Williams was hired as an alumni relations student assistant for the summer and tasked with the enormous project of digitizing the composite boards of the many Edwards graduates of years past.

“I kept thinking there had to be a more efficient way to digitize the project instead of spending so much time scanning 15,000 photos individually and compiling them into a database,” said Williams. “I spent a bit of time researching whether or not software like this existed and came up empty-handed.”

Shortly after the project began Williams found himself moving locations to the Edwards Information Technology Services Office. As luck would have it that is where he met Ognjen Ivkovic, a U of S computer science graduate, Edwards employee and future business partner - they co-founded their company Oglen Solutions that summer.

The pair discussed the idea of custom software for the project. Ivkovic then developed software designed to automate the process of scanning photos and creating files. The results can then be matched back to the university database and made accessible on easy-to-use interactive displays such as kiosks, tablets, mobile devices and the web.

“Originally the project was supposed to take four summers to complete but we ended up doing it in four short weeks,” said Williams. “We are incredibly thankful for the opportunity that the Industry Liaison Office at the University of Saskatchewan gave us to start our own business.”

Oglen Solutions has completed projects with the Edwards School of Business and the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the U of S. User-friendly kiosks are now available at the Edwards School of Business for graduates to view their photo within seconds, while seeing their entire class photo on a big screen beside the kiosk.

Three more projects are in the midst of completion and more than 20,000 photos have been digitized to date. The partners expect that number to double over the next few months when they meet with other universities in Canada.

Visit Oglen Solutions at the CCAE conference this week in Saskatoon or check out https://www.oglen.ca/ for more information.

For more information, contact:
Natasha Katchuk
Communications Officer
Edwards School of Business
University of Saskatchewan
306-966-2811