Independent consulting

Software, systems, and the wiring in between.

JTEK builds software for the automotive world, keeps IBM Content Manager OnDemand running, and sorts out the networks that hold it all together. Sixteen years, a lot of industries, one person who picks up the phone.

Get in touch

JTEK is a one-person shop, and that's the point. When you call, you get the person who'll actually do the work — not a sales rep, not a junior I quietly handed it to. I'd rather tell you a job is a two-hour fix than dress it up into a project, and if something's genuinely outside what I'm good at, I'll say so and try to point you somewhere better.

What I actually do

Automotive software

A lot of my development work lives in the car world — dealerships, suppliers, shops. It's rarely glamorous and almost always useful: pulling inventory and parts data between systems that were never meant to talk to each other, cleaning up pricing and reporting, writing the small custom tool that saves somebody an hour every morning. I know the trade well enough that you don't have to explain a DMS or a parts feed before we can get going.

IBM Content Manager OnDemand

CMOD is one of those systems that quietly runs the business — statements, invoices, EOBs, years of archived reports and documents — right up until something breaks or the person who understood it walks out the door. It's a deep, particular product, and there aren't many people left who really know it. I'm one of them. I've spent a good chunk of my career living inside OnDemand on every side of it: the server, the database, the loader, and the day-to-day care and feeding that keeps retrieval fast and the archive trustworthy.

Whether you're standing up a brand-new environment, escaping aging hardware, or staring at a system nobody dares touch, here's the kind of work I take on:

  • Installs & upgrades — fresh deployments and version upgrades on AIX, Linux, Windows, or z/OS, including keeping current with IBM's support lifecycle.
  • Migrations — moving OnDemand off old hardware or to a new OS, database, or storage tier with the documents and indexes intact.
  • Application & report onboarding — designing application groups, applications, and folders, and getting AFP, line data, PDF, and other report types loading cleanly.
  • Data loading & indexing — ARSLOAD, ACIF, generic indexing, and the indexing rules that make documents findable instead of just stored.
  • Performance tuning — slow loads, slow retrievals, bloated databases, storage and cache layout, and the database housekeeping CMOD quietly depends on.
  • Storage & retention — cache, archive storage, and migration policies, plus retention and expiration set up so the right things stick around and the rest doesn't.
  • Security & access — users, groups, and permissions mapped to who should actually see what.
  • Troubleshooting & rescue — reading the logs, finding the failed loads, and getting an inherited or undocumented environment back to healthy.
  • Health checks & handoff — a clear look at how your system is really doing, written up so your own team can keep it running.

If you've got CMOD and nobody left who speaks it, that's exactly the kind of call I like to get.

Networking

The best network is one you forget is there. I design and clean up wired and wireless setups for home offices, small businesses, and the surprisingly serious home labs people run now. Coverage that actually reaches the back of the house, sensible separation between work and the kids' devices, remote access that won't get you into trouble, and a setup documented well enough that the next person can follow it.

How working together looks

Most of what I do starts small — a problem to diagnose, a system to assess, a piece of work to scope — and grows from there only if it makes sense. There's no minimum, no long contract to sign before I'll look at something. A few common shapes:

  • Project work — a defined build, install, upgrade, or migration with a clear start and finish, quoted up front once we both understand the scope.
  • Troubleshooting & rescue — something's broken, slow, or undocumented and you need it sorted. Often the fastest, highest-value way to start.
  • Ongoing support — a standing arrangement to keep a system healthy, on call when something comes up, without you carrying a full-time hire for it.
  • Assessments & second opinions — an honest read on a system, a plan, or a vendor quote, written up plainly so you can make the call.

I work remotely for most things and on-site when a job genuinely needs hands on the hardware. Billing is straightforward — hourly or a fixed project price, agreed before the work starts, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

A bit of background

I started out the way a lot of people in this line of work do — being the one who'd take on the thing nobody else wanted to touch — and never really stopped. Over the years that's run through automotive, finance, insurance, healthcare, government, retail, and a handful of others. Different rules in each one, but the job underneath is always the same: understand how the work really gets done, then make it run a little better.

JTEK has stayed independent on purpose. I like the variety, I like owning the result instead of handing it off, and I like being someone a client can call directly when something matters. The three areas above are where I'm deepest, but if you've got a messy real-world problem and aren't sure who to hand it to, it's worth asking — the worst I'll do is tell you it's not for me.

Get in touch

Easiest thing is to send a few lines about what you're dealing with. No form, no pitch — just tell me the problem and I'll tell you straight whether I can help.