Q&A
agement software company goes back at least another dozen years. In 1988, Antonio Civitella, who immigrated
T A CONVERSATION
WITH TRANSFINDER FOUNDER & CEO
ANTONIO CIVITELLA WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY HOW A SOFTWARE
SOLUTION ORIGINALLY DESIGNED FOR HOME-
NURSING CARE LED TO THE FORMATION OF A MAIN PLAYER IN THE
SCHOOL-BUS ROUTING AND TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY
to the Schenectady, N.Y., area from Caser- ta, Italy, when he was 9, was a sophomore computer-science major at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. He was hired as an intern at Forth & Associates, an HR consulting com- pany run by retired General Electric executive Jim Forth, who was working at the time with a local mapping company to develop software for a medical care facility that delivered registered nurses directly to the doors of patients. While that solution, "Carefinder," never
came to fruition, it did give way to a widely known suite of school-bus, transportation rout- ing and fleet management software — and an entirely new company led by a new owner. Tis year, Transfinder celebrates its 25th
anniversary of providing a routing solution to the school district and as a leading software provider for student transportation departments throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to its core school bus routing software, Transfinder offers GPS tracking; field trip management; a fleet maintenance solution; a family of communications solutions for the Intranet, Internet, and mobile applications for school district personnel; and school-zone planning. It is soon to break ground on a new headquarters building in downtown Schenecta- dy, and, interestingly, Forth will be at the ribbon cutting ceremony. We sat down with Civitella in February to learn how it all came to be.
School Transportation News: What was the concept behind Carefinder, which later gave way to the company now known as
Transfinder? Antonio Civitella: ( Jim) found that not
only should you be pairing the correct employ- ee skill sets with the patient but also there’s something about the geographic location of where the employee lives with respect to the patient. He felt that you should really use some sort of GIS system to help you schedule your employees better, because you are paying them (to travel) too many miles. Tey can take care of more patients if you choose the nurses that are closest to the patients.
STN: How did that translate into school
busing? Civitella: During Carefinder development,
24 School Transportation News April 2013
ransfinder officially opened its doors with a new name in 2000, but truth be told, the brain trust behind the transportation man-
there was some similar functionality that could be applied to school bus routing, such as geo- graphic pairing for stops, students, and vehicle. Jim, being the innovator he was, immediately trademarked “Transfinder.” He was not a com- puter person at all but loved the concept. When I came on board, it really was to work on Care- finder. As an intern, I was the only programmer. At this point, it was my sophomore year in
college, so it was just a job, something to make some extra money as I learned more about computers. I wasn’t doing it for credit at that point but to get some experience. Working on Carefinder was part time but it was almost like working in a start-up environment. I got very little sleep.
STN: When it looked as though Carefinder would not work out, you kept “plugging away.”
Why? Civitella: Te beta tester said it was too
early (to launch), that we couldn’t pull off the technology. I was 19 years old and I enjoyed (the work) and felt (programming) was some- thing that I could do for the rest of my life. I remember driving back from this client think- ing that my job was over. I was hired to work on this product, but it couldn't be finalized. I either just shake hands with (Forth) and thank him for the opportunity — I was sure I was gone — or maybe we can redirect this other idea he mentioned when I first came on board. So I said, “Jim, let’s work on this Transfinder product.”
STN: What happened next? Civitella: Te local high school in Sche-
nectady was the first to buy it. Tere were two high schools being consolidated into one. Te high school I went to became a middle school. It was a lot of redistricting. We were working nonstop. We had a concept, we gave them the prototype and the functionality, and they had a lot of input, of course. In 1990, the product was actually installed on the client’s computer. Now, during this time, I was officially an in- tern, so I finally was earning college credit and was getting paid, too. Jim hired more interns to help me. Tis was really an exciting job: 12 hours a week for one semester, but that’s still not enough time to get your head into this technology. Tat’s really how, from Forth & Associates, we got into Transfinder. But for a really long time, the HR side of the consult- ing business is what kept the company going. It funded the company and the development of the product. Tat was really the core busi- ness for a long time until Transfinder could sustain itself.
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