Penguin Blue – Company Background
Penguin Blue was formed in June 2000 to develop and market the “Rockhopper” courier management system.
The founder and director, Dr Tony Gerber, has worked as a software architect, consultant and programmer in the transport industry for over 17 years. This association with the industry commenced in 1986 with the creation of the “Carry” transport management system in Sydney, Australia. Dr Gerber was the chief architect and programmer for this system, produced by Intercept Computers Pty Ltd.
By 1990, Carry was running at over 50 sites in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, and has remained popular ever since that time. It is still running at many of those sites, and in its various incarnations, is probably running at around 100 sites at the time of writing.
After some years with Mayne Nickless, where development of Carry was extended under Dr Gerber’s direction into a wider variety of transport businesses, it became obvious that the technological underpinnings of Carry were beginning to show their age. Built using “ISAM” files, and written entirely in the C programming language, the system remains efficient and compact, but difficult to develop further, and awkward to interface to modern web-based or PC-workstation environments.
With the start of the new millennium, Dr Gerber decided to embark on a complete re-write and re-design of Carry, using current technology. A launch customer, the DX division of the Australian Document Exchange (Ausdoc), provided the impetus to commence the implementation of that system. Thus rockhopper was designed in early 2000, and its roll-out commenced in August 2000 at Minuteman Couriers in Brisbane.
At the time of writing, rockhopper has been installed at 20 sites in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, with additional implementations currently in progress.
“Rockhopper” is the result of 17 years’ experience with Carry at dozens of sites in four countries. As such, it has the benefit of being designed “properly” from the beginning. Users of Carry will recognize some elements of the Carry heritage in rockhopper, but in every way it is a brand-new product.
Apart from Dr Gerber, the development team is further enhanced by contributions from another three software professionals, each with expertise in particular technical areas, yet all with experience in the transport industry.
Updated July 2005.