Franklin-based Big Bang LLC, recently received its first patent approval from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the technology used in its Universal Imaging Utility (UIU).
The UIU was developed in 2004, but has since been released in upgraded versions. It is the only program able to create a Windows PC image; a virtual copy of a PC’s hard drive, drivers, sound and video cards and operating systems; that when transferred will work on any other PC regardless of make or model.
“What the UIU does is create a master ‘image’ that already contains all of the necessary drivers, hardware configurations and settings that will allow it to function on any machine regardless of make or model,” said Nathaniel Bauer, Big Bang marketing director. “The only other way to do what we do is to capture the image on one computer and then spend two-and-a-half to three- hours on each individual machine installing all OF the appropriate drivers and pieces to make it functional on a different machine.”
If a company wants to turn over a large number of computers in a specific department for a new life cycle, UIU can be used to copy the hard drives, the operating systems, sound cards, video cards and the data from the existing computers and put the image on to the new machines, Bauer said. The company is able to upgrade and even switch brands if it chooses to, and the whole process can take less than 30 minutes.
Big Bang LLC was founded by Adam Murphy in 1998, and was originally a small consulting company known as ACM Consulting. It later grew into Big Bang Training after Murphy contracted with Glendale-based Binary Research International to provide Symantec Ghost training to its customers.
The development of the UIU grew out of the needs expressed by the customers of the Symantec Ghost Training.
The UIU license is sold based on the number of machines and can be purchased for just over $20 a seat for 100 to 249 computers. The price of the UIU goes down as the number of computers goes up, but cannot be purchased for companies with less than 100 computers.
“If you have less than 100 computers the cost is not justifiable, UIU really saves larger companies, with hundreds of computers, time and money when it comes to switching a life cycle or recovering after a crash,” Bauer said.
The UIU technology has been deployed in over 1.5 million PC’s worldwide for companies, government and health care facilities, and educational institutions. It is used in countries like Brazil, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, The United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Canada, Mexico and others, Bauer said.
Despite the fact that the large majority of the company’s business is done outside of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee area is a great place to be located said Murphy, a Milwaukee native.
“I’ve been a local most of my life, and it’s a great place to live. It’s an easy trip to either coast, which is wonderfully convenient,” Murphy said. “The quantity and selection of potential IT employees is obviously not nearly as abundant as we’d find on the west coast, but the cost isn’t nearly as high either. With only 10 employees though, we have found excellent people, and plan to hire more.”
According to Murphy, the “Milwaukee attitude” of hard work is something he really looks for in his employees, but also expects that with the recent abundance of layoffs his selection pool will be even larger and even more talented when it comes time to fill a position.
“We’re not oriented around certifications and acronyms on a resume,” Murphy said. “We have pulled people from non-IT areas because their talents, drive and personality match with what we do. We can teach the right person what we do. We can’t teach them personality.”
Big Bang recently moved from a 4,000-square-foot office space on Old World Third Street in downtown Milwaukee, to a 5.2-acre campus at 9851 S. 27th St. in Franklin with three times the potential space, Murphy said.
According to Murphy, the patent on the UIU technology helps solidify Big Bang as a leader in hardware- independent PC imaging, but he sees bigger and more diverse projects in the company’s future.
“I believe Big Bang will grow to be more than just a software and IT training company,” Murphy said. “The interests of our employees will drive us in new directions, similar to the Virgin brand name. Our first patent was for the UIU software. Our next big idea may be a scuba product or a golf product. That’s really the fun of it, and we’re poised to take advantage of those ideas. If there’s one thing that I have learned from working with the wide variety of customers we have, it is that a well run business is universal. The product or service does not matter. The employees, personality and philosophy do.” n
Big Bang LLC
Franklin
Innovation: Universal Imaging Utility
Founded: 1998
Employees: 11
www.bigbangllc.com
