Company Profile: Saltire

by Scott Goddin and Matt Leininger, Portland U.S. Export Assistance Center

Modern business gurus increasingly encourage companies to define and enhance their core values to better focus their business effort and objectives. This trend can be seen in the Fortune 500 world as corporations such as IBM and General Electric divest divisions that do not align with the company’s core values. Saltire Software is a local firm that has found success domestically and internationally by building on its core values and expertise in mathematical technology to target market niches in embedded, packaged and educational application software markets. Saltire has been strategic in partnering, however, to enter these markets on its own terms.

Focused business stays small

Founded in 1989, Saltire specializes in the development of software with high mathematical content. Assisted early on by a series of National Science Foundation grants, the firm has developed core technologies in constraint-based and symbolic geometry that have been deployed in products as diverse as mathematical calculators and floor-covering estimation packages. Located in Beaverton, Saltire employs fewer than 10 people companywide, focusing on core business strengths of mathematical technicality, software engineering, and research and development. As necessary, Saltire partners strategically with companies to develop and distribute products that best leverage their specialized skills in science and mathematics.

Saltire’s principals—Philip Todd, founder, and Robin McLeod, president—have Ph.D.s and extensive backgrounds in mathematics, geometry and education. McLeod states: “Mathematics is both beautiful in its clarity and far-reaching in its application and I have loved it from an early age. I try, whenever possible, to bring some of this to the products we develop at Saltire.” Todd and McLeod’s product development reflects this heritage with a focus on math-education software that can be used from algebra and geometry through calculus and encourages student to explore and reflect on problems to gain new insights. Applications are also available for use in mechanical-engineering applications.

Partnerships enable international push

Saltire has been able to remain dynamic in a number of markets by partnering with companies that enable it to leverage its expertise and sell internationally without losing its focus. One of its key partnerships is with Japan’s Casio. The companies’ latest collaboration is one in which Saltire provides the embedded software for the Casio ClassPad 300, a flexible, touch-screen graphing calculator usable to both students and professionals. Its versatile graphing tools for 3D graphing and drawing of geometric figures offers a key tool for students in advanced math and for use by professionals. Saltire’s programming and software engineering provide the backbone for this innovative product. This embedded presence enables Saltire to bring its technology to global markets without overwhelming its resources.

Beyond these educational and embedded applications, Saltire has been successful in a partnership with leading carpet retail-management software providers in the development of a commercial line of products that can be used to make an accurate estimate of the amount of material needed for a set of rooms. These products are available in professional and commercial applications. Although these are proprietary products, significant effort would be required to market this niche application successfully. Saltire has partnered with a successful distributor of complementary software to license the global marketing rights for the products. Working with this partner and the U.S. Export Assistance Center in Portland, Saltire can focus on core activities while benefiting from partners’ expertise in undertaking a global sales effort.

New developments expand product lines

Furthering the company passion for assisting the advancement of science and math, Saltire has continued to innovate its product line through the development of a series of data analyzers and related software to make data logging and analysis a simple and reliable activity for teachers and students from the early grades through high school. These new products, with both educational and potential industrial applications, are sold under the name Saltire Scientific and are designed to work with Casio Data Analyzers and graphing calculators.

These probes and testing devices involve a variety of applications, including the following:

• pH Probe accurately measures any liquid’s pH level; useful for chemistry and biology labs.
• Dissolved Oxygen Probe measures a solution’s dissolved oxygen content.
• Conductivity Probe measures a solution’s electrical conductivity; excellent for water-quality testing.
• Pressure Sensor measures the absolute pressure of a gas; ideal for physics and chemistry experiments.
• Scientific Barometer measures barometric pressure; useful for natural sciences, weather monitoring and biology classes.
• Low-g and High-g Accelerometers measure one-dimensional acceleration; ideal for physics experiments.

To continue its product research and development, Saltire is working with Casio and seeking other partners to assist in the continued expansion and development of this product line and applications. Along with this initiative, Saltire is working with the Northwest Regional Educational Labs in Portland to continue to develop educational products to benefits students in the classroom.

Partnerships and focus keep Saltire competitive

This ability to partner with other companies and organizations has been crucial to Saltire’s success. Its willingness to work with Casio, carpet-software vendors and government agencies like the Northwest Educational Labs and U.S. Export Assistance Center in Portland has given Saltire the opportunity to focus on core strengths while benefiting from collaboration—a combination that keeps it competitive in a variety of markets.

About the authors
This article was co-authored by Scott Goddin and Matt Leininger. Scott Goddin is director of the Portland U.S. Export Assistance Center (www.buyusa.gov/oregon) and has been working in international trade with the U.S. Department of Commerce for more than 20 years. He works with Oregon and Southwest Washington high-technology companies to develop international markets, specifically helping them to design market-entry strategies; find and evaluate distributors, VARs or agents; evaluate product or service-delivery methods; and “internationalize” their companies.

Goddin has served as a U.S. trade negotiator working on Asian market access and standards issues for U.S. high-tech and communications companies and intellectual-property rights issues in Korea, Taiwan and China. Goddin also has served in temporary assignments as a commercial attaché at American Embassies in Seoul, Taipei and Nairobi and has managed the office in Portland supporting local Oregon firms since 1997. You can learn more about export assistance by visiting www.export.gov. or by contacting Goddin directly at scott.goddin@mail.doc.gov.

Leininger is a budding scholar at George Fox University and volunteer international trade assistant at the Portland U.S. Export Assistance Center.