TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES AMDOCS Information solutions to the communications and IP industries Dov Baharav, President & CEO, AMDOCS Management Ltd. Thomas O’Brien, Vice President-Investor Relations 1390 Timberlake Manor Parkway Chesterfield, MO 63017 (314) 212-7000 www.amdocs.com “From a carrier’s perspective we’re a one-stop shop.” Historic overview: Amdocs, the world’s leading provider of billing and CRM, originated in Israel but wound up in St. Louis with its first major contract for Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages in 1984. Today the 20-year-old, four-time Top 50 winner employs more than 8,000 people (650 in St. Louis) who support more than 200 leading communications providers in more than a dozen offices in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Amdocs’ second fiscal quarter 2003 revenues exceeded $355 million. It’s traded on the New York Stock Exchange as DOX. Products and services: “Our main line now is billing systems. We supply all the technology from the software side, and our people design, implement and support the system for the customer in their facility or our own,” says Tom O’Brien, vice president-finance. Specifically, Amdocs offers information solutions to the world’s top communications carriers, including CRM, billing and order management systems, plus business support systems for directory publishers. Distinguishing characteristics: “In addition to the technology we have 8,000 employees focusing on the business aspect and that’s a real differentiator for us. It’s unusual for a company to provide everything like we do, from the design and implementation of the software to the people who will support the system in the years the carrier intends to use it. We are experts in communications, and we can add real value,” O’Brien says. The big news:The big news at Amdocs is outsourcing, O’Brien says. “For example, last January we concluded an agreement with SBCDO to run their systems for them. We moved more than several hundred SBC employees who now work for us.” Similarly, Amdocs consolidated 150 separate billing systems for Bell Canada and as a result gained 700 new employees. What’s new since last year: The company’s Amdocs Enabler was named Billing World’s 2003 Best New Billing Product Award. Amdocs Enabler allows service providers to ensure profitable growth, increase customer loyalty and decreased costs. Regional benefits: “There are important quality of life considerations here, like good talent from local universities. From St. Louis you can get anyplace in a short time. Also we enjoy good regional support from the RCGA and other economic development groups,” O’Brien says. Looking ahead: Amdocs intends to continue to grow the business to accommodate the next generation of communications technology, like wireless data and handheld applications. “There are tremendous opportunities in the markets we serve. Carriers’ needs will increase greatly as they compete with themselves and other companies like Yahoo. We want to help them play a central role.” BC GROUP INTERNATIONAL INC. Test equipment and tools, calibration and repair services; process control BILL COLLIER, BC Group International Inc. Bill Collier, President & CEO 9415 Gentry Ave. St. Louis, MO 63125 (314) 638-3800 www.bcgroupintl.com “We have managed to grow faster than our competitors.” Historic overview: Bill Collier, BC Group president and CEO, worked in electronics in the U.S. Air Force, then at McDonnell Douglas. During a decade at GE, he was exposed to medical electronics while working his way up to management. In the late 1980s he had an opportunity to start a company, distributing test and measurement equipment for the medical industry. Over time the company developed its own technology and now manufactures as well as distributes test equipment and tools. Today the three-time Top 50 winner has 21 employees, including one in Atlanta and a traveling technician. Customers are located in all 50 states and all seven continents (“We shipped our first order to Antarctica in December 2001,” Collier says). 2003 revenues are expected to reach $5 million. Products and services: BC Group is a leading provider of test and measurement equipment for the worldwide technical services marketplace. The company offers test equipment and tools, plus calibration and repair services for most types of test equipment. Its process control unit serves power plants, chemical plants, food processors, and water and waste treatment plants, providing gauges, controllers, transducers, sensors, test equipment and other products that measure and control pressure, flow, temperature, and level. BC Biomedical manufactures the FingerSim, a pulse oxymetry tester widely used by hospitals. Distinguishing characteristics: “There’s a lot of competition within market segments, but what we do in total is pretty unique. It’s rare that you find a company that both manufactures and distributes,” Collier says. What’s new: Last year, BC Group launched its Process Control distribution unit and its e-commerce online store. Regional benefits: “About 25 percent of our revenues come from service work. Items come to us or we go on-site, so it helps to be centrally located,” Collier says. “Also, our overhead expenses are moderate compared to other parts of the country.” Looking ahead: “We have been selling internationally through the mail and our web site, but now we are putting together an international distribution network. We also will continue to cultivate national accounts, like GE and Datex-Ohmeda, a large multinational anesthesia equipment manufacturer,” Collier says. “In general, we will continue to do what we’re good at and look for ways to diversify in ways that make sense.” Interesting fact: BC Group is headquartered in an historic 1904 school building (which Collier attended). President Teddy Roosevelt sent his congratulations when the school opened. Collier purchased the property in April 1993. The building occupies part of the “Longwood” estate of Civil War Union General Winfield S. Hancock. BRICK NETWORK Internet services provider Dan O’Sullivan, President 1000 Macklind Ave. St. Louis, MO 63110 (314) 645-5550 www.brick.net “As you grow a business and know the area and people, it makes a big difference.” Historic overview: Dan O’Sullivan was working at Bridge Information Systems in 1995 when he and a partner formed a marketing and network consulting company in an 8.5-foot by 11.5-foot office. “We had two people in there, then four,” he says. In 1997, the company evolved into Brick Network, with 22 employees in St. Louis, Park Hills and Dexter. It’s the dominant Internet provider in the St. Louis market and several areas of the Missouri Bootheel, with more than 18,000 dial-up accounts and 1,000 dedicated business clients. “In the late 1990s, we realized that small, poorly run ISPs were overcharging rural customers for Internet access and web services,” says O’Sullivan, who ran for Congress in 1996. “Now we’re delivering broadband products to areas where previously, people could only access the Internet through long distance. And we’re charging the same as we charge St. Louis customers. That’s been a key portion of our business strategy,” O’Sullivan says. Products and services: Brick Network provides dial-up and high-speed Internet access over DSL, ISDN, Frame Relay, T-1 and DS-3 to businesses and homes throughout Eastern Missouri, including St. Louis, Dexter, Park Hills, Fredericktown, Ste. Genevieve, Perryville, Cape Girardeau, New Madrid and many more. It also offers website hosting and server co-location facilities. The big news: Two years ago, Brick Network introduced its wireless broadband Internet service, Dexter Broadband, which uses radio signals to provide high-speed access. “You don’t need a wire into your home or business, you just put up an antenna,” O’Sullivan says. “That means we can deliver to a farmer with 1,000 acres outside the same access as someone right next to the central office.” Because no phone lines are involved, Brick can offer this service very affordably, O’Sullivan says. “We use available technology to do things for much lower costs than anyone else has been able to offer.” Regional benefits: O’Sullivan says, “We studied the tariff structures and that guided our focus where we expanded. There were a lot of advantages for us to stay within a LATA of Southwestern Bell.” He adds, “It’s easy to have a regional identity here. We’d much rather be the big guy in a smaller geographic area than a little guy nationally.” Looking ahead: Brick Network plans to continue to build its franchise in outstate Missouri, O’Sullivan says, “and we will continue to grow with the goal of becoming the largest regional provider of Internet services in the St. Louis area.” The name: O’Sullivan says, “We did an Internet search for a name that was simple, short and easy to spell. We had a list of more than 400 names and narrowed it down to Brick.” BUSINESS TRAINING LIBRARY Employee training services Dean Pichee, President 745 Craig Rd., Suite 210 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 432-3077 www.bizlibrary.com “We’re like Blockbuster for business.” Historic overview: Business Training Library President Dean Pichee worked for and owned several training companies before starting Business Training Library in 1996. “The training industry’s pricing model works well for large multinational companies that can spread out the costs of buying a video that sells for $500 or more. But that doesn’t work for small or midsize companies, so we came up with a different way to offer smaller organizations affordable access to high quality training materials,” Pichee says. Products and Services: Companies pay a fee for membership, then have unlimited access to any videos, CDs or DVDs from Business Training Library’s two lending libraries. The Business Skills Lending Library contains more than 1,500 video, DVD and CD programs covering business and professional skills, desktop computer skills, leadership and management, human resources, healthcare, manufacturing skills, workplace health and safety, customer service and much more. The IT Lending Library for computer professionals contains more than 1,000 video and CD training courses for employees seeking technical certification or knowledge of technical and end-user applications. BTL added more than 500 training programs in the past year. Distinguishing characteristics: Pichee