Being alone, this is how I went from one idea to a functional product: challenges and ways to handle the work.

1. One man band business from nothing
Trento
May 2017
Tiziano Pojer
IT Technician
Management Engineer
Founder
Volunteer Fire Fighter
info@activepager.com

2. What is ActivePager?
It is a software to help
volunteer first responders to do
their job in a faster and
professional way.

3. Who are firefighters ?

4. Volunteer Fire Fighters
Trentino AA : 19000 on duty volunteer firefighters
300 on duty paid firefighters
Italia : 20000 on duty volunteer firefighters
25000 on duty paid firefighter

5. How does an emergency call work ?

7. So what’s the limit?
- limited pagers
- one time alert
- impossible to answer
- ActivePager

8. ActivePager Workflow

9. ActivePager Architecture

10. The Software Part
First prototype
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.comActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com

11. What do I need from the software?
- Manage users
- Manage station detail
- Send notifications

12. Unfortunately, lack of experience
- Basic PHP
- Basic MySql
- No framework
- No MVC
- No notification
- No GIT/versioning

13. Which way of coding?
At that time i had no
experience on professional
coding.
I was JUST a web designer.

14. Which platform?
- PHP
- Python
- Java
- Framework

15. The Hardware Part
First prototype
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.comActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com

16. What do I need from the hardware?
- Send SMS
- Connect to internet
- Catch a contact
- Display info on a monitor

17. Which device?
- Custom Computer
- Arduino
- Raspberry Pi
- Other micro pcs

18. Unfortunately, lack of experience
- No LINUX
- No Raspberry Pi
- No Python

20. Making it in a professional way
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com

21. Home-made into business product?
- RELIABILITY
- APPEARANCE
- UPDATING
- EASY TO INSTALL
More stable electronic
Better web platform
Custom box
Custom VPN

22. Unfortunately (again), lack of experience
- No PCB design
- No 3D design
- No 3D print
- No Laravel

24. Milestones
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com

25. So what does ActivePager actually manage?
- personnel
- emergency calls
- shifts and availabilities
- tools
- vehicles
- squads
- appointments
- calendars
- refills
- messages

27. Managing critical tasks
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com

28. ActivePager is a critical application!
- Divide et impera
- Monitoring
- Security
- Automation

29. ActivePager is a critical application!
Divide et impera is the best way to tackle critical
issues. The system MUST work in every condition.
So we divided services between SMS (local) and
notification (web) to ensure that at least one
channel is working.

30. ActivePager is constantly monitored!
Monitoring the service is essential…
There are many services (3d part and
custom built) to check that things are
working properly!
- emails
- notifications

31. Security is high priority!
We used many protocols (such https)
and many ways to ensure data
protection and take care of security
issues.

32. Automation is really useful!
Why spending time on a job when a
computer can make it for us ?

33. Lessons learnt
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com

34. Lessons learned
- Believe in yourself!
- Believe in you project!
- Take your time
- Fast prototype
- Work with others
- Listen to customers

35. So what’s the secret?
Keep on trying !!!!

36. Special thanks!
Nicola Pojer
Luca Degasperi
Alessio Coser
Alessio Zamboni
Gabriele Squizzato
Saverio Girardi

37. We are hiring!
Come talk to me
ActivePager for Speck & Tech — Tiziano Pojer - Founder - info@activepager.com - www.activepager.com