From “BlindTek” to BlindPro® (What’s that got to do with Shutters?)
 

It was in early 1985 when our company founder leaned heavily on his Masters work in ergonomics and wrote the original software specification for his shutter & blind fabrication company. Put into use in 1986, it soon became know as “BlindTek”. Other blind fabricators began purchasing copies in 1987. Tired of paying outside programmers, and intrigued by computer source code, Randy Harris began to write additions to the software himself. To Randy, this was a lot more fun and interesting than actually making the blinds and shutters!

In 1993, having successfully tackled Blinds, the much more difficult work of creating shutter software began. Again, Randy’s background in “Man Machine Interface” showed up in the design. Even though written in DOS, the software made strong use of graphics. “ShutterPro”, as it was dubbed, was first put into use in 1995. Realizing that no other commercial software of its kind existed, Randy decided to make ShutterPro, not BlindTek, his primary focus. The fist copy was sold in 1997. Two years, and 20 more software clients later, Randy sold his fabrication company and devoted full time to ShutterPro.

ShutterPro®, however, was still a DOS product, so in 1998 professional programmers Doug and Maria Henderson were invited to become partners in the new venture. Their first order of business was to rehost ShutterPro® for a Microsoft Windows® environment. Commercial testing of SP 3.0 began in 2000.

As the Blind and Shutter Industries continued to merge, it became increasingly apparent  that “BlindTek” (still in successful use as a DOS product!) should also be rehosted to run under Microsoft Windows (95, 98, 2000, XP) and added to the product offering. User site (BETA) testing was completed in mid 2005. Now known as “BlindPro®”, this  software has completed 20 years of continual use and improvement.  The original source code from the 1980s has been expanded to accommodate nearly every type of window covering with proven reliability, excellent ease of use, and an installed user base of over 150 clients in five countries. It is the only shutter and blind software backed by the experience of a 30 year industry veteran. We supply software to the industry's largest companies including Hunter Douglas, ITA, US Polymers and Royal Window Coverings.  

Though only a small fraction of the original 1980s design survived the journey, some of the original source code is still there doing it’s job twenty years later.