Service
We place a high value on service. As a small company all of our emails and calls go directly to the same people you will see in meetings and who write code. We listen, discuss, advise, and help design and build systems that are easy and intuitive to use and continue supporting them after their deployment. If you need help, or a problem arises, we are a phone call or e-mail message away. We even provide 24x7 application support if needed. As a testimony to our service, Topsail’s clients have come mostly from customer referrals and repeat business since its inception 24 years ago.
Expertise
Our core expertise is first and foremost in business database applications, sometimes large and complex. Topsail has has worked with clients from a range of industries, but we have a particular history in the Healthcare and Legal IT sectors. Our healthcare clients come to Topsail because they know we understand the particular nature of HIT and the unique challenges that surround building and implementing healthcare business solutions. Our legal IT expertise revolves around the fact that we developed a comprehensive Case Management system for one of our largest local law firm clients.
Simplicity
Simplicity is our goal for every system we build. We design with people in mind and our iterative process ensures that we build what is necessary without extra bloat such as features that are never used.
Our Core Team
Richard Low
Founder and PresidentRichard is co-founder and chief executive who oversees all technical projects. The technical force behind our operation, he raises the standard on every project. Building business solutions since 1985, he developed the personnel system for a NASA aerospace contractor before joining Duke University Medical Center in 1989. At Duke he lead the Clinical Development Group that pioneered PC based applications for Duke Hospital. Under his leadership, his group developed a clinical data repository viewer and an electronic clinical report transcription system. Richard has guided Topsail for 24 years of success bringing his passion, integrity, creativity, talent for simplicity, and warm personable style to every client project.
Jan Schroeder
Senior Software ArchitectJan has a Masters degree in Mathematics and Computer Sciences from the University Greifswald, Germany. He enjoys being involved in the full life cycle of software and database development, from the requirements gathering, planning, design, development, and testing phases to the deployment phase. Jan constantly seeks exposure to new technologies and methodologies, and has applied his development skills for Duke University, Duke University Hospital and the Environmental Protection Agency of the Bundesland MVP (Germany). Jan is Topsail's technical direction-setter and author of our in-house Ruby on Rails common application framework tools.
Anne Almond
Vice President and Co-FounderAnne, co-founder and finance manager at Topsail, directs training components and oversees project budgets. Relying on her experiences as an English teacher and program manager of community grant-funded initiatives, Anne advocates clear communication with clients and comprehensive training for program participants. At the Duke University Medical Center, Anne directed implementation of the Risk Watch Injury Prevention Curriculum in schools throughout North Carolina, collaborated with communities to build support, and trained teachers during on-site educational workshops. Anne received her BA from Hamilton College and her MBA from Cornell University.
