Application Development

World-Class Measurement and Automation Solutions
ICON Technologies is a professional developer of custom application software for measurement and automation solutions.
We specialise in scientific and engineering applications involving data acquisition, data analysis, instrument communications, process control/SCADA, motion control, and machine vision.

Scope of Our Work and Credentials

We have over 15 years experience developing measurement and automation software applications for major international and national engineering and technical companies, tertiary institutions, and scientific organisations.
Applications can be large or small, and stand-alone or integrated with industry-standard network, communications, and database environments.
- See an overview of our client list.
- See some examples of applications we've developed.
We have created award-winning applications for large and small companies across Australia. These include:
- LabVIEW Powers Next-Generation Phase Noise Analyser: best application paper finalist in the Communications category, NI Week 2003.
  Client: Poseidon Scientific Instruments.
  Application Paper.pdf.
- Crikey - It's PXI Down Under: best application paper finalist in the Communications category, NI Week 2003.
  Client: Pacific Noise and Vibration
  Application Paper.pdf.
- Cold Cuts in Deep Water: Winner, best application paper in the Maintenance and Field Test category, NI Week 2002. Highly Commended Application Paper in the Water and Wastewater category, PACE Zenith Awards 2004.
  Client: Jetcut Offshore Technology.
  Application paper pdf.
- A Computer Controlled Multi-Analysis Titration System: best application paper finalist in the Test and Quality category, NI Week 2000.
  Client: Alcoa World Alumina.
  Application paper pdf.
- Monitoring Rail Track Condition to Reduce Maintenance Costs: best application paper finalist in the Maintenance and Field Test category, NI Week 1998.
  Client: CRA.
  Application paper pdf.
- A Real-World Teaching Laboratory for Instrumentation and Control Engineers: 1998 Engineering Excellence Award, Institution of Engineers Australia, WA Division.
  Client: Murdoch University.
  Application paper pdf.
We develop robust applications that are cost-effective to maintain and upgrade over their projected lifetime.
We have also created a range of LabVIEW toolkits and other proprietary software products that have been sold worldwide to the LabVIEW programming community.
See our own LabVIEW Toolkits.

Our Developers

Our programmers have a unique mix of measurement expertise and software engineering skills.
They have qualifications in core science and engineering disciplines and understand the processes of measurement and automation, and what you are trying to do.
But they also have computer and software engineering skills, and follow industry-standard practices for designing and developing quality code.
This means you get a practical, accessible application that does exactly what you want it to do, and is cost-effective to maintain and upgrade.

Our Major Development Tools

Our primary development tool is National Instruments' LabVIEW - a fully compiled graphical programming environment, optimised for measurement and control applications.
See some typical LabVIEW applications.
We also develop in National Instruments' Measurement Studio (C/C++/VB), National Instruments' Lookout, and other standard environments.
Depending on your requirements, applications can be provided as stand-alone executables, or with source code for continued development within your own organisation.
Software environments supported include Windows 9.x/NT/2000/XP, MacOS, Sun Solaris, HP/UX, and Concurrent's PowerMaxOS.
We are a member of National Instruments worldwide Alliance Member program.
We are not limited to working only with National Instruments products, but we do have in-depth skills and experience with their complete range of hardware and software.
We know their hardware and driver software inside-out, and our programmers are professionally trained in LabVIEW and work with it every day.

Design Methodology

ICON Technologies uses an innovative design methodology drawn from current best-practice in the IT industry.
We call it "Extreme Programming", but what it is called doesn't matter.
What it means is that you get an application that does what you want, with no annoying little bits left undone.
Changes to the application requirements during development can be accommodated, and they won't cost you an arm and a leg.
For more details on how it works see our Software Design and Programming Methodologies pdf.

Structured Programming

We use in-house development templates and code libraries to ensure that applications are built efficiently and consistently.
As a result, all of our applications can be understood and maintained by any of our programmers - and yours too, with appropriate training.
We use state-of-the-art techniques for "object-oriented" programming in LabVIEW that most other LabVIEW programmers aren't even aware of.
This means you get modular applications, that can be cost-effectively de-bugged, maintained, and upgraded.
For more details of the benefits see our Structured Programming pdf.

Project Management, Support, and Training

Good design and structured programming are only a part of good application software development.
Revision management, backup procedures, and documentation can be the difference between success and failure.
ICON Technologies has established procedures for handling all of these issues.
We also provide full local support, including training, for our custom application software, and for National Instruments software tools such as LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, and Lookout.
For more details on what we do see our Management Procedures pdf.

Fitting In To The Corporate Environment

Unlike many specialist measurement and automation development environments, LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, and Lookout provide connectivity to networks, the Internet, and "Enterprise" applications like Microsoft Office and corporate databases.
ICON Technologies has the resources and expertise to fully integrate any application into a web-aware corporate network.
For more details see our Connecting to the Enterprise pdf.

What About the Cost?

For most custom applications, the cost of lifetime maintenance and support substantially outweighs the initial development cost.
Getting it right the first time pays off many times over.
So what do you want for your next application development? A software "black-box" that depends on one or two key in-house staff, and gets progressively harder to maintain as time passes?
Or a professionally engineered application that is cost-effective to maintain and upgrade as your own and your customer's needs change?
Our charge rates (inc GST):
- On a casual basis, from $143 to $187 per hour, or $1023 per day.
- Longer-term maintenance contracts and 7 day on-call support are negotiable as required.