believes his company is the only one of its kind in the United States, serving more than 1,000 member companies. BTL also helps members choose courses and develop curriculums. “It can be a daunting task to choose the proper training program. Say I want to do a workshop on sexual harassment for managers. We have 28 of those programs to choose from, including humorous, documentary style and interactive versions. We can make recommendations, because we get to know our customers,” Pichee says. The big news: The membership library is a steady, growing business but the real growth is in e-learning, Pichee says. Business Training Library offers about 1,600 off-the-shelf web-based courses. What’s new since last year: BTL recently acquired Learning Management System, which helps member companies track all their employees’ training. For example, if an employee takes a class at a community college, attends an in-house workshop or views a CD-Rom, all those activities are noted in one database. Combined with BTL’s online skills assessment, employers can test and measure employees’ progress and offer further training. “Online learning technologies are an important growth opportunity for us,” Pichee says. Regional benefits: With clients nationwide, Pichee appreciates BTL’s central location in the St. Louis region in terms of the speed of shipping training materials. “The quality of our workforce also is incredibly important,” he says. “What has made us successful is the fact that among our 25 employees, we have several who have been with us from the beginning, long-term employees who get better every year and allow us to grow.” CERTIFIED NETS Network and Internet solutions ROBYN HOWES, Certified Nets Robyn Howes, President 743 Spirit 40 Park Dr., Suite 104 Chesterfield, MO 63005 (636) 519-4800 www.certified-nets.com “Big projects don’t necessarily require brawn, but brains, mainly solid, straightforward front-end design with responsive, personal service after the sale.” Historic overview: Robyn Howes started Certified NETS in 1996 when her internal IT-support job at a large company required less actual IT work and more “justifying our existence,” she says. “By moving to the consulting side of the house, I could set up an environment where there were no politics and we could say, ‘Okay, let’s talk about technology!’” Howes says. Certified NETS has grown conservatively and steadily through referrals, and recently added another account executive to its growing sales staff at its Chesterfield business-incubator location. The company focuses on network and Internet solutions for schools, small- to medium-sized businesses and healthcare—in particular, orthodontic practices—in St. Louis, Kansas City and outstate Missouri and Illinois. Products and services: Certified NETS specializes in providing network consulting for companies “with no IT staff or less than 10 people who focus on servers, switches and infrastructure,” Howes says. “We act as an outside IT department or augment the IT staff.” The company designs, integrates and supports hardware and software to meet Local and Wide Area Network requirements. They also offer security, disaster recovery, off-site storage and virus protection solutions. “If a company brings in a new IT person we’ll work with him or her side-by-side to get the system into a maintenance mode,” Howes says. “Companies also retain our services to be a safety net if something should go bump in the night.” Certified NETS also sells hardware and software, more as a service for customers, Howes says, and offers 15 minutes of free phone support per incident after installation. Distinguishing characteristics: Certified NETS frequently sponsors Lunch-and-Learn seminars, most recently, on Internet security. “It truly is Lunch-and-Learn, not Lunch-and-Sell,” says Jerry Waktkins, director of sales. “We pick a topic and offer solutions. If it makes sense to invite a vendor we do it. It’s all part of positioning ourselves as a resource for our customers.” Regional benefits: “From an entrepreneurial perspective, there are a lot of resources in the region, like the Economic Council incubator sites and mentorship programs, SCORE and financing opportunities,” Howes says. “It’s up to the entrepreneur to take advantage of what’s available.” Looking ahead: Certified NETS plans to add additional remote services to help customers be proactive, Howes says. “We want them to take a more planned and safe approach to their systems. For example, we’ll work with them to start looking for extra storage or a new server before it’s needed and causing problems.” Howes adds the company also plans to expand its customer base in rural Missouri. The name: Howes explains the name signifies that Certified NETS’ engineers have multiple certifications with the company’s key vendors. CONLEY & ASSOCIATES INC. Technology for defense and commerce Cecelia Conley, President James B. Conley, Vice President 930 Kehrs Mill Rd. Ballwin, MO 63011 (636) 230-0234 www.commo.com “We don’t work in a box.” Historic overview: Jim Conley had a background in riverboat electronics, so when he was laid off from ITT in 1983 he started a company offering radar and communications systems installation and service for the U.S. Army and riverboat companies. Cecelia Conley joined the firm in 1987. It employs 55 people in offices in St. Louis, Newport News, Va., Detroit, Mich. and Davenport, Iowa. Products and services: Conley & Associates provides C4ISR systems, technical publications, Logistics Management Information, training and curriculum development, Integrated Navigation and Situational Awareness (INSA) systems, Sample Data Collection (SDC), environmental engineering, packaging data and graphic design. One current project is an Integrated Bridge System (IBS) that ties together radar information, electronic charts, weather and position data and feeds it into a ship’s autopilot. “We manufacture the interface boxes that pull it all together,” Conley says. The company provides secure voice and data communications systems that work over radio and satellite links and mobile field units. The big news: “Currently we’re working on a system that’s getting a lot of interest from the Homeland Security Department,” Conley says. “It can take your cell phone and my walkie talkie and seamlessly tie them into police and fire systems, so the fire truck can talk to the police car. On the military side, we can talk from the fox hole to the Pentagon and then to the Internet.” Conley believes the as-yet unnamed communications system could prevent losses like those that occurred among firemen at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. “It doesn’t matter what kind of radio you may have, you can link it to anyone else’s system in the world. You don’t have to rely on public utilities,” he says. CONNECTRIA INC. IT utility/outsourcing Richard S. Waidmann, President & CEO 10845 Olive Blvd., Suite 300 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 587-7001 www.connectria.com “The utility model means you take a world-class IT infrastructure and support organization, build it once and let multiple companies share it.” Historic overview: Richard Waidmann started Connectria “when the Internet started to hit big in 1996,” he says. The company was focused on Internet infrastructures. An early customer, Deutsche Bank, needed a disaster recovery center. “They needed it quickly, so we built our first data center and that grew into the region’s first IT Utility,” he says, explaining, “In the early 20th century, companies built their own power plants, until they were able to buy the power they needed much more inexpensively through utility companies. We see the same thing happening in the information technology industry.” Most companies run their own data centers, networks, servers and databases that use the same underlying technologies and require the same skills, Waidmann says. “Like electricity, these functions are essential for companies, but provide no economic benefit for their business. You don’t need big computers sitting in your data center anymore. Using our facilities and staff you can get systems or network capacity and capabilities very inexpensively.” Connectria has just under 100 employees in its St. Louis headquarters and at its Data Center in the Broadband Exchange Building downtown, and in Philadelphia, serving more than 200 companies worldwide. Products and services: Connectria delivers a complete range of IT outsourcing and disaster recovery services at lower costs and higher service levels than companies can typically provide themselves. The company’s IT Utility leverages its world-class St. Louis and Philadelphia data centers and IT infrastructure with a variety of high-speed broadband and fiber networks. Services include onsite facilities management, remote management and managed hosting from Connectria’s Data Centers and Network Operations Centers. Distinguishing characteristics: As the cost of technology continues to decrease, the biggest challenge now is the cost of people to support the IT infrastructure, Waidmann says. “Small and mid-sized companies need to support a wide mix of technologies, and typically have a staff that must be jacks-of-all-trades without depth in any of their key technologies. We can provide expertise in every technology, so when you need economies of scale, like one-tenth of an Oracle database administrator or two-fifths of a UNIX systems administrator, that’s easy for us to do.” The big news: “We developed a proprietary environment that monitors and manages our systems and network, so a lot of the tasks that used to require a human being are now automated,” Waidmann says. “As a result it’s easy for us to add new clients inexpensively, because we don’t need as much manpower to manage systems or networks.” Regional benefits: “Being centrally located helps us connect to other parts of the country fairly inexpensively, because the closer you are to the customer, the less it costs to run the fiber or other means of connectivity. That allows us to structure our costs lower than the coasts, which gives us a competitive advantage,” Waidmann says. He adds the company benefits from being in the Central Time Zone, and from being a part of the city’s Regional Exchange Point effort underway to provide core network services to the entire region. The name: Waidmann explains, “Our marketing team came up with the name to signify our ability to deliver technology services