Ron graduated from the University of Vermont in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and a minor in electrical engineering.
From 1980 through 1989, Ron worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in their Burlington, Vermont facility. Ron worked as a software engineer specializing in manufacturing systems. His experience included the development, implementation, and practical use of systems to automate and collect quality data from the manufacturing line. MRP and process automation, statistical process control as well as the concepts of “World-Class Manufacturing” are all part of Ron’s background.
In 1990, Ron was at first hired as an employee for Upper Access Publishing, in Hinesburg, Vermont. But later assumed ownership of Publishers’ Assistant. It is amazing how much technology could be transferred from manufacturing systems into the world of publishing. PubAssist includes facets of product planning, inventory control, accounting, automated liability tracking, distributed applications, and user-modifiable reporting system. Through all of this work, Ron has provided direct support to end users.
“It is incredibly important to support small business owners by putting powerful tools in their hands at an affordable price.”
Ron Lawrence
Ron has been working in web development since the end of the 1990’s. PubAssist Web Services has been an offering since 2006. But with the end of support for Foxpro, it became clear that a move away from Microsoft platform was in order.
Since 2015, Ron has immersed himself in web development in the Linux environment. In 2016 Ron was contracted by Global Foundries in support of their ASICS (Application Specific Integrated Circuit Services) design process. Ron was responsible for the transfer of applications from the IBM network to servers in the new Global Foundries network. Again, the overlap with manufacturing systems is amazing.
Since July, 2018, Ron has been evaluating web development tools and frameworks in the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python) platform. More recently, Ron has been working on actual applications to replace key functions in Publishers’ Assistant. The focus of new development will be on making use of off-the-shelf technologies (like WordPress and WooCommerce)
At the center of all of this work, has been a devotion to our customer base and independent publishers in general. We hope you’ll join the cause.