ABOUT STI

SOFTWARE TECHNIQUES, Inc. (STI) was founded in 1987 to provide specialized technical consulting services to Fortune 500 businesses. Led by President Larry Zirbel, the company’s primary focus was on providing custom programming and project management services to networking and telecommunications firms by contracting technical employees to complete assigned jobs. STI’s blue chip client list has included AT&T, Fujitsu, Bell Labs, Amdahl and CSX Railroad.

As the market became crowded in the early ‘90s, STI evolved into a custom software development company, focusing on delivering finished products, rather than staff, to its clients. The company continued to work with elite, blue chip organizations until 1994—at which time it was asked by the Highlands County Appraisal District, located in Sebring, Florida, to bid on creating a Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system.

STI developed and implemented Highlands County’s property appraising system. And as a result of the project’s success, Zirbel made the decision in 1995 to refocus the company exclusively on creating and delivering CAMA software solutions to government property appraisal districts.

Subsequently, Software Techniques, as it is known today, was born. Zirbel and his team of programmers and engineers used their experience at Highlands County to build an entirely new, Windows-based system from the ground-up. Known today as CUSTOMCAMA, this solution is the only CAMA software that is sold as a fully customizable package. STI’s goal with CUSTOMCAMA is to continuously meet all of the needs of the appraisal district, and thereby eliminate the need for the district to purchase and undergo a lengthy conversion to the latest CAMA technology.

Some of the features that have been added for CUSTOMCAMA users over the years include GIS integration, a Web-based interface, and a series of field collection units ranging from a handheld device, to tablet PCs, to notebooks. In addition to these important developments, STI recently released CAMATOOLS, an off-the-shelf version of CUSTOMCAMA, most suitable for counties who prefer lower annual customization contracts and which are not as concerned with receiving a highly customizable package.

STI's employees have years of collective experience meeting the needs of government property appraisers. STI works with both large and small county appraisal districts and is proud to offer the lowest staff-to-parcel ratio in the industry. Select clients include Hillsborough (Tampa, FL–408,000 parcels), Potter-Randall (Amarillo, TX–130,000 parcels), and Harris (Houston, TX–1.7 million parcels), the second largest appraisal district in the nation.