CxAlloy software exists for the same reason all the best software exists: we needed to solve a problem. CxAlloy Total Quality (TQ) was initially developed as an internal tool for its parent commissioning firm, WorkingBuildings, to address the difficulties around tracking, documenting, and reporting on the commissioning process.
Similarly, CxAlloy Facility Maintenance (FM) was developed in 2011 when WorkingBuildings expanded its services to building operations. Our operations personnel wanted a simpler and easier-to-use solution to managing maintenance than the solutions they had used before.
Both of our products started as internal tools, and it was only after seeing the actual value they delivered that we realized we should develop them into full-fledged commercial products. Well, that and the people that would ask if they could use the software too!
Being user-driven is the core of CxAlloy software. That’s what happens when software is built because users ask for it instead of developers proposing it. The origin of CxAlloy as an internal tool, built only because users needed something better, means that this belief is deeply embedded in our team.
That motivation - to solve user needs - has continued even as we brought our software into the commercial market. In the enterprise market it can be easy to get distracted into building functionality that doesn’t actually benefit users but looks good to purchasing departments. We have never gone down that road. In fact, one of the foundational values of CxAlloy that is taught to every new employee and revisited frequently is “Users over buyers”. This means we satisfy user needs first, not buyer feature lists.
This commitment to being user-driven can be seen today not only in the quality of the software we deliver, but in the other efforts we have undertaken to keep ourselves close to our customers, including our annual user conference, our presence at industry conferences, and our feedback forum that allows us to have a two-way conversation with our users about new features and improvements.