Welcome. I’m the founder of Tokerud Consulting Group. Come on in! I run the place and function as our top database architect and consultant.

Introduction

The first part of this page is a bulleted list of the history of Tokerud Consulting Group which should give you a little background on what we do.

Part two is about my Independent Knowledge Professional blog at janet.tokerud.com.

Tokerud.com is the parent to my three other sites:

– Independent Knowledge Professional

– Studio Manager Story

– FileMaker Fever

History of Tokerud Consulting

Beginnings

Janet Grew up in Salem, Oregon

B.S. Psychology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

M.A. Urban Sociology, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA

Getting Technical

MBA Marketing, UC Berkeley with a secondary emphasis in information systems.

Five years working for Control Data’s Information Services Division in SF

Going Independent

3 years Independent Database consultant specializing in work with creative services businesses because they liked Macs

Kathy “Scout” Tomyris joined the firm after computerizing Smith & Hawken’s Art department in the early nineties and we became Tokerud Consulting Group

After building 25+ custom FileMaker database systems for creative businesses, we launched Studio Manager in the mid nineties to make it available to folks outside the SF Bay Area.

Raising the Ante

In 2000, we decided to get serious about Studio Manager. I focused on the architecture, functionality and website. Scout worked on the user interface, tech support and documentation.

By 2003, we were recognized by Creative Business as top-rated by users in their Integrated Management software category, beating out long-dominant Clients & Profits.

In 2004, we re-built Studio Manager and released Studio Manager 7 in March 2005 to take advantage of FileMaker 7’s radically improved software architecture. Sally Shannon joined the firm to contribute her administrative, sales and customer support talents.

Since then, we’ve continued to upgrade Studio Manager as FileMaker has released new versions every year or two. We are currently in love with lucky number FileMaker Pro 13 with its free FileMaker Go 13 for iPad and iPhone. And are working diligently on Studio Manager 13 right now.

My Independent Knowledge Professional Blog

This blog takes off where my TypePad blog, Tech Ronin, left off. I focus on individuals – this bias is in the grand tradition of Steve Jobs and the Macintosh.

I am an independent knowledge professional even with an employee or two. Now that traditional jobs are in decline, every worker whether an employee or not is better off thinking of him or herself as independent.

I endorse, support and investigate the use of technology like Macs, iPads and iPhones for the pursuit of knowledge-work and the pursuit of knowledge-related interests like travel, research, genealogy, art, writing and much more.