2000 Thru 2009: It Was The Best Of Times

Dear Colleagues,

The Holiday Seasons are frequently filled with a spirit of celebration accompanied by a profound sense of gratitude. This year, I would like to express profound gratitude to all who have contributed to our e-Quantum family's remarkable success this past decade - a success that allows us to celebrate this current season with joy and thanksgiving.

For the close of 2009 marks the close of the most remarkable decade in e-Quantum's thirty-year history. If there must be a beginning, it was the November 1999 Print Solutions EXPO in Las Vegas NV, where we unveiled “Quantum 2000”, our totally new Microsoft Windows back office system for print distributors. The culmination of more than two years of programming, it was finally complete - or, more precisely, as complete as first releases generally are when perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.

Quantum 2000 generated enormous interest at the EXPO – as did a first time exhibitor across the aisle, a venture capital startup named Collabria that was demonstrating a revolutionary, new web-based order entry and production system linking print buyers and vendors. Other than the few software companies that service our industry, I didn't recall a “technology company” ever exhibiting at Print Solutions EXPO.

Curious, I engaged their marketing vice-president and was informed they had received $13 million in venture capital for their “level one” funding. I didn't bother to mention that I had borrowed $100,000 just to complete Quantum 2000. But, I came away from their demonstration convinced that we would require comparable e-commerce technology to remain competitive. Thus the impetus for what would become Quantum Net – minus, of course, the $13 million.

This past decade has seen e-Quantum technology make revolutionary strides - building solely upon revenues from our loyal industry base. The numbers speak for themselves.

1999: 90-plus active clients using Quantum Plus DOS
1999: Zero e-commerce activity
2009: 500-plus active clients using e-Quantum Windows
2009: 1.6 million items ordered online from distributors using our Q-Net/Q-Store B2B/B2C e-commerce system.

I try not to dwell on the fact that the technology we market so blithely today would have generated a $300 million dollar IPO just ten years ago. But, while e-Quantum can be accurately described as a leading industry “technology provider”, I far prefer describing e-Quantum as a “technology family.” I believe even a technology company should be built on relationships. Sure, success requires superior products, services – and, of course, profits. But they're all meaningless if clients and staff don't sense affiliation with a higher community of values. e-Quantum is empowered by our our valued community of loyal clients and staff.

While, we are most appreciative of the 17 new e-Quantum clients acquired this past quarter, they only enhance an industry leading base of distinguished distributors - - 65 of whom have been clients for over 20 exciting years..

While we are equally appreciative of the considerable talents and contribution of our most recent staff acquisitions, they still only enhance our senior staff – nine of whose e-Quantum careers span ONE, TWO, or even THREE decades.

So, as this Tuesdays With Ross is emailed, only ten short days from the start of the next exciting, inevitably challenging and life-altering decade, I hope you'll pardon me for pausing to reflect upon the past and uttering a heart-felt “THANK YOU” to everyone who contributed so greatly to e-Quantum's success. For it is thanks to all of YOU, our more than wonderful clients and staff, it truly was ... The Best Of Times.

Sincerely,

Ross Barker

P.S. Oh, and Collabria ...
They crashed and burned, like so many Silicon Valley dot.coms. You will drown in money, if your cash flow don't float. (I agree. It sounds like a title from the NY Times best-seller list.)

They invited me to San Jose to view their three floors of office suites in a brand new high-rise complex, their 13 programmers working on a system far smaller than ours, their 20-plus support persons in cubicles awaiting calls from future clients, their fully staffed accounting department awaiting orders and invoices, and...

I vividly recall regretting that time had passed me by. The small time e-Quantum kid, a relic from a bygone era where you made money BEFORE you spent it and got money AFTER you delivered the product, and cash IN the bank was a treasure; a myopic underachiever focused on Survival One, when the world was on Level One. Anyway, you'll enjoy reading my new book, “Life Is: Not Forgetting Fundamentals.”

Stay tuned. In the next Tuesdays With Ross, we focus on The Future.