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By Keshia Clukey, kclukey@bizjournals.com, @AlbBizKeshia on Twitter

Antonio Civitella remembers Transfinder’s first client meeting in the early '90s. 

The CEO and president of the Schenectady, New York-based software development company described using a now antiquated computer platform crowding around a few conference tables and talking about bus routing software.

This week, the company had its fifth official annual Client Summit, which drew more than 210 of its customers to Albany from 33 states, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Rick Vines, transportation supervisor for Shelby County Schools in Columbiana, Alabama, said the summit, which started Wednesday, was his second.

“It’s very educational,” Vines said. “The knowledge from the classes they’ve presented here is invaluable.”

Vines described learning much about coding and better ways to collect data.

The Shelby school system has had Transfinder’s software for about two-and-a-half years now, and it’s made the 350-bus fleet more efficient, and more importantly, saves the district money, Vines said. He couldn’t quantify the amount yet as it’s still early in the program.

But summit attendees got more than just training on Transfinder’s software, which is used at more then 1,500 school districts.

“It’s about the collaboration,” Civitella said. “It’s not what they learn from us, it’s more what they learn from each other.”

Henry Claeys, transportation and permits supervisor for the Winnipeg School Division in Manitoba, Canada, said the summit was a great opportunity to speak with other schools. “It’s a very rich software that by ourselves we’d never find all the ways to use it,” he said.

The school system has had Transfinder’s software for four years, and it has helped it reduce services and costs, as the schools use private taxis and vans to help with transportation—saving about $100,000 this year alone, Claeys said.

This year, Claeys will be going home with more knowledge on how to use the software’s analytics and reports to become even more efficient, he said.

The company also got feedback from the customers finding ways to improve and grow, Civitella said. “It’s exciting.”

Transfinder started the year with about 77 employees and expects to reach about 90 by the end of 2014. In 2013, the software company added 157 new customers. Revenue increased from $7.9 million in 2012 to $8.6 million last year. 

It also is expanding into developing bus routing software for adult care facilities.