As we celebrate our birthday, here’s a look back at how our project tracking software has evolved over the past 25 years — and how that same drive to provide better business tools continues to propel the team at Abtrac today.
We're looking forward to even greater innovation over the next quarter century.
When Abtrac launched in 1999, our ambition was to share what we'd learned in our own professionals services firm, and help others to better management their business — and that’s still true today.
For our 25th birthday, we’re taking a look at the history of Abtrac to reflect on our origins and see how far we’ve come.
In 1990 Above Board Computer Consulting was established by Edward O’Leary.
With a background as an IT consultant at Ernst & Young, Edward specialised in the application of technology solutions for senior management in large corporates and SME‘s.
Embracing the technology boom of the 90’s, our specialty then was building tailored database solutions. We provided business consulting, technology solutions and training. And we played Solitaire on Windows 3.0!
Increasingly at Above Board we were asked by other professionals for a system to track and bill jobs.
By 1996 we were sharing what we used in-house, and creating custom time based billing systems for business colleagues.
By 1999 we’d streamlined those solutions into a desktop system called Abtrac. It was built on an Access database.
It was designed to represent a clock - for tracking time, managing time, and recovering time with better invoicing. The concentric circles were also nod to the comprehensive features of the software. We wanted what you could do with Abtrac to have a flow on effect across all areas of your business. Better management - through software.
The "A "+ "b" were from Above Board and the "trac" was a very cool late nineties version of Track. In fact Abtrack started with a k, but it didn't last long.
Our product was " A Contact and Client Management, Time and Cost, Invoicing and Debtor Management System". in fact, it still is.
But by 1999 we were starting to sent phone text messages - as well as faxes! Ed and the team all had the Nokia 8810 and it was awesome. The SMS limit was 160 characters, so we shortened everything - including the name of our new time tracking, project tracking and billing software.
Shout out to Cato Bolam, Lamb & Associates, Morice Advisors, Airey Consultants and Thorburn Consultants - we love you guys!
These five companies, and many others who signed on between 1999 - 2001 helped us shape Abtrac into a tool specifically for consulting professionals.
Abtrac is a perfect fit for firms who provide consulting engineering, land surveying, project management, town planning, cost estimation, and architectural design.
We've spent 25 years listening to what you need to manage your business and evolving Abtrac to suit how you work.
We kept good company...in 1999 at lot was happening.
The interest in Abtrac grew exponentially, and by 2004 we’d expanded our client base from New Zealand into Australia.
In the five years since inception, we’d worked hard to become as familiar as possible with the working environment of each and every business using Abtrac and the people within it.
By now Abtrac had gone through a few technology upgrades. We’d moved to a SQL Server database and were already integrating with other platforms.
In 2006 Abtrac was still a desktop application, but we were getting ready for change. Abtrac 3.0 came with an optional Web based add-on for timesheets.
We’d learnt a lot from our initial web based offerings, and by 2013 we were confident in delivering a cloud based system that retained all the functionality of the desktop version.
Rather than converting the desktop version and bolting-on a cloud option, we rebuilt Abtrac as a complete online platform using Microsoft Azure.
Today Abtrac is a mature online product. Our ideals haven’t changed much since 1999 we still see ourselves as not just software providers, but consultants and advisors as well.
We’re still excited to embrace new technologies, and committed to continuous development and product enhancement.
You can learn more about us and our history here.