Scott Drake

Current

• Owner at The Data Pros

Past

• Software Architect and Lead Developer at Summit Energy
• Principal at Unnamed Venture
• Consultant of TekSystems at Humana

• Consultant of TekSystems at American Commercial Lines
• Consultant of TekSystems at E.ON
• Lead Developer at Ideas.com
• Consultant at ElectricStreets.com
• Consultant of TekSystems at Lightyear Communications
• Consultant of TekSystems at NPC
• Consultant of Volt Information Sciences at Microsoft
• Consulting Web Developer at various publications

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Connections

71 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Websites

• The Data Pros

Scott Drake’s Summary

Software developer with 13 years experience including projects at Microsoft in Redmond, WA and startups in Silicon Valley and Louisville, KY.

I now run my own software/web development company in Louisville working with a mix of software startups and established businesses.

Scott Drake’s Specialties:

.Net, SQL Server, most web-oriented Microsoft technologies. Very creative problem solver for both business and technical problems.

Scott Drake’s Experience

• Owner

  The Data Pros

  (Computer Software industry)

  January 2008 — Present (1 year 7 months)

  I lead a team of developers that helps startups and established companies build custom software and data-driven websites.

• Software Architect and Lead Developer

  Summit Energy

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Oil & Energy industry)

  May 2003 — December 2007 (4 years 8 months)

  Initially began working with this Energy Management company to build a data-driven website for one segment of its business. Was retained longer-term as it began to work with an off-shore vendor to build a complex line-of-business application and client-facing reporting site. I served as the architect for its systems overseeing the overall application designs, coordinated much of the work with its India-based team and lead all of the work for its US-based team.

• Principal

  Unnamed Venture

  (Privately Held; Myself Only; Computer Software industry)

  August 2002 — May 2003 (10 months)

  During this period of time, I conducted market research and pursued inventive development with the intention to spin out one or two companies. The majority of my work was focused on content management systems for the publishing industry, as well as improving quality control for custom software development initiatives. Based on what I learned in my research and what I learned from the market, I decided to not continue this endeavor.

• Consultant of TekSystems

  Humana

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; HUM; Insurance industry)

  December 2002 — March 2003 (4 months)

  Retained by this insurance company very early in the project lifecycle to help gather requirements for a time entry and tracking application for its 14,000 employees, and build it if necessary. As requirement gathering progressed, it became apparent the best way for Humana to achieve its goals would be to acquire existing software from an outside vendor. With in-house development for that project unnecessary, I stepped in and helped retrofit an existing time entry application adding FMLA-required functionality, and rapidly developed a thinly-defined intranet site used to kick off its new succession management process.

• Consultant of TekSystems

  American Commercial Lines

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Transportation/Trucking/Railroad industry)

  January 2002 — June 2002 (6 months)

  Retained by this transportation company to straighten out a number of challenged projects underway both internally and through outside vendors. Work was focused around two projects: a reporting function used by ACBL’s clients that performed poorly, and a web-based HR application for acquiring and tracking job applications. The barge reporting function was rebuilt to reduce execution time from 15 seconds to less than 1 second and allow it to better scale to the client’s needs. HR function required re-engineering to simplify and streamline the application process.

• Consultant of TekSystems

  E.ON

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Utilities industry)

  April 2001 — December 2001 (9 months)

  At the time I joined the 50-person team building Louisville Gas & Electric’s multi-million dollar commodity-trading application, I became the third consultant to attempt to build its accounting functions. I arrived with no experience in Oracle and was asked to build the most complex Oracle packages and queries. The challenges arose from extremely complex requirements, a multi-terabyte database, and very optimistic performance goals. Over the course of several months, a project lead with extensive accounting system experience, a dedicated front-end developer and I worked closely with the accounting team to learn its needs. We proceeded to design and build functions around the existing system achieving the accounting team’s goals.

