We’re proud of our accomplishments over the past 20 years, and we’re fortunate to have witnessed some of the biggest breakthroughs and developments in the technology industry. But as we’ve seen, things change quickly in technology and we understand the need to be resilient, flexible and adaptable to seize new market opportunities and help our customers navigate a changing landscape. It’s good to look back at our achievements over the past 20 years, yet with an eye on the future. Possibilities for continued innovation are around every corner.
As we roll out our 20th anniversary year at Wovenware, stay tuned for a year of blog posts that celebrate our past, our future, our people and our progress.