by connecting to us. Hence, the name Connectria, “The IT Utility.” CYBERCON.COM IT and e-Business services JUSHUA CHEN, Cybercon.com Joshua Chen, Ph.D., President & Chief Technical Officer 210 N. Tucker Blvd., 7th floor St. Louis, MO 63101 (314) 621-9991 www.cybercon.com “We are the early pioneer of web hosting.” Historic overview: “I always liked to play with computers,” says Josh Chen. After earning his Ph.D. at Washington University, he taught at the University of Michigan. In 1994, Chen saw the potential of the World Wide Web and moved back to St. Louis to start a web services company. “We put up web sites, which in 1995 was very cool,” he says. “We’re way beyond that now, providing very complex and sophisticated systems.” The company’s 20 employees operate a data center downtown and a redundant data center in Newark, providing data center infrastructure and e-Business and IT services for more than 1,000 customers worldwide. Products and services: Cybercon manages thousands of Internet servers, network routers, switches, firewalls and high availability load balancers. Its tier 1 scalable Multi Gigabits Internet network currently serves more than 10 billion hits a month. The company offers a high level of expertise with network and server hardware, Unix and Windows operating systems, web, e-mail, database and e-Business applications. “We operate a 22,000-square-foot data center that holds a lot of mission-critical services for our customers,” Chen says. For example, several companies run their web servers and software out of a central server at Cybercon, and/or locate redundant servers there in case of fire or a terrorist attack, Chen says. “Our power is provided through a separate system in the building, and, if necessary, we can instantly switch to a generator that can run indefinitely with refuel.” He adds, the smoke detector inside the data center “is so sensitive it can detect a cigarette practically before you light up.” Regional benefits: Cybercon is located in the Bandwidth Exchange Building “telecom hotel” on North Tucker. “All the major carriers are here,” Chen says. “We need these providers to connect us to our customers, whose customers are doing transactions all the time over the Internet or special pipelines. That makes the price more competitive for us.” Also, Chen says the region offers a talented work force and a lower cost of living, which also contributes to a lower cost structure compared to the coasts. Looking ahead: Chen says Cybercon plans to build its e-commerce, disaster recovery and web broadcast streaming business, which companies increasingly use for online training and conferences, for example. “Companies need a lot of help these days to be secure and to keep their computers running,” Chen says. “There’s a lot more to it than buying a computer at CompUSA. Every customer needs unique solutions.” Interesting fact: Among Cybercon’s customers is the largest newspaper in Pakistan. “When you read it online it comes through our server,” Chen says. Cybercon also hosts Pakistan’s official Central Bank web site. The name: Chen explains the name derives from the fact that the company provides a “cyberspace connection.” DATASERV LLC Document-centric™ solutions provider Jeff Haller, Managing Partner 9915 Kennerly Rd. St. Louis, MO 63128 (314) 842-1155 www.dataservasp.net “Our base philosophy from day one has been to offer full document life-cycle management solutions.” Historic overview: In 1994, Jeff Haller notes, “Everyone wanted imaging and document management, but the software was expensive and there was no one helping companies implement it. That’s when the light bulb went off for me.” He founded DataServ LLC to provide “document-centric™” solutions from customizing and installing software to training and support. “Back then we were the first Application Service Provider in the country to offer these services, and it was really scary,” Haller says. “We built our own network and connections. But by 1999, the Internet was ready for us.” Today the company has 42 employees and is in its third location, doubling in size with each move. Primarily a regional provider, DataServ also has customers in California and Canada, more than 6,000 users in all. Products and services: DataServ LLC has grown by adding a variety of document-centric services, including upstream scanning of paper documents, capturing internally scanned images, capturing electronic documents from more than 200 sources, lifecycle document storage and retrieval via the Internet, even remote management of internal document management systems. “We can store and manage e-mail and faxes,” Haller says. “We can also take an invoice, bill of lading or proof of delivery, scan those and translate the image into usable data. You don’t have to key in anything.” DataServ also resells EDM software and offers training, form design, and system efficiency and security analysis. Distinguishing characteristic: “We’re always looking for ways to have deepening relationships with clients, to learn what more we can do for them,” Haller says. Regional benefits: The biggest benefit is the Central Time Zone, Haller says. “We have clients on both coasts and can easily support them both,” he notes. “Also there are a lot of good companies here we’ve been able to cut our teeth on. And staff-wise, since the dot.com bust we’ve been able to hire really good people the past two years.” Looking ahead: DataServ plans to extend its services within accounts receivable, accounts payable and human resources. “Thanks to HIPAA, all kinds of companies, not just those in healthcare, must manage healthcare records differently than they used to,” Haller says. The name: “At first we just provided data storage services, but now we offer document-centric solutions and the name still fits,” Haller says. EPIC SYSTEMS INC. Engineering for manufacturing John Schott, Managing Partner Matt Quinn, Managing Partner 11124 South Towne Square, Suite 102 St. Louis, MO 63123 (314) 845-0077 www.epicsystemsinc.net “When the alarm clock goes off, we get going and hit it hard, despite the economy or the Dow.” Historic overview: In 1995, John Schott and Matt Quinn both left large corporations to escape bureaucracy, Schott says. Their new company provided automation for manufacturing plants. “That in itself is pretty broad. We never concentrated on one area or technology. We apply fundamental engineering principals to a wide variety of industries,” Schott says. The company has 25 employees in St. Louis and Kansas City. Products and services: Today, EPIC Systems has evolved into a turnkey “Design/Build for Manufacturing” company, in which automation is just one aspect of a large project. “A good fit for us involves mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering as well as project management,” Schott says. For example, EPIC recently completed a new spent hops conveyor system at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis plant. A subsidiary, EPIC FAB, designs and builds modular process and machine cell systems. These systems arrive at the client site fully assembled and tested. This approach is capital efficient and can be installed and started up in the field in a minimal amount of time. “In the past the individual components like tanks, pipes and valves, would arrive at a job site and then get installed piece by piece,” Schott says. EPIC FAB has grown so much the company is looking for a larger facility. The big news: “In just two years, we’ve gone from no presence in machine vision applications to one of the key companies in St. Louis that can integrate them,” Schott says. Vision systems use cameras and software algorithms to provide quality control through 100 percent inspection of products coming off an assembly line. What’s new since last year: “We have really diversified our technology and capabilities as well as our customer base. We now have more than 170 customers,” Quinn says. “That’s probably what has kept us growing through slow economic times.” Looking ahead: EPIC plans to expand its integration of machine vision systems, take EPIC FAB to the next level and penetrate the Kansas City market. Regional benefits: “John and I are both from St. Louis and believe in this city and care about it,” Quinn says. “Unfortunately the region is losing a lot of manufacturing overseas, and we challenge ourselves at EPIC to deliver engineered manufacturing solutions that keep the St. Louis region competitive with the rest of the world.” The name: EPIC stands for Electrical Process Instrumentation & Control. “We’ve expanded beyond that, but EPIC Systems is now starting to be recognized by more companies in the region,” Quinn says. HITS SCANNING SOLUTIONS Document scanning services Peter Gallagher, CEO 11833 New Halls Ferry Rd. St. Louis, MO 63033 (314) 837-4000 www.hitsscan.com “We help clients maximize the investments they already made in technology.” Historic overview: Pete Gallagher sold microfilm systems, owned a microfilm company and was district manager of another. As microfilm gave way to imaging conversion, Gallagher saw an opportunity. He started Health Information Technology Solutions, a document scanning company, in 1997 in his basement and began converting healthcare customers’ microfilm and documents to CDs. Today the company, called HITS Scanning Solutions, has 150 employees including 20 in Columbia, Md. and 10 in Colorado Springs and others on-site at various clients’ locations. The company has grown by $1 million a year for three consecutive years, Gallagher says. “We’ve pulled a lot of staples.” Products and services: HITS converts paper, film or fiche documents into a digital format. “Hospitals can keep only so many records on-site, so they might send them out to be microfilmed, stored long-term or shipped to me to scan onto CDs,” Gallagher explains. Distinguishing characteristics: “We log in and track everything that comes in the door, so we can find it, because health information could mean life or death,” Gallagher says. “We scanned more than 50 million images last year.” The big news: “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is the great challenge and great opportunity for us,” Gallagher says. “Over the last year, we have religiously put together procedures and trained in HIPAA and all its ramifications.” What’s new since last year: HITS is “taking Barnes Jewish paperless,” Gallagher says. He has 20 employees on-site there. “They’ve also sent us 6,000 boxes of