ABOUT PROKON

Prokon Software came to be, almost, more by circumstance rather than choice.

Karl Eschberger and Jacques Pienaar both consulting engineers with one of the biggest multi disciplinary consultants in Africa, broke away to form their own structural consultancy in 1986

During their time consulting, they wrote small individual programs for hand held pocket calculators starting with the HP35 and onwards.

As word spread around many of the structural engineers within the consultancy also then used the programs to do their daily work.

These programs were short, concise, functional and allowed the user to quickly check and design a structure for punching shear, shear and also calculate area rebars etc. They managed to write a multitude of these small programs to do most structural elements including retaining walls, bases and columns.

The 80's was, of course, the decade of the computer and with technology mushrooming at an alarming rate the natural progression was to move from hand held calculators to desk top pc’s - this they did.

Whilst at their own consultancy they naturally used these programs to do their own structural work but found the phone ringing more in connection with program queries than site queries. These program queries were of course not generating income as most users were using the software free as they had simply been passed on.

With a shortage of concise, easy to use software around at the time they identified a market and had a vision to expose the software to other potential users. Another company called PROKON originating from PROgramming for CONstruction CONsultants was then registered As the name PROCON was already a registered name the word PROKON was used and registered with the intention to do the development, sales & marketing, maintenance and servicing of the software.

The natural progression was then to expand the usage of the software to a broader field other than Africa alone so the London office was opened in 1992 by Brian Zeederberg. Premises were purchased in 1994 and this office was then used as a sales and marketing outlet with the intention of penetrating the rest of the world.

From these humble beginnings so started a company that has grown to now supply structural analysis and design software to some 80 countries world wide.

The strength of the PROKON package lies in the simplicity of use and the modular form of the programs which can also be used integrally to do most structures from simple single span beams to the full dynamic analysis and design of substantial high rise structures. In addition all the structural elements are catered for in the design process as well as geotechnics. Pound for pound PROKON provides arguably the best desk top application for the consultant, contractor, student or academic in todays environment as it is aimed at the average user but has the capacity to also cope with major structures with thousands of nodes. Further more the cost is such that a user can cut his coat according to his cloth as one or 50 programs can be purchased. PROKON also has a rental purchase option allowing the user a low capital outlay for maximum user output.

PROKON values the feedback from users and indeed this is a two way link without which there would be no development and improvements. In fact the company is structured such that this feedback can be dealt with and integrated into the programs almost immediately. This allows the business to respond directly to client requests and also maintain links with the industry without losing touch with the requirements of consultants.

All the staff at PROKON have indeed been consultants and therefore understand and realise the importance, needs and requirements of the sector.

The international usage of the product has meant that many different codes are now included and these incorporate the British standards, the South African codes, the Canadian codes, the American code, the Australian code, the Hong Kong building code, the EN code, the Indian standard.