The Birth Of a Web Integrator

The story of Web Emporium begins in the desert of Tucson, Ariz., in1995. At the time, I was a full-time systems engineering student at the University of Arizona, honing my skills as an SI for Lisa Frank Inc., and acting as manager of the U of A Women's Tennis Team. Marshall Freiman, now Web Emporium's CTO, and I met at U of A. Marshall was pursuing his PhD in temporal databases in the U of A graduate computer science program and we met through my neighbor who was also in the program. When we both discovered a common interest in Web-enabled applications, and a mutual desire to start our own business, Web Emporium was born.

By Internet time standards, we've got quite a history. Our reason for getting into the business was quite simple: We could develop cutting-edge solutions using Internet technologies, and have fun doing it. Also, we saw the need for Web-enabled applications, and we had an early vision to use the Internet as a means of collaboration to share and disseminate information globally across an enterprise.

Our entrepreneurial spirit provided us with a lot of ambition and visions of conquering the business world, but reality dictated that we had to start small. Our office was my apartment, and our means of communication with the outside world was a server and a 28.8 dedicated modem connection to the Internet. It was a screamer.

Some of our first solutions included Web-enabling a custom teddy bear manufacturing business and developing an award-winning Web-enabledBlack Jack game. These ventures brought us some quick fame and helped us get our name out into the Internet World. In that regard, Web Emporium has always been focused on Web integration.

Web Emporium's overall mission has remained the same since its inception: to develop, integrate and "Web-enable" mission-critical applications for businesses. The most common and obvious need for this service has been in the area of business-to-consumer commerce and procurement. Realizing that our skills and experience aligned perfectly to provide this type of service, Marshall and I saw the opportunity to provide these solutions, now known as e-commerce.

The most attractive factor for doing Web integration work was the growth potential. Marshall and I both knew that we could gain valuable experience by developing business-to-consumer solutions, and use that knowledge and development to tap into the business-to-business market.

We have always conferred that the two most important and often overlooked components of e-commerce and e-business are legacy system integration and database integration. Our goal was to develop re-purposable "hooks" that would integrate seamlessly into existing sales automation programs and database catalogs. That was, is, and always will be the foundation of our solutions.

Our business has experienced a steady stream of great victories, followed by small, intermittent disappointments. The most important thing to Web Emporium, and myself, is that our customers keep coming back for more. We have established several long-term and ongoing relationships with our clients, regardless of how we were introduced to them. They trust our ability to meet our commitments, and we can be extremely honest with them in appraising their needs. These relationships have been built through hard work and open communication, and now our clients have become a great marketing and sales force for us. We focus on the customer solution. We can build award-winning solutions in time frames that beat industry benchmarks.

We provide value to our customers and help them grow their businesses on the Web. That being said, there have certainly been missed opportunities, rejected proposals and heated customer battles. That is what makes us better, and we take valuable information from every opportunity that we are presented with.

Additionally, Web Emporium has been funded and grown organically. We've maintained complete ownership and control over our company, and we will continue to grow at a controlled pace. Of course, it is not difficult to get overanxious about our growth potential.

The e-business era presents multiple opportunities and market niches in which Web Emporium could successfully participate. I always try to keep focused on sustainable growth, and hope to ensure that no matter how fast we grow, or what markets we pursue, Web Emporium will always be a fun and stable place to work.

The company will productize its B2B procurement solution used by several Fortune 500 companies. International business offers many new opportunities for growth, and we plan to go after this market heavily next year. Web Emporium will also provide turnkey solutions to customers using our repurposable modules and our strategic partners. We are already building turnkey solutions where we provide the e-commerce, content, fulfillment, call centers, marketing, support, business intelligence and ongoing site maintenance for our clients. We currently are building a branding strategy for some of the custom modules we have developed, such as gift registry, coupons and affiliate tracking. We are planning to package these individually and spin them off as software subsidiaries of Web Emporium.

Our core business model, however--e-commerce and e-business integration --will continue to be the driving force for Web Emporium for the coming years.

The only thing consistent about the Web integration industry is change. Web Emporium's goal is to capitalize on those changes and use them to our advantage. Ultimately, though, what it comes down to is enjoying your work, providing a great place for others to work, and satisfying your customers to the best of your ability. That's what we try to do.