past records. When their EMR (electronic medical records) is fully operational it will really allow them to get control and save time, space and staff expenses.” He adds the company is looking for a new home since it already has outgrown the 15,000-square-foot building it moved into last year. “It’s a wonderful problem to have,” Gallagher says. Regional benefits: “St. Louis offers a wonderful healthcare community. We’ve been able to network very successfully,” Gallagher says. Looking ahead: Gallagher would like to expand HITS’ services into accounting and other areas. “We’re doing unique things with some sheriff’s departments, like sending fingerprints over e-mail,” he says. The name: The company officially changed its name to its acronym this year. “Now we’re just HITS,” Gallagher says. LAWRENCE & ASSOCIATES INC. International IT services THOMAS LAWRENCE, Lawrence & Associates Inc. Thomas Lawrence, President & CEO Tom Taylor, Strategic Partner 12882 Manchester Rd., Suite 204 St. Louis, MO 63131 (314) 984-9511 www.lawrenceinc.com “We bring a value proposition to organizations looking for ways to manage the rising costs of labor.” Historic overview: Born in Kerala, India, Thomas Lawrence was educated as an engineer in India and earned a graduate diploma in International Studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He joined MasterCard in 1995, where, in the Commercial Products Support Group, he recognized the company’s need for qualified information technology professionals. The following year, starting out with $3,000, Lawrence moved from employee to vendor, providing IT technicians from India to MasterCard divisions in Australia, Canada and eventually St. Louis. In 2000 LAI opened a 5,000-square-foot Technology Center in Chennai, India, from which highly trained software engineers and testing experts are deployed to companies around the world for a variety of short- and long-term IT assignments. Software and product development work also are performed at the center, which is ISO 9001:2000 certified. The company has 150 employees in its offices in St. Louis, Dallas and Chennai, India, and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia. LAI also has a database of 4,500 IT professionals it can call on at any time. Products and services: LAI offers contract staffing and consulting for application development, software testing, systems, application and database administration, maintenance, project management and international implementation. It also provides software development, both on-site and offshore, and product development. Distinguishing characteristics: Strategic Partner Tom Taylor says, “In the old days you had one technology and one platform and you’d hire one person to keep up with them. Now the labor constantly turns, and you have to recruit and train, and it’s very costly. We can provide that value added service, the right number of people with flexible skills to locate anywhere in the world on a cost-effective basis. We also have a St. Louis-based board of directors who bring a variety of industry knowledge and experience.” Regional benefits: “I think St. Louis provides a very solid base for our headquarters,” Taylor says. “We can fly anywhere in the United States in three hours or less. Also there’s plenty of finance here and a highly proficient IT work force—there always has been.” Looking ahead: LAI is planning to have a near-shore facility in Panama, the only English-speaking country in South America. “A lot of our customers are asking for a near-shore facility since going to India is a major journey,” Lawrence says. “We hope to open this facility sometime in 2004, or if a customer says to me, ‘Thomas, I need this in the next 30 days,’ I’ll do it!” Interesting fact: Lawrence says a lot of Indian companies started doing business with American companies for Y2K. “American companies couldn’t find enough resources here,” he explains. “Then after Y2K, those same companies started doing off-shore work in India.” The name: Lawrence explains he named the company in honor of his father. LIVEWIRE MEDIA Advanced Web-based applications Don Christy, President & CEO 4814 Washington Blvd., Suite 300 St. Louis, MO 63108 (314) 361-8500 www.LWM.com “Each implementation leverages the work we’ve done before.” Historic overview: In 1994, co-founders Don Christy and Joe O’Brien both were using the Internet during their day jobs—research and product development. “We recognized that the Internet would become an incredibly important channel for communicating with vendors, clients and employees, so we decided to focus on Internet application development,” Christy says. “We certainly were one of the early entrants to focus on the business use of the Internet.” The company has 17 employees (15 in St. Louis and two in Pittsburgh), serving “several hundred clients,” Christy says. Products and services: In general, LiveWire Media focuses on business-to-employee solutions. “We facilitate more efficient and profitable communications through delivery of targeted and personalized information,” Christy says. “We work with clients to define, develop and implement what’s next for their companies.” For example: LiveWire has worked with BJC for several years developing and refining a healthcare performance management system that quickly and accurately distributes satisfaction information and clinical performance data to management through the Internet. “It allows management to see how they’re doing and measure against goals,” Christy says. Another example is LiveWire’s development of Employee Total Rewards systems for companies like Anheuser-Busch, H.J. Heinz and Continental Tire. “Employees can go to a web site, log in and review all of their company-sponsored benefits in one place, including salary, bonuses and healthcare coverages, and what their employer spends on it. This helps employees understand the total value of their compensation.” Regional benefits: Christy believes the region provides “a great environment for finding technical talent. There’s great higher education available here.” He adds, being in the Central time zone makes it convenient to work with East and West Coast clients. Also, the company’s Central West End location offers easy access to local customers downtown and in West County. Looking ahead: “We hope to expand the performance management systems we’ve created for healthcare clients into other areas, such as human capital,” Christy says. The name: In the early days of the Internet, web sites were static, like brochures, Christy notes. “We wanted to create more dynamic, interactive applications, so we wanted a more high-energy name. Also you think of the Internet as being wired. We felt LiveWire Media conveys that we are an active Internet company.” LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS Transportation optimization Dennis Schoemehl, President One City Place Dr., Suite 415 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 692-8886 www.lmslogistics.com “Companies continue to demand our technology for one simple reason: it saves them money.” Historic overview: In 1996, Dennis Schoemehl helped Monsanto—his new company’s first client—save a lot of money. “Monsanto has three plants in the area, and if all three were shipping to California, each would send its own truck,” Schoemehl says. “The system was not centralized, so each plant only saw its own orders.” LMS began shopping for a Transportation Management System (TMS) that would allow its clients to effectively manage shipping data to produce cost savings. But the search was fruitless: the market did not offer the technology LMS and its clients demanded. Subsequently, LMS developed its own TMS and the result was TOTAL, a proprietary, web-enabled transportation management program. “It started as a tool to help us do internal execution, but was so popular we’ve been able to use it where we act as an Application Service Provider (ASP) for clients,” Schoemehl says. Products and services: TOTAL easily integrates into existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and allows companies to significantly cut transportation costs in as little as 60 days without a large investment or system commitment. Its three modules: Optimization, Execution and Data Management, can be used independently or together as a complete transportation management package. Each module easily integrates into existing TMS/ERP systems. What’s new since last year: LMS has added 25 new client sites bringing the total to 70. Locations include clients throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. “We do on-site execution and expediting for these clients,” Schoemehl explains. Looking ahead: LMS is engaged in preliminary discussions with a Fortune 500 company that will allow it to add client sites internationally. It’s also looking into acquiring other companies. Regional benefits: “We have found the work force here has been excellent. We’ve hired good, qualified people, and now we’re starting to find some very talented young people coming out of our local universities that are offering courses and degrees in logistics. No employee lives beyond a 30-minute drive, and airport access is easy, too, Schoemehl says. The name: “We considered a lot of names but Logistics Management Solutions best describes what we do,” Schoemehl says. MARKETING DIRECT INC. Integrated marketing solutions Dennis Barnes, President Pat Kelly, Vice President IT Brian Handrigan, Vice President Strategic Technologies Mike Burns, Senior Vice President 530 Maryville Centre Dr. St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 590-8300 www.marketingdirect.com “Using business intelligence tools in marketing has proven successful for our clients.” Historic overview: Dennis Barnes was working at a small direct mail company when he decided to start his own agency, in 1997. Two years ago, Barnes felt “we were in a commodity situation and needed to create a point of differentiation,” he says. Intensive sessions involving senior management and an outside consultant resulted in the plan to focus on technology in order to bridge strategy and tactics. Barnes acquired technology consultants Odyssey Group, thereby gaining Mike Burns and Brian Handrigan. Today, the first-time Top 50 winner has 35 employees in St. Louis, Boston, Orlando and Los Angeles, Calif. The majority of Marketing Direct’s clients are HMOs with databases that frequently include millions of individuals. Products and services: “HMO