Mainebiz

O N T H E R E C O R D W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 37 A U G U S T 1 0 , 2 0 1 5 T yler Technologies Inc., a Plano, Texas-based public sector software developer with 540 employees at three locations in Maine, recently announced plans to expand its Yarmouth offi ce building and add more than 500 employ- ees there over the next 10 years. e unanswered question: Will Maine deliver the talent it needs to fi ll those jobs? Like WEX, IDEXX and other Maine technology companies, Tyler takes a proactive approach to make sure it has the skilled computing and IT professionals it needs to continue meeting the needs of its public sector clients. In addition to off ering paid internships, the company is sponsor- ing the Maine App Challenge in a partnership with Educate Maine and Project>Login. e new competition for Maine high school students off ers $10,000 in scholarships to be awarded to the top fi nalists: a $6,000 fi rst prize, $3,000 second prize and $1,000 third prize. Deadline for submissions is Oct. 16; winners will be announced at the Maine Digital Festival on Dec. 12. Mainebiz recently met Ray Arbour, Tyler's project leader for the app chal- lenge, and Jay Collier, Project>Login's program director, to talk about that ini- tiative. e edited transcript follows. Mainebiz: How does the Maine App Challenge relate to the need of Maine businesses like Tyler Technologies for workers with strong computer and IT skills? Ray Arbour: Our focus and Project>Login's mission is to get stu- dents who live in Maine excited about this fi eld of work and to go to college and then stay here when they're done. We want them to know that there are jobs here for people with these inter- ests. A great way of doing that is to create a contest and get people excited about competing against each other. MB: How does the app challenge work? RA: Basically, the idea is simple: You create an application that addresses a need or problem in your community. We want students to concentrate not only on the 'hard' skills of actually being able to create a program, but also the 'soft' skills you need to sell and market it. We're not only hiring developers here. We're going to be hiring implementation people, we're going to be hiring salespeople, we're going to be hiring a lot of people here. Jay Collier: In addition to the jobs in development, these are skills that center on critical thinking, problem-solving and service. So a good piece of this is identifying a problem and identifying who is having that problem and then solving it. It also involves using the logi- cal steps to fi nd out what tools will help them and to make sure that it works. All of what we're doing with Project>Login, as well as this app challenge, is to help students gain those kinds of broader skills that are in demand and which, we've found from research, are essential skills across a majority of jobs. MB: What kinds of app 'solutions' are you looking for? JC: I'll give you an idea that probably somebody could steal: ere was a team at one school that was concerned about bullying at their urban school. So they created an app that when the student pressed the button, several things would happen. 1.) eir phone would ring, because they had seen research indicating that when your phone rings, it stops somebody from bullying you. 2.) It also automatically sent a call or text to a predetermined person who could help them. And all of that could happen when the phone was in their pocket. So they started with a real problem and, with doing some research, they came up with something that was meaningful and would really help people. MB: What happens to these great app ideas that you've just awarded prizes to? RA: Whatever the student wants. ey own it. We're not taking ownership of it, we're not taking responsibility for it, we just want to see it and we want to know what it does. We're not going to turn it into some money-making app here for Tyler or any of other sub- sidiaries. We leave it completely in the hands of the developer. Orono! A smart idea. The Orono Economic Development Corp. can help www.oronoedc.org Learn more: www.townoforono.com Join entrepreneurs at Target Technology Center Find space at Maine Tech Park and Downtown Pitch at Big Gig Learn about Ultra High Speed Fiber B Y J A M E S M C C A R T H Y P H O T O / JA M E S M C C A R T H Y Ray Arbour, a project manager at Tyler Technologies in Yarmouth, and Jay Collier, program director of Project>Login, encourage Maine high school students to consider IT careers. Ray Arbour, a project manager at Tyler Technologies, and Jay Collier, Project>Login's program director, know there are career opportunities in computing and information technology fields for Maine's youth: More than 1,100 software development openings were posted last year in Portland alone.

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