About Us

As a developer for dispatching software, we needed to add vehicle tracking to our software. We started integrating our own GPS system in the 1990s, before the government approved plans to add three additional GPS signals for non-military use and ended the “selective availability” program that decreased the accuracy. The early days were brutal. There was a lot more to it than just triangulating satellite locations and offsetting the location data for accuracy. We had to also send the data to our software system and show the locations of our customers’ assets on a map. Google maps wouldn’t exist for another 5 years. We integrated with 6 different mapping interfaces. But that wasn’t even the hardest part. There were no reliable wireless networks to send the data. When we started manufacturing our devices, we used Mobitex, the first public access wireless data communication services in North America. It was a data-only technology for short burst data. We were going to purchase modems sold by Research in Motion (RIM – later, they changed their name to BlackBerry). After testing and development, we decided to manufacture in Burbank California. When we finally placed our first “real” order of modems, RIM had decided to quit selling modems and a competitor purchased all they had. We found another manufacturer in Australia. They came to our office in Wichita Ks and we ordered a hundred modems to test. We built 100 prototypes and placed them strategically with customers across the US and Canada. The results were lest that desirable. Our largest customers were in California, so I took a few of the very expensive prototypes and rented a car in Vegas that had just been dropped off. It had 6 miles on the Odometer. I drove from LA to San Francisco, to San Diego and back calling my chief developer and the manufacturers in Australia asking, “Can you see me now?” When I returned it a week later, I had over 3,000 miles on it. Evidently the modems were not compatible on this side of the pond. I tried interfacing with several manufacturers of GPS units with similar results. That was before we started hosting the JaRay program and we needed multiple servers in each of our customers’ operations. I really appreciated the patience of our early adopters. I decided I didn’t want to manufacture.

After a lot of research, in 2000 we finally discovered Wireless Links, with manufacturing operations in Israel. They had recently opened an office in New York. My wife and I flew to New York and met with Joe Shayovitch, the founder. I was impressed with his knowledge of the industry and the quality of his products. We became a partner/integrator with them and our first project was to integrate their GPS system with our Bluetooth Digital pen (Linkwriter) system utilizing Anoto’s technology. That is another story of much pain and suffering. I should write a book on some of these projects. Wireless Links did their part – It was incredible. But we couldn’t get Anoto to work with us on the pattern licensing. Every page had to send the data to Sweden to authenticate and then back to wherever our data was processed. Let’s just say that there were a lot of problems with global Internet in 2000. We even wrote another software system that enabled us to encrypt and make sure that all the data was sent. That is another story. Anyway, we decided to just do GPS and stupidly tried many other manufacturers and GPS companies with cheaper systems. To finally make this story end, when ServiceTitan purchased JaRay, I was done with crap. I told all of our customers that they should probably move on to a different GPS company if they wanted cheap. There were a few customers who didn’t want to move on. I decided to swallow my pride and go back to the only GPS company that I had any faith in, even if they cost more. I’m proud to partner with Wireless Links, by far the best GPS system in the world.