systems aren’t integrated. They’re more about processing data and sending out bills versus marketing effectiveness and or understanding trends,” Brian Handrigan says. As a result, Marketing Direct will develop a strategic marketing plan based on what the client needs to track. “Next, from a technical standpoint, we’ll leverage all the platforms we bring together, host it here, write custom code to add special features for each client, and deploy web-based reporting so clients can tap into our system. We’ll also integrate with their system.” Kelly adds, “I want to emphasize we are really focused on support to meet our clients’ business objectives.” Distinguishing characteristics: The key component is Marketing Intelligence. “It allows companies to look at data in ways that even a few years ago were impossible,” Brian Handrigan says. Marketing Intelligence takes direct marketing to the next level. “We go beyond mailing to a list from a database and tracking the aggregate response rate. Marketing Intelligence allows executives to understand true costs on a real-time basis, so they can make decisions about how to market and invest,” he says. Barnes adds, “A lot of agencies can set objectives, develop a marketing plan and manage a campaign, but technology is the differentiator with us.” Regional benefits: Barnes says on the tactical side, being located in the Midwest offers some advantages regarding direct mail production and distribution. “Also, the talent in this city is a real advantage,” he adds. “With the great higher education institutions and corporate headquarters here, there are a lot of well trained and smart people and that’s what we need in this business.” Looking ahead: Marketing Direct expects more growth anchored around key client relationships, Barnes says. He’d like to double the number of employees in the next few years and serve “a very defined client base very well.” Burns adds, “We want to be the premiere healthcare marketing agency.” MARYVILLE TECHNOLOGIES Enterprise systems design, integration and performance management JOE BLOMKER, Maryville Technologies Joe Blomker, President 540 Maryville Centre Dr. St. Louis, MO 63141 (636)519-4100 www.maryville,com “In nine years we haven’t been stumped yet.” Historic overview: Joe Blomker was president of a manufacturing company in 1994. He was attracted to the challenge of starting a company “with a clean slate,” he says, “offering something clients need rather than building something and trying to sell it.” In their research prior to starting the company, Blomker and Marvin Johnson, “the technical half of the brain trust,” were told by IT executives in St. Louis that there was a need for a system engineering firm to address performance and reliability challenges of business critical applications and their supporting infrastructure, Blomker says. Today the company employs 100 people in nine cities in the central United States. Products and services: Clients call Maryville Technologies when they’re having performance problems with business applications, Blomker says. “Is the problem something to do with the desktop, the application itself, the underlying database, network, servers, storage, what’s going on? We do forensics to identify bottlenecks,” he says. Blomker compares the company to the Mayo Clinic. “You go to different doctors to try to figure out what’s wrong. At the end you go to the Mayo Clinic and get an answer.” Distinguishing characteristics: In certain circles, Maryville Technologies is known for its Systems Engineer Heaven concept. “We determined in the earliest days we had to build a particular environment. First and foremost, the best engineers look for challenge—but they want to address challenge with integrity,” Blomker says. “Engineers want a credible solution delivered.” He adds, “We have a very collaborative culture. We eliminate possibilities and zero in on the problem. We methodically hunt it down and attack. There is always an answer!” Regional benefits: “St. Louis is considered very conservative and skeptical, so the extent to which we have this credibility bodes well as we grow,” Blomker says. “You can’t be successful in St. Louis unless you prove yourself.” Looking ahead: Blomker says Maryville Technologies plans to expand. “We took a bit of a breather as the economy went through some challenges, but we are actively considering opening in other locations.” The name: The name came from the company’s location in the Maryville Centre in west St. Louis county. “It was one of the early tech centers. The office park’s serene environment is a phenomenal contrast to the complexities of our daily work.” MAVERICK TECHNOLOGIES Industrial automation and integrated information technology solutions Paul Galeski, Chairman & CEO 504 DD Rd. Columbia, IL 62236 (618) 281-9100 www.mavtech.cc “We’re about driving business value.” Historic overview: Paul Galeski worked as a control systems engineer for McDonnell Douglas Corp. and Monsanto before founding MAGNUM Technologies in 1989. MAGNUM provided multidisciplined engineering services, programming, process control and computer-aided design services to Fortune 1000 companies. In 1996, Inc. magazine named MAGNUM one of the top 500 growth companies in the nation. The following year Galeski and his partners sold MAGNUM to General Electric. Galeski remained as president until early 1999 and later that year founded MAVERICK Technologies. “I took a look at the market and saw a need for the ability to tie together the plant floor and back-office operations in real time,” Galeski says. The result was Galeski’s vision of an integrated industrial automation and information technology company serving industry “from the plant floor to the annual report.” The company employs 130 people in St. Louis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston and Newark. It ranked 352 in the Inc. 500 in 2002. Products and services: MAVERICK offers a complete package of services to industries through three divisions: Information Technology integrated solutions, Industrial Automation integration solutions, and Information to Industry Solutions. “MAVERICK i2i is a process. It’s how we go about our business, providing IT professionals who can make it happen and show tangible results that drive business value immediately for our customers,” Galeski says. Specifically, MAVERICK works in several industries including food and beverage, chemicals, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, cement, utilities and discreet manufacturing, particularly for the automotive industry. “We’ve gotten into a lot of specialty applications like vision systems, RFID and warehousing logistics,” Galeski adds. Distinguishing characteristics: “We specialize in getting core competencies all under one roof and having the quality system and project delivery all-encompassing to provide a full solution,” Galeski says. “It’s really hard getting those diverse technical applications to work together. It takes a broad skill set. Others provide the IT capabilities or the plant competencies to varying degrees, but we’re among the few who combine both.” MAVERICK approaches solutions from both the supply and the demand side. “We help companies manage their profitability by driving out a lot of costs on the manufacturing side. And we can work through to the demand side and bring management information in real time,” Galeski says. “This is done through the Internet, database design, customer relationship management, and plant-floor engineering.” What’s new since last year: Galeski says although corporate capital spending “went through the floor” the last half of 2002, “we managed to grow 15 percent during that time and have continued to grow. We anticipate 50 percent growth this year.” MAVERICK landed a major job with Chevron Texaco, doing all the controls and management for an offshore oil rig off Angola. Regional benefits: “St. Louis is a good location geographically,” Galeski says. “It’s a good recruiting environment because of the downturn in the economy and also because we work closely with SIUE and the University of Missouri–Rolla.” Looking ahead: Galeski anticipates further geographic expansion in the United States, particularly through MAVERICK’s recent relationship agreement with MicroSoft. “We’ve worked in Saudi Arabia, Korea, China, South America and Ireland,” Galeski says. “Near-term I don’t envision overseas operations, but we’ll support a customer anywhere in the world.” The name: Galeski says MAVERICK indicates, “we like to do things a little differently. We’re customer-focused, not married to any one solution or technology but open to the right solution for the client,” he says. “A lot of our customers say we’re unique to deal with, very open and flexible.” NETWORKZ CONSULTING GROUP INC. Computer network infrastructure consultants Scott Schaffer, President & CEO 4679 S. Grand Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63111 (314) 752-7999 www.networkzinc.com “We like to go in, find the problem, find the solution and move forward.” Historic overview: When Scott Schaffer was vice president of a software development firm, “we employed consultants and they got paid a lot but didn’t seem to know much,” he says. “My partner and I realized there was a big need for small- to-medium-size businesses to have access to world-class network consulting.” They started Networkz in Schaffer’s spare room in 1996 and opened an office in 1997. The company employs 10 people in St. Louis serving customers throughout the Midwest. A large proportion of customers are law firms, Schaffer notes. Products and services: Networkz focuses on designing, installing, upgrading and supporting computer network infrastructure, “all the devices in the little closet that users don’t see,” Schaffer says. “We work with system administrators on the nuts and bolts of their networks.” The company also resells Tier 1 type equipment. “Manufacturers are introducing less expensive hardware now, but we believe you get what you pay for in computer technology, so we encourage our customers to invest in the best quality they can. A small business can lose a lot of money if its computer goes down even for a few hours.” Networkz offers three levels of service: a prepaid service agreement, time and materials for a predetermined price, and a fixed project price. “We have enough experience in the field that we can determine what a project will cost,” Schaffer says. “We spend enough time on the front part of a sale to know the results.” The big news: Schaffer says an increasing number of customers are recognizing the value of backup solutions and off-site tape storage, especially since the events of Sept. 11, 2001. “Our challenge is to convey to customers that they have insurance against fire or flood, so why not have insurance against data loss. Seventy percent of businesses that have a significant loss of data go out of business within 12 months. That shows how much our economy is driven by information,” he says. Looking ahead: Schaffer says 30 percent of his customers are supported remotely from Networkz’ facility. “We’d like to bring that up to 70 percent,” he says. “We’re trying to get more customers into the paradigm of having us be their offsite IT department.” Networkz would like to branch out to cities like Memphis, Kansas City, and Springfield, Ill. Regional benefits: “St. Louis is a fertile region for technology and business,” Schaffer says. “It’s easy to do business here. You don’t find a lot of people who aren’t even willing to listen. Once people get to know what we do, we typically have a long-term relationship.” The name: “We wanted a name that conveyed what we did. ‘Networks’ with an ‘s’ was too generic, so we put a twist to it and added the ‘z.’ The name describes our core competencies,” Schaffer says. THE NEWBERRY GROUP Information technology and systems consulting services BRENDA NEWBERRY, The Newberry Group Brenda Newberry, President & CEO 2440 Executive Dr., Suite 208 St. Charles, MO 63303 (636) 928-9944 www.thenewberrygroup.com “The region has extremely strong potential. We just have to leverage it.” Historic overview: Brenda Newberry spent six years in the United States Air Force, stationed in Colorado, Arizona, Spain and Scott Air Force Base. She worked for McDonnell Douglas in IT, then for MasterCard, eventually becoming vice president of a profit-and-loss business unit. “I could have remained or moved to New York, but instead I resigned,” Newberry says. “I had IT, business and international experience and could leverage all of it.” She started The Newberry Group in 1996, believing that through technology, “we could help Americans stay employed. If we do an excellent job and clients hire us, they will prosper and so will our employees.” The company employs 105 people in St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania and Ohio, plus one in Bahrain. Products and services: The Newberry Group provides IT solutions to corporations and government agencies, that include information systems services, database design and development, LAN/WAN implementation, maintenance and support, web design, client/server applications and support, software applications development and help desk/user support services. “For several clients we provide security program management and system risk assessments, reviewing what they have and what they should have, and writing security and disaster recovery plans,” Newberry says. “Another key core competency is providing systems administration and support on NT, Unix and Linux and mainframe environments.” The company serves clients as small as five systems, up to enterprises of 1,500 or more. It holds a top-secret security clearance. What’s new since last year: The Newberry Group was named the 2003 USDA Office of Procurement & Purchasing Woman-Owned Business of the Year, and Brenda Newberry won the National Association of Women Business Owners 2003 Women of Distinction Award and the Professional Organization of Women Top 10 African-American Woman of Distinction. The company established an international presence with a representative in Bahrain. Regional benefits: “We’ve been able to bring many people to St. Louis from Texas and other locations. They’re pleasantly surprised when they find out what’s available here in the arts, sports and way of life. It’s like a hidden gift,” Newberry says. However, she believes more has to be done to bring more companies into the region, “or the other and perhaps best option is to grow the companies that are here,” she says. “There’s a lot of talent right here, and a lot of excellent companies right here in this region. If they’re doing work in other areas of the country, they should be able to do the same work successfully here.” Looking ahead: Newberry would like to open additional offices in the United States and other countries. The company also plans to attain its SEI/CMM Level II certification by the end of the year. “It’s a very stringent software quality process, similar to ISO standards,” she explains. The name: Newberry says Greg Sullivan of G.A. Sullivan, one of her early mentors, told her, “Since you have a solid reputation and your name is on the company, I know you’ll do a good job! Then as the company grows and you want to establish other divisions you haven’t narrowed your focus.” Newberry believes “that’s among the best advice I ever received. Although our name is not descriptive, it doesn’t limit us.” QUILOGY Emerging technology solutions provider Randy Schilling, President & CEO 117 S. Main St. St. Charles, MO 63301 (636) 947-9393 www.quilogy.com “You don’t have to be in New York or San Francisco to master emerging technologies.” Historic overview: It all began when electrical engineer Randy Schilling built his first computer systems for Illinois Power back in the 1980s. “I became a champion of using technology to solve business problems,” he says. He reestablished roots in St. Charles and invested $5,000 to start Solutech in 1992, which became Quilogy. The company always has focused on bringing emerging technology to middle markets. “I found that the types of technology we were offering were not being adequately serviced in those markets like in major markets,” Schilling says. Quilogy has more than 300 employees in 14 cities including St. Charles, Sacramento, Louisville, Nashville, Portland, Chicago, Omaha and Kansas City. The company serves more than 400 clients annually in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, education and government and trains more than 21,000 IT professionals annually. Products and services: Quilogy offers web-based IT professional services for technology solutions using application, development, infrastructure, strategy, creative and managed hosting. The company has developed more than 100 .NET applications, and specializes in leveraging mobile wireless technology on the .NET platform. It also operates more than a dozen Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centers nationwide. Distinguishing characteristics: Quilogy empowers clients to solve business problems through the innovative use of emerging technologies. Quilogy’s Quality and Productivity (QP™) process offers end-to-end support of Internet, intranet and extranet project delivery. What’s new since last year: “We’re back in a growth mode and expanded our IT strategy consulting services, particularly around Microsoft CRM,” Schilling says. Quilogy also expanded its headquarters by purchasing and rehabbing two more pre-Civil War buildings in St. Charles. “That’s where we located our expanded Strategy and Business Solutions Groups,” Schilling says. The company also enhanced streaming media services for corporate communications and e-learning. It was one of a handful of North American firms to achieve Gold Certification status for its Microsoft Technical Education Centers. Regional benefits: “It’s a huge advantage to be in this region, especially the lower costs of living and of doing business,” Schilling says. “Also the ability to retain homegrown talent to work in technology in your hometown is a big plus.” He adds, the cultural aspect of being located in historic buildings in the Midwest is important. “That gives us real credibility,” Schilling says. “And it gives us a chance to give back to the community.” Looking ahead: Schilling continues to pursue his goal of having Quilogy be a “$100 million company.” He calculates he can reach that in 2007 with 700 to 750 employees. The name: Schilling says when the company changed its name from Solutech, he wanted a name that reflected “the art and science of business.” His son, who was reading Harry Potter books at the time, came up with “Quill” for the art half. Schilling added “Logic” for the tech half. “We churned it and came up with Quilogy. There are a lot of unused Q words, by the way,” he adds. ROSE INTERNATIONAL e-business development and consulting Himanshu “Sue” Bhatia, CEO 16401 Swingley Rd., Suite 300 Chesterfield, MO 63017 (636) 532-3126 www.roseint.com “You have to do a lot of things right in this business.” Historic overview: “In 1993, the IT field was really booming, but there definitely was a need for improved performance and information delivery in IT systems and a better approach to customer service,” says Himanshu “Sue” Bhatia. With a masters degree in MIS from UMSL and professional experience at McDonnell Douglas and Edward Jones, Bhatia decided to start Rose International. Ten years later, the company employs nearly 500 people in 15 offices in the United States and one in India. Customers are primarily Fortune 500 companies, and state and federal government. Products and services: Rose provides technical expertise to deliver rapid solutions for information systems, whether they are network, database or application based. “We outsource solutions and strategic consulting, and recommend best practices in IT,” Bhatia says. Specifically, Rose focuses on networking, applications development, database solutions, custom applications and more, “the whole spectrum of information services,” Bhatia says. “We work closely with CIOs and IT managers on their challenges.” Distinguishing characteristics: “As we grow we encourage our people to retool and offer training for them to stay current. The experts on our team are always writing white papers on various technical subjects, and attend numerous seminars and conferences,” Bhatia says. “Of course, no matter what you know, there’s always more to know.” What’s new since last year: Bhatia received the 2003 National Entrepreneurial Success Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. This national award recognizes Rose International’s steady growth into a large organization, based on revenue growth and number of employees. Regional benefits: “I grew up here. It’s a very good place to start and have a business,” Bhatia says. “The region has more than its fair share of corporate headquarters compared to