22 - Wednesday, May 20, 1998 — North Shore News north shore news Internet adds new growth potential From page 21 past decade, would carry such transactions over private net- works. They. handled the challenges of having a PC talk ro a mainframe and con- trolled transaction access. If you pay some of your bills over the telephone through a B. C. credit union then you’ve — experienced SofiCare software facilitating the transaction. SoftCare’s | UNIX-based TradeLink EDI Management System, released in 1992, is used by hundreds of cumpa- nies of all sizes. {In 1997 the company released BusinessLink, a Microsoft Windows/NT line ‘of EDI.” Armstrong said SoftCare Product:is. used tor a high- volume transaction site by the province of Alberta to process tax-filing transactions for all ’ oil wells in the ‘province. “They have three days of _ tax filing for 180,000 oil wells — huge amounts of informa- tion. -It (the software) can deal with those bumps in a very cost- velfective way,” “he said. »,... Softeare is now providing, EDV and EC software for the burgeoning Internet environ- ment. Said Armstrong, “The Internet has allowed a pipe to be placed i into a business at 2 fixed price so you can pump >. as_ much data’ through that * pipe as you can, 24 hours a day. ’. “Even if it’s a 56K link, the ‘cost. of that circuit 10 years ago: was astronomical. The whole Internet has made . it possible for’ “everyone to talk” at a low cost,” he said. The «development . gives -- ground for optimism. _ ‘Said Arrastrong, “It’s an emerging market. We have technology which is a compo- nent that isn’t changing as rapidly as other areas. If it’s web-based technology _ it seems to change every few weeks, Ours is based on the actual trading relationships within groups of businesses, lots of banking and payment applications and purchasing relationships. The Internet. ts causing change and we're changing with it.” Today the company employs 20 people. Ten are software enginecrs. While he refuses to divulge any financial information “Software engineers are extremely technical and they just don’t have any business experience.” about SoftCare (it’s a privare- ly held company), Armstrong anticipates a tripling of sales over the next three years. “I expect we should be 50 to 100 people in three years,” he said. The company’s client base is primarily outside of Vancouver. Most of its revenue comes from the U.S. and offshore markets. At 41, Armstrong has managed to avoid the pitfalls that many who start up in the young high tech industry fall victim to. - “What’s Jacking in the software industry is manage- . ment, Most of these software engineers are extremely tech- nical and they just don’ t have any business experience.” “Often young people cre- até something and then they get involved with venture capitalists, or something lke that, and they land up owning’ only a very small portion of the business in the end and they’re the founders. It’s not how it is here.” Armstrong founded the company in Burnaby in 1989. It was an offshoot of some work he owas involved with over previous years with a software firm that had an application for warchous- ing. The environment got him involved in EDI, during the early days of the technology. He grew up in West Vancouver and graduated from Sentinel. He lives on the North Shore. “I spent the fast 20 years of my working life in Burnaby. This opportunity (to locate on the North Shore) came up. “North Van City has been a part of making it happen by recognizing us as a manufac- turer so We can move into a park like chis with rent that is affordable. “We don’t have a big f machine that’s out there cranking our stuff, we have all | these minds and keyboards doing the work. This is an ideal place for us.” Fmplovees love the loca- tion, the commute is pretty good and the North Shore has a fairly high concentration. . of software activity. “With ICBC and BC Rail, there are a lot of software people who actually live and work in this area of town. “There are three or four other software firms that are growing fairly rapidly right now and there is some poten- tial for us to partner with them in some way,” Armstrong. 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