One product was all Visimation Inc. needed
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - by Paul Danzer Contributing Writer
As visions go, the future of Visimation seemed anything but clear.
What was obvious was that Visio Corp., a software creator, needed help.
The Visio software for organizing information visually using pictures and graphics to present complex data was plenty popular among businesses. The company was anxious to cash in on the growing popularity of its product.
Trouble was, Visio didn't have the staff to meet the varied needs of its customers.
So, it asked for help.
And in February 1997, Brett Newman and Billy Pruchno answered the call and created Visimation Inc., a company that customizes Visio software for large corporate clients.
"Visio was looking for a company to work with its customers to solve specific needs," said Newman, Visimation president and CEO. "They weren't sure if a company could make a business out of it."
Visio was eventually bought by Microsoft Corp.; the software is now a Microsoft product line. And Visimation is now one of the fastest-growing private companies in Washington state.
The $1.32 million in revenue the company generated in 2000 is a far cry from the less than $10,000 Newman and Pruchno invested to start the Issaquah-based company.
Visimation's growth is fueled by the popularity of the Visio product and the many ways it can be used.
Visio is a computer software program that allows nonartists to create drawings and diagrams for business documents such as sales reports, flow charts, inventory tracking and sales presentations. Visio also offers technical drawing capability.
Visimation has three sources of revenue:
• It teaches Visio to employees when a company purchases the software;
• it sells several add-on programs that expand Visio's usefulness;
• it develops programming solutions that customize Visio to fit the specific needs of a business.
Newman said he and Pruchno initially believed the sale of add-ons would create much of the company's revenue as Visio's users looked for ways to get more out of the product. It didn't turn out that way.
Sales of add-ons account for 2 percent to 3 percent of Visimation's revenue. Less than 10 percent of its business is training new Visio customers. The rest of the revenue comes from designing custom programs for companies that use Visio.
"So many companies were throwing checks at us that we didn't devote as much time as we had planned for to developing add-ons," Newman said.
Visio was more than happy to see Visimation succeed. Its success buoyed the value of its product.
"What motivated them was selling Visio," Newman said.
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