other cities its size. If the headquarters are here, the IT decision makers are here.” She adds, the work force is large and talented, and the central location is convenient. Looking ahead: Bhatia says Rose would like to expand nationally and offshore. “We plan to grow substantially, and as we grow we are always looking to optimize and streamline technology, and to keep our costs down,” she says. The name: Rose, an acronym for Reliable and Open Systems Engineering, has evolved and now “rose also signifies quality and perfection,” Bhatia says. S2TECH 24/7 software solutions KAYAKAR "DAY" VEERLAPATI and SHANTA VEERLAPATI, S2Tech Dayakar “Day” Veerlapati, President & CEO 400 Chesterfield Center, Suite 630 Chesterfield, MO 63017 (636) 530-9286 www.s2tech.com “With two teams geographically dispersed, we’re doubling the throughput and no one’s losing any sleep.” Historic overview: In 1995, while working for Union Pacific Technologies, Day Veerlapati attended a conference on fiber optics. “The light bulb went off in my mind and I thought this could link people across continents. Maybe I should start my own company to develop software around the clock.” He formed S2Tech in 1997 and his dream of 24/7 productivity came true this year, when he opened a development center in India. “India is 12 hours ahead of us. When we sleep, they work. So we have our software designers design a program’s specifications, then have our people in India complete them by the time our American employees start their day,” Veerlapati explains. The company has 75 employees in St. Louis and 20 in India, serving clients in 14 states. Products and services: Currently, S2Tech is focusing its efforts on helping clients with HIPAA compliance in terms of data exchange. “Systems have to send and receive data in a designated format,” Veerlapati says. “There’s a lot of impact on transaction processing, especially for insurance payers, so we’re helping them become compliant.” Also, through its center in India, S2Tech offers software development, system monitoring and maintenance and help desk services. “We found large mainframe computers do their heavy-duty work in the daytime and idle at night. Now we can use that idle computer time in India so customers don’t have to spend more money on processing time and licenses,” Veerlapati says. Regional benefits: “One of the biggest advantages is Southwest Airlines, which has a good hub operation here,” Veerlapati says. “Another is Washington University and the education network we have with an emphasis on technology.” Looking ahead: S2Tech plans to provide more services to the federal government, and also to expand the concept of 24/7 software development and support into different areas, Veerlapati says. “We are looking into using the development center for business process outsourcing, for example, such as technical support, accounts payable, credit card issues and more. There are many possibilities once you have 24/7 service.” The name: Veerlapati explains the name sounds like “Yes to tech!” Originally it referred to Seven Seas Technology, which was available for a domain name. “Now we want to build our own brand image with S2Tech,” he says. SIBONEY CORPORATION Educational software Timothy Tegeler, Chairman & CEO Bodie Marx, President 325 N. Kirkwood Rd. St. Louis, MO 63122 (314) 822-3163 www.siboney.com “We have the right product at the right time.” Historic overview: Siboney’s roots go back to oil exploration in Cuba in the mid-1950s. After the arrival of Fidel Castro in 1958, the company name was used to expand into a wide variety of businesses, says Bodie Marx, president. Eventually, that included a small educational publishing house, Gamco, based in Big Spring, Texas. In 1995, the Siboney Learning Group was set up in St. Louis to grow Gamco business and explore opportunities in educational software. “Our directors were mainly St. Louisans who wanted to move the educational publishing unit to a larger city to attract more talent,” Marx says, “so they located everything here.” Siboney has 49 employees in St. Louis, Lansing, Mich., and sales managers across the country. Products and services: Siboney publishes educational software primarily for school districts looking for improvements in K-12 test scores, Marx says. The flagship product, launched last year, is Orchard For Your State, which offers state-specific student assessment and test questions. “One of the big issues now is the No Child Left Behind Act. Every student in every state in 2005 will take a test based on state standards in reading and math, and by 2014 all students will have to show minimal proficiency on those tests,” Marx says. “Orchard is a great solution for these requirements. It accounts for 70 percent of sales and is fueling a lot of our growth.” More than 6,000 schools currently use Orchard For Your State. It’s available in 35 versions. Distinguishing characteristics: Orchard For Your State is developed by an internal team of software engineers, content editors and graphic designers at Siboney. “With school funding as tight as it is, our content and pricing allow us to win in a lot of competitive situations,” Marx says. Regional benefits: “A major advantage of being in St. Louis is that there are not a lot of companies that do what we do, so there’s not a lot of job hopping,” Marx says. “We have dedicated employees, almost all native St. Louisans. Once we find good employees they’re loyal to us and we’re loyal to them. Looking ahead: “We will continue to improve Orchard to meet the changing needs of the market,” Marx says. The name: “It’s a Cuban word for peace and happiness,” Marx explains. SOFTWARE PLUS Software, software licensing and accessories resellers PATTY MALASHOCK, Software Plus Patty Malashock, President 10880 Baur Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63132 (314) 692-7638 www.softwareplusonline.com “The biggest challenge is getting the knowledge to the customers, so they can make the right decisions.” Historic overview: Patty Malashock and her husband worked for Macy’s in Kansas City in the early 1980s when they decided to return to their hometown, St. Louis, and start a business. Opening a Software City franchise seemed like a good opportunity. “We went to banks for a small business loan and said we’d offer our inventory for collateral,” Malashock says. “The banks said they didn’t know what they’d do with it.” The store opened in 1984 in Creve Coeur. “Along the way we realized the bulk of our business was corporate, so in 1992, we dropped the franchise and Software Plus really started to grow,” she says. Today the company is the largest corporate reseller of computer software, soft- ware licensing and accessories in the Midwest. It has 85 employees including retail store personnel and 14 sales representatives nationwide. Annual sales approach $180 million. Products and services: Software Plus is one of Microsoft’s 16 designated Large Account Resellers, Malashock says. “They’re our biggest vendor, but we can resell anything. We can find that hard-to-find product and that gets us in the door.” Software Plus also offers free consultation to help a company determine what software it needs. The big news: The move toward licensing continues, Malashock says. “When you buy a license you are buying a piece of paper that gives you the right to put the designated program on a specific number of computers. You don’t get a boxed copy at all.” At the same time, “wireless is exploding, and we’re into mobility, which means you have a cell phone that also receives and sends e-mail. We sell wireless cards for laptops, so if you’re stuck in the airport or a taxicab you just put in the wireless card and go about your business,” she says. Distinguishing characteristics: “That has to be our customer service. We get to know you. We’re not just an 800 number with someone different answering every time,” Malashock says. She attributes Software Plus’ 42 percent average annual sales increase to the company’s experienced and highly trained sales professionals. Regional benefits: The central location is a real advantage, Malashock says. “Also the cost of living,” she adds. “Our reps in Los Angeles and San Diego say the cost of living is out of control there.” TALISEN TECHNOLOGIES Secure extranet solution provider George Brill, President 12655 Olive Blvd., Suite 500 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 317-7700 www.talisentech.com “My ideas of success were stability, growth and making a mark in the technology business. We’ve been very fortunate to have all three.” Historic overview: In 1991, George Brill saw an opportunity to serve the supplier community by providing technical data from McDonnell Douglas, his employer. “It was non-electronic then,” he says. “Eventually we came across technology we were able to commercialize.” Brill founded AeroTech Service Group Inc., which developed software that enabled suppliers to companies like McDonnell Douglas and Boeing to electronically access drawings and data packages in order to bid on jobs. “By 1993, we were actually sending technical data in and out of McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). It was very advanced at the time,” Brill says. Today the company, which changed its name to Talisen in 2001, provides secure extranet environments for large corporations and government entities in the United States, Europe and Australia. It has 100-plus employees, including one each in southern California and the United Kingdom. Products and services: Talisen’s original division is the Talisen Virtual Community, which creates a secure environment where the client’s partners and customers can exchange information through a secure portal or gateway. This allows companies to maintain the security of a private network while offering end-users selected data through the ease and convenience of the Internet. “We sell a complete solution to the customer. We design, integrate, and support systems around a technology that we developed.” Brill says. Talisen also provides mission-critical application development relating to work flow, tracking and security management. Additionally, the company offers network engineering and managed services including outsourcing, systems administration and network support. Distinguishing characteristics: One of Talisen’s extranet portals is the largest of its kind, supporting more than 50,000 user accounts, 400 applications and 50GB of data transfer per month. What’s