• Lead Developer

  Ideas.com

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  June 2000 — April 2001 (11 months)

  Hired by my former manager at Microsoft who was a co-founder and President of this company to lead engineering efforts and oversee development of its applications. Applications included both a global marketplace for ideas and an internal ASP application companies can use to draw and track ideas from its employees. Represented engineering division in meetings with members of senior management and advisors. Recruited, evaluated, hired and mentored all other developers. Researched and developed application architectures all other development would be based upon. Oversaw full lifecycle development of all applications. Even with active clients including The Coca-Cola Co., International Paper, Sears Roebuck and Co. and SC Johnson, Ideas.com was unable to raise the funds necessary to continue operating.

• Consultant

  ElectricStreets.com

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  April 2000 — June 2000 (3 months)

  Was retained by ElectricStreets.com after another development company spent six months developing its application originally projecting a two-month lifecycle. Shortly after I began, it became apparent the project underway would not scale to the needs of the client because it made use of the wrong technologies. I proceeded to work double-time for the next two months writing a completely new application and database.

• Consultant of TekSystems

  Lightyear Communications

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  January 2000 — April 2000 (4 months)

  Assisted team in redevelopment of complex order-entry and order-processing Intranet application for this telecommunications company. Performed system-wide analysis to help define and document application requirements. Re-architected and rewrote application code to make it more maintainable and malleable. Through this process, the ASP code base was simplified and reduced in size by 30-percent. Business logic originally performed by Microsoft SQL 7.0 stored procedures was moved into a COM and ASP business layer reducing SQL stored procedure code size by 50-percent. This process allowed the frequent changes required by this company to be made in one-third the previous time and with minimal impact on the application as a whole.

• Consultant of TekSystems

  NPC

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Financial Services industry)

  June 1999 — December 1999 (7 months)

  After 13 months in development, National Processing Corporation found itself frustrated by its attempt to develop an Internet application to serve over 20,000 of its clients. I was retained and asked to complete the application adding the functionality it required that the existing team could not deliver. In less than a month, I helped NPC better define the application’s functional requirements and delivered the completed application. This process required a rewrite of 80-percent of the application’s code reducing its size by 40-percent while including the additional functionality. I was retained for an additional five months to develop a second version and assisted in converting the application’s database from Microsoft SQL 6.5 to Microsoft SQL 7.0.

• Consultant of Volt Information Sciences

  Microsoft

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Computer Software industry)

  October 1998 — June 1999 (9 months)

  As a member of Microsoft’s e-store team, I was given the opportunity to work on Microsoft’s two largest internal e-commerce projects at that time. My primary responsibility was as an ASP and D-HTML developer for the Microsoft Open License program site, Microsoft Licensing On-Line (MLO). Working as a small team with one other developer, I also helped architect and build the user-authentication system for Microsoft’s e-commerce flagship, shop.Microsoft.com. I was given the opportunity to stay permanently with Microsoft but decided to return to my hometown of Louisville, KY.

• Consulting Web Developer

  various publications

  (Privately Held; Myself Only; Writing and Editing industry)

  September 1995 — February 1999 (3 years 6 months)

  During this stage in my career, I filled many independent consulting positions from project management to lead developer to HTML writer.
  I worked with a total of eight clients including:
  
  For magazine publisher Fancy Publications, I established an Internet presence for 17 publications within a site called Animal Network.
  
  For daily newspaper Lexington Herald-Leader, I was retained to technically create its initial web presence and create a production system to convert its newspaper content to the web.
  
  For weekly newspaper Thoroughbred Times, I designed its site and created custom production systems.

Additional Information

Scott Drake’s Websites:

• The Data Pros

Scott Drake’s Interests:

software development, software architecture, database design, OOP, usability, software methodology, business planning, startups, auto racing, Formula1, IRL, NASCAR, Grand Am, ALMS, A1GP, Sim Racing, rFactor, auto racing data, motec, skip barber racing school, travel

Scott Drake’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch