Our Mission

Cycle Consulting, Inc. was founded with one overriding principle, to design and develop the best software possible.   To that end, we have created a set of practices that enable us to create the software solution you require on time and within budget.  Our goal with every project we undertake is a zero defect solution that exceeds your expectations.  We use the latest technology to insure that the solution we provide will serve your business far into the future enabling you to meet your business goals whatever they may be.

Company

Cycle Consulting, Inc. was founded in 2000 to offer leading edge software development services to businesses and individuals requiring a solution that offers the best answer to their current dilemma.  We know that for many of our clients, undertaking a custom software development project can bring with it many risks.  Our system for project management in addition to our experience with the implementation of a vast array of mission critical applications gives us a unique insight into these risks and how they can be reduced and/or avoided.  

Products

QuickBooks Integration Tools
We have developed several tools for the integration of applications with the QuickBooks environment.   Among these tools are a robust class library for creating user interface extensions to QuickBooks with generic QuickBooks event management utilities and QuickBooks data set query, analysis, formatting, and output functionality.   Using these tools, we have developed several applications like our QuickBooks Events Subscriber that assist us in the rapid development of QuickBooks solutions for our clients.   The class library, tools, utilities, and applications are available for license to our clients for use in their own development and integration projects.  Just let us know your requirements and we will develop a licensing package to fit your special needs.

Government Forms Systems
Many government agencies require the filing of prescribed forms for various reasons including taxes (income, excise, asset, sales, etc.), employment reporting, licensing, etc.   Many of these government agencies now provide their forms in an electronic format that we are able to use in our system to create and manage finished forms that are complete and ready to file with the target government agency.  In addition, we are able to take paper government forms and translate them into an electronic format for use in our system, simplifying the filling out and filing of the forms.  Using our system for creating and managing government forms, we have created our Government Forms Manager application that enables a user to manage common data required for most forms, extract data from data management applications, accounting systems, or relational databases, and generate the required government forms in electronic or paper format.

Price Quoting Systems
Many organizations that sell products where the price changes often (weekly, daily, or even hourly) require a system to transmit periodic price quotes to their current and prospective customers.  We have developed a system that enables the user to manage and transmit price quotes to their customers via Email, Fax, or an Internet Fax service like eFax.  Using our system for the management and transmission of price quotes, we have created our Rate Quote Transmission Manager application that enables a user to manage all of the data required for a price quote, transmit the price quote to one or more specified customers, and track the results of the price quote including product sales and invoice generation.

Services

QuickBooks Integration
We have developed tremendous expertise in integrating applications with Intuit's QuickBooks.   We have assisted several organizations in enabling the download of financial data from QuickBooks for use in custom software applications.  We have also created systems that enable the upload of data for storage and use in QuickBooks.  In addition, we have developed a very robust set of tools for working with QuickBooks and the QuickBooks SDK.   These tools enable the rapid development of solutions not only for working with the data contained in QuickBooks but also for creating custom user interface extensions to the QuickBooks environment.

Government Forms Printing
Depending on the business or industry you are working in, it is very common to be required to fill out and file forms for various government agencies.  We have created a system that enables us to recreate any government form electronically to simplify the entry of data, the generation of the form, and filing of the form with the government agency.  In addition, we have developed the tools necessary to retrieve the data for a government form from commercial systems like Intuit's QuickBooks as well as from custom data storage and management systems.   As a result, we can enable the retrieval and processing of data, the generation of the government form with the retrieved data, and the printing of the form, all from within a very simple interface.  The result of this is that your organization can simplify the process of reporting information to government agencies with the peace of mind that the government forms will be produced accurately and in a timely manner with a minimum of effort.