new since last year: With its recent acquisition of a world-class network operations center and managed services provider, Talisen now provides capabilities in IT outsourcing, managed services and voice over IP. Regional benefits: “St. Louis offers a work force that’s very high quality, very loyal. Midwesterners are very much that way. The word-of-mouth recruiting system has done well for us,” Brill says. “Another advantage is the central location, which allows us to do business all over very cost effectively. The cost of living and of running a business are quite reasonable.” Looking ahead: “We grew 70 percent last year, and we’re on track to double in size this year and probably grow another 60 or 70 percent next year,” Brill says. “I’m pleased at what’s been going on in the last year, but there’s still a lot of doom and gloom out there, so we can’t sit back too much.” He plans to add staff in Southern California and the United Kingdom and remain “highly focused on a solution with a good track record with very high caliber customers.” The name: “Talisen is the name of an all-knowing, all-seeing oracle in a Celtic legend,” Brill explains. TALX CORPORATION Employee self-service solutions WILLIAM CANFIELD, TALX Corporation William Canfield, President & CEO 1850 Borman Ct. St. Louis, MO 63146 (314) 214-7000 www.talx.com “We get all of our ideas from our clients.” Historic overview: TALX Corporation started out in 1973 offering Interactive Voice Response (IVR) using touch-tone phone technology, and modem manufacturing. “But all of business today is service,” says President and CEO Bill Canfield. “We evolved from a software company in the early 1990s to a totally service-oriented company. Our business is business service outsourcing,” which means providing employee self-service solutions using interactive Web, interactive voice response and computer telephony integration software. Clients include mortgage lenders, pre-employment screening companies, employees and other authorized users who need employee human resources and payroll information. When Canfield joined TALX in 1988 it had 20 employees. Today it employs 1,200 people, mainly in St. Louis, serving most of the Fortune 500 companies. Products and services: TALX offers The Work Number, which provides employment and income verification for employees who need that information to apply for a mortgage, for example, Canfield says. “Companies send us payroll data, and we update our files, which today consist of 76 million individual employment records, the only file of its kind in the world.” TALX also manages unemployment costs. “We manage the process for all 50 states we are experts in it,” Canfield says. “We keep the tax rate down for employers by making sure illegal claims are not paid.” Third, TALX’s fastest-growing segment is the electronic payroll, which eliminates pay stubs for employees using direct deposit. TALX also offers electronic time-keeping, which replaces time sheets with a phone call or web site. And its W2 Express provides downloadable W2 forms for tax return preparation. Regional benefits: Canfield says the big advantages are the region’s central location, work force quality and “Midwest family-oriented values.” He adds, “St. Louis is a great city to entertain clients in, with a wide variety of sports and excellent dining choices.” Looking ahead: “We’re always looking for additional acquisitions that would make sense,” Canfield says. “We are payroll data-centric, so any new applications would relate to that.” The name: Canfield says the company changed its name to TALX in the early 1990s, because “the previous name didn’t say what we did.” Hughes Advertising came up with the name. “Although the Internet was not widely used then, the name fits since in our business, computers and people talk to each other.” Canfield says he likes the “x” and the fact that the company’s name is also its symbol on the NYSE. TELCOM SERVICES INSTALLATION INC., DBA TSI Networks and wiring services for telecommunications Phil White, RCCD, CEO Robert Bray, RCDD, President 700 Fountain Lakes Blvd. St. Charles, MO 63301 (636) 949-8889 www.tsi-inc.com “The reputation you leave in the field will feed you forever.” Historic overview: TSI was spun off from LDX Telcom Services in 1987, when three partners, including CEO Phil White, purchased the company. At the time, Robert Bray, president, was an installation supervisor. Bray explains, “We were located in the Chesterfield Valley during the flood of 1993 and afterwards, two of the partners said they didn’t see how we’d make it through that. So Phil White bought the company.” Originally TSI specialized in long-haul fiber splicing. “That was before networking really took off, but we were able to foresee what it’s grown into today,” Bray says. That foresight has led TSI into telecommunications design, project management, consulting, installation, testing and maintenance for commercial businesses and government facilities, including nearly every United States Army base and St. Louis and Kansas City Public Schools. Products and services: “We specialize in network cabling, including anything that has to do with the physical layer of the cabling infrastructure,” Bray says. TSI’s new Audio Video division offers design, implementation and project management for intercoms, paging, music on hold, background music, white noise, video advertising and more for clients ranging from the Renaissance Grand Hotel to Webster University Repertory Theatre to Argosy Casino in Kansas City. The Fiber Optic division provides aerial and underground long-haul fiber fusion splicing. The Maintenance division provides 24/7 service for customers like Edward Jones, which has a 30-mile fiber optic ring around St. Louis. The Security division subcontracts closed circuit TV installations. What’s new since last year: “After being in business more than 15 years we finally built our own building and training facility,” Bray says. In addition, TSI added the Audio Video division. Also, the company’s education business has grown significantly due to E-Rate funding from the federal government, which provides funds for Internet connectivity to classrooms. Distinguishing characteristics: “We’re all about providing a turnkey solution for the customer, one point of contact,” Bray says. “We have excellent relationships with Fortune 500 companies here, so instead of them finding a contractor for their branch in California, for example, they ask us to send out a crew. The reputation our installation force leaves in the field has a lot to do with our success.” Regional benefits: “When it comes to technology, I think St. Louis plays a big role,” Bray says. “We’re centrally located, so we can cover multiple bases. Also, construction in the region has been pretty fast-paced and that’s been very good for us.” Looking ahead: “We’re coming off a three-year growth spurt, and we are very comfortable where we’re at, so for now we’re not seeking growth,” Bray says. “The future will consist of fine-tuning what we have and maximizing profitability.” The name: Bray explains TSI was the installation division of LDX Telcom Services. “So when we were spun off, we figured we’d keep the Telcom name and provide services for installation. Then everyone started knowing us as TSI, and it has become a well known name in the industry.” THE TRINITY COMPANIES LLC Information management service provider Pat Beseda, Managing Partner 714 Spirit 40 Park Dr., Suite 150 Chesterfield, MO 63005 (636) 530-2000 www.trinitycos.com “We help customers understand what IT really can and should do.” Historic overview: The Trinity Companies was formed in 1994 by three partners who were working for other companies, but felt they could provide quality applications development for the manufacturing and construction industries. “However, most companies did not have the infrastructure in place to support their applications properly,” says Pat Beseda, managing partner. “We formed an infrastructure division to support not only the applications for our clients, but to provide a firm foundation for their future business requirements.” The company has 40 employees including four in Houston. Products and services: Trinity provides network infrastructure design, implementation and support, software development, security, data collection, business intelligence solutions and customer relationship management services. The company wrote and markets a software program called dcGLU®, Data Collection Global Linkage Utility. “It collects data via a handheld barcode reader in the shop providing real time information to the company’s enterprise database,” Beseda says. Trinity also was one of the first and now is one of the premier resellers of Microsoft CRM packages in the St. Louis area. Distinguishing characteristics: “First and foremost our consultants distinguish us from our competition,” Beseda says. “Most of our employees are double-degreed and have multiple certifications, but most importantly they understand that technology exists to solve business problems.” She adds, Trinity is unique in providing total solutions. “From the beginning infrastructure foundation to top-level executive dashboards, we help companies realize the value of one of their most useful and powerful assets—their data,” Beseda says. “Plainly and simply, we pull it all together in a meaningful way.” What’s new since last year: “What we’re most proud of is that Microsoft has elevated us as a ‘Go-To Partner’ for Business Intelligence and infrastructure services,” Beseda says. Regional benefits: “St. Louis is a wonderful area of entrepreneurship along with Fortune 100 and 500 companies,” Beseda says. “We’re able to hire locally, because we’re lucky to have excellent talent and great schools.” She believes the region has done a good job promoting its biotech expertise. “You can’t ignore what that means to the future of business and technology in St. Louis,” she says. Looking ahead: “We have to be visionary and determine where business needs will be occurring for the mid-market segment,” Beseda says. “I believe Voice Over IP, storage and disaster recovery will be our big growth areas in the near future.” The name: Trinity has three components, Beseda explains: First, the three partners. Second, the spiritual aspect. Third, “The partners were looking for a word to denote the concept of ‘forever’,” she says, “because as everyone knows, things in this industry are forever changing.”