About Us

In 2016, Advanced Development Concepts, LLC celebrated 30 YEARS of service!!! We started as a small software company started by R. Scott Alvord, the founder just before graduating from college in 1986. The small business developed custom software applications for small, mid-sized, and even a few large businesses. Below is a brief history (well, okay, so it's not so brief) of the company:

In the MS-DOS days we developed three commercially-sold PC software systems: Dove Evangelistic Tracking System (very successful), Bible Topic Management (for pastors and Bible instructors), the Corporate Mailing List (large mailing list database manager...very cool in its day), and our very first game called Below the Pelico. The Dove system sold nationwide (even worldwide) and was the leading system used by evangelists and churches to track large events consisting of multiple meetings.

Some of the most significant software systems we developed involved the healthcare industry. These included:

• a management system for an eating Disorder and Alcohol Treatment facility;
• a volunteer time tracking system for a large bay-area hospital;
• Significant enhancements to the Ask-A-Nurse software system;
• a complex HCFA-485 Editor (used by hospital home health depts) that we developed externally and then merged into the large Compubar system at Adventist Health;
• Nuclear Medicine Data Analysis Program to check CT scanners in hospitals;
• several other health-related systems.

We developed some unusual software systems that included:

• a matchmaking system for a dating service and roommate finder;
• a complex water treatment plant software system for the Napa/American Canyon Waste Water Management Authority;
• a collectible plates tracking system;
• a parking permit tracker for a large campground security department;
• an encryption algorithm (DRM-1000) that we still think is unbreakable.

At this point around the year 2000, the company started to change as the founder finished his MBA-MCA degree and, using the experience with the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards program, began doing a significant amount of business consulting.

Because of the structure of the business included several high-quality programmers, analysts, advisers who worked on a project-by-project basis (contract), it was very fluid and had low overhead. Most of the contractors had full-time careers and we selected projects carefully since we were all in it for the challenge (well, okay, the pay was pretty good too). We started moving away from large client-server, PC-based software systems and started moving into the Internet world.

Our first website was a $30,000 website for AHRP. Three of us divided the work and completed the project in six months. It was the largest website any of us had developed to that point (the challenge). "I recall buying a 2.5" thick book about HTML and I read it cover-to-cover in two weeks. I bought a similarly-thick JavaScript book and read selected sections in the next two weeks," recalled Scott.

Since that time, the company has developed websites for a telecom company (yes!), schools, churches, a few non-profit companies, a leading forensic laboratory, and many others. The variety has kept things interesting.

We’ve also done some very interesting data mining projects (one for AT&T) as well as some data conversion and interfacing projects. 

The company also changed names and reorganized into Advanced Development Concepts, LLC with a software subsidiary (Advanced Programming Concepts) and a small publishing company (Advanced Publishing Concepts). At the end of 2017, we added Advanced Business Roundtable, a business networking and peer-to-peer mentoring group. Read about Our Companies here.

The company does more business and technical consulting now than anything else. We also seem to constantly have a few website development projects going as well.

Our specialties are many but we tend to help with a lot of business troubleshooting, research, general training, startups, contracts, team assistance (joining a design team as "fresh eyes" to help them through a process or design), online safety training, target avatar marketing (our super power), and helping companies thrive by breaking through a wall that is holding them back. You can read about our Products and Services here.

As the clients became predominantly C-level executives (CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, etc.), our founder changed his title from Founder/Sr. Analyst to Founder/CEO to match the level of the people he was training/coaching.

We have literally saved a few businesses from closing. We rarely talk about our consulting clients because the nature of helping them with challenges isn’t something that should be advertised and few business owners want to go public about getting help. However, we can help you contact a few of our clients that happily talk about us and we do appreciate them being willing to share.

We’ve won several awards and have literally trained (in person) thousands of people in the region and even nationwide. Our clients know us well but the general population doesn’t hear much about us. That’s why when we win a community-voted, “Best-of-the-Best Computer & Software” award, it means a LOT because we know our local clients are behind it.

We are sincerely honored to be serving the community for over 30 years. We hope the next ten years will far surpass the previous thirty. We have some cool ideas to make a huge impact on the local business economy, and thus on the community as a whole. Stay tuned! The future should be HUGE for Advanced Development Concepts, LLC.

Before we suggest anything, we listen! Sounds simplistic? We're amazed how many consultants don't ask the right questions and then listen to the answers.

Think about the last time you brought in an outsider to solve a problem or provide a solution. Did they waste your time or money? We have a reputation to uphold so why waste everyone's time by jumping to solutions without understanding the real need?

Why would we work hard to give you a creative solution when we didn't bother to LISTEN to your situation, ask a lot of questions to make sure we understand, and THEN start serving you appropriately?

Yet, we get project after project via clients that had one of our competitors waste their time! Our competition brings us a steady stream of new clients!

Advanced Development Concepts uses a unique and powerful staffing structure.

Real Experience

Our team is not made up of regular full-time employees. Almost every team member is highly-respected in their field and has a stable career in a high-tech industry, leading university, or quality business. Many own their own businesses and have successful, real-world experience. Many are true leaders in the business community or their specialized industry.

Our CEO is highly-educated, served as a Senior Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards Program, has all kinds of interesting and unique business leadership experiences, and has owned and operated numerous businesses for long periods of time. He made the connections that formed the ADC team. 

We take on projects because they interest us and we want to be involved, not because we are forced to "feed the overhead." We are (for the most part) professional friends but at the ADC level, we only use the best talent for a task and we don't invite weak players.

We only accept new clients and projects when we are sure we can handle the responsibilities that go along with the project. If we do not feel we can adequately give you the service you deserve, we will be upfront with you. Please read our testimonials to get a clear picture of what our company is all about.

Return On Investment (ROI)

If we do not believe that our services will more than be paid for by the increase in profits because of our services, we will tell you.  We always want our results to be a win-win situation so both you and ADC are excited to have worked together.

We encourage you to compare us to other companies. We expect that you'll find our ROI to be excellent!

We Save You Money Because

• We do not carry a high overhead. We have no regular, full-time employees. No expensive lease or commercial mortgage. No toll-free numbers. No secretary. No big advertising budget (word of mouth keeps us fairly busy). No quotas to meet. No investors to pay back. No alimony that needs to be fulfilled. 
  Many competitors are too focused (and biased) on making a certain level of company income to stay afloat...because their company has to take a big slice of the revenue just to remain open for business.
• We're a one-stop shop for many of your business needs. Our wide range of services and talents can handle many of your needs so you won't have to hire multiple companies (each with their own overhead needs) to handle numerous tasks.
• As mentioned above, we ask good questions and listen BEFORE we do the work. Clear communication is essential for excellent results.
• Our structure helps ADC remain very nimble and stable. We are able to avoid the financial strains that many companies face because we don't have a set overhead. This means we are not going away or suddenly shutting our doors.
  

Our founder has a strong Christian faith as do most of our team members. However, PLEASE understand that we do NOT expect YOU to have similar beliefs. We don't preach and we'll treat you the same no matter what your beliefs. We just want you to know that we believe that we (ADC team) answer to a Higher Power and it governs how we treat others.