Web Portal Development
Our experience in developing Web portal applications using leading edge technology enables us to create your Web portal with all of the features and functionality you require.   Not only can we create solutions using mainstream technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, ASP.NET, C#, and XML, we have developed expertise using leading edge technologies in the areas of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) development, Web 2.0 applications, and unobtrusive JavaScript implementation.  We have worked with many of the popular JavaScript development libraries and frameworks but prefer to use jQuery for its features, flexibility, speed, and small memory footprint, ExtJS for its component architecture, robust handling of data, and amazing extensibility, and Sencha Touch for its ability to create mobile browser based applications that meet or exceed the performance, features, and richness of native mobile applications.   These enable us to create advanced features in a Web portal or a mobile application simpler and faster than is possible with other Web application development libraries and frameworks.

Software Consulting
In addition to the aforementioned services, we also offer software consulting services in a variety of areas.   We offer custom software development services that include all aspects of software development and/or implementation.   We can provide you with services that cover the entire application development lifecycle including requirements analysis, application design, the creation of specifications, the implementation of the software solution, testing and debugging, deployment, maintenance, and enhancement.  We have also developed expertise in analyzing existing software that requires maintenance and/or enhancement in order to provide our client with a proposed plan for accomplishing their desired goals.  The plan includes information that our client can use to issue a request for proposal and evaluate prospective implementation service providers.  (Although we always hope to be the provider of the software implementation services, we do not make this a requirement when providing this type of software analysis.  We are very comfortable being required to compete for the implementation portion of a project.)  In addition to custom software development, we offer training services for software design, development, documentation, testing, and deployment for the Web, the Internet, Windows, and various database systems.   We can help you gain the experience necessary to create the solutions you need to make your organization a success.  

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Cycle Consulting, Inc. founded?
We were founded in 2000, although our founder has been working in the software consulting business since 1994.

What is the origin of the company name?
We were established as a software consulting company with a focus on the complete application lifecycle and formalizing the software development process into a robust and repeatable engineering method.  In addition to the focus on the software development lifecycle, our founder is an avid cyclist and felt the name portrayed both him and the focus of the company.

What technologies does Cycle Consulting, Inc. work with?
When the company was founded, we were focused primarily on Windows database application development using CA-Visual Objects, Borland Delphi, Microsoft SQL Server, Interbase, and Oracle.  From those beginnings, we added expertise in Internet and Web development using HTML, VBScript, JavaScript, and classic ASP.  Today, much of our development focuses on AJAX and Web 2.0 application development using JavaScript, XML, HTTP, C#, and ASP.NET.

What is your hourly rate?
Our standard hourly rate is $175.00 per hour for short term engagements.  For longer term engagements, our hourly rate is negotiable.

Will you entertain fixed price engagements?
Yes, we are very willing to enter into fixed price or fixed term engagements depending on the type and scope of the project.  We understand that this type of arrangement when working with a software consulting firm offers the client the best opportunity to minimize the risk associated with custom software development.  In order to help our clients minimize the budgetary risk when engaging our services, we have developed an intelligent project estimation system that enables us to create very accurate time and materials estimates.

Do you provide any hardware services in addition to your software consulting?
Although our focus is on software, we have developed a significant expertise in computer hardware as well.   Typically, we do not entertain projects that are primarily focused on hardware, however, if particular hardware resources are necessary to the success of a project, we have the expertise to handle these responsibilities as well.

Do you have examples of your software development process?
We can provide you with a copy of a paper written by our founder which outlines the process we use for developing software for ourselves and our clients, "Project Management for the 21st Century".   This paper has been presented at several international technical conferences both in the U.S.A. and abroad.   In addition, we can provide you with a technical document outlining our coding standards for the CodeGear (Borland) Delphi (Object Pascal) language, "Cycle Consulting, Inc. Delphi Coding Standards".  All members of our development team must follow standards similar to these when working on software development projects for ourselves and our clients.

What tools do you use?
We use several leading edge development tools, libraries, and database products.  Among them are the following:


Contact

Cycle Consulting, Inc.
3414 North Kensington Street
Arlington, VA 22207-1326
U.S.A

Phone: (703) 932-5675