Press & News

On file

SONYA COLBERG World Staff Writer
09/16/1999
Business
Imagery Concepts president Tom Quinn (foreground) and vice president Rob Rector display their company's Home-Organizer software.
STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World
Software firm's organizer is a zip
Rob Rector and Tom Quinn were at an Indiana riverboat casino recently, their ties and dress shoes making them feel as comfortable as if they'd worn state police uniforms.

Next to Rector in line for omelets stood a woman who asked him what business he might be in. He explained that he was trying to sell software to the casino. She said to Rector, "Well, I do a lot of tole painting and I get so many e-mails -- I sure wish I had a way to organize them."

"We couldn't have set it up more perfectly," said Rector, vice president of Imagery Concepts, a Tulsa company that develops software geared to helping people and businesses stay organized. They launched their new Home-Organizer software in August after someone asked Quinn if he would make a home version of his business organizer.

Quinn founded Imagery Concepts in February 1998, and the firm has grown to employ 11 people. Its parent company is Metro Systems, which was established in 1961 and was one of the first Tulsa companies to own a main frame computer.

Considering its growth rate, Quinn said it's hard to imagine how big Imagery Concepts, 1437 S. Boulder Ave., will become. He expects to add sales support people, programmers, Web site designers and administrative assistants in coming years.

"The neat thing about it is it's Tulsa, not Austin or someplace," he said. People are really surprised with what we're doing here. And we used leaders in Tulsa to help design the software."

Imagery Concepts is another example of the Tulsa companies that are moving Oklahoma toward a technology-based economy. Companies like Imagery are finding a local and national audience anxious to dip into the promises of the Internet.

Imagery Concepts marries the Internet and fund raising to sell their product. Nonprofit groups get $12 out of each $29.95 Home-Organizer software package sold through the group or sold online and registered with the group.

Rector said the No. 1 reason people like to use Home-Organizer is because it provides instant retrieval of documents.

"Say two years from now your accountant needs your 1998 tax return information. How many boxes in the attic would you have to go through to find that?" he asked.

With Home-Organizer and a scanner, that tax information is stored and can be retrieved in a few seconds. The document can be printed and mailed to the accountant or attached to an e- mail.

The second biggest reason that a program like Home-Organizer comes in handy is in clutter reduction, Rector said.

Want to find that appliance receipt? It's probably right there under the cook book, next to the battery-less calculator, above the bug collection and . . . or maybe not. Rector said it's just a lot easier to find that elusive receipt if it's scanned and organized through software.

Disaster recovery is the third biggest reason that Home-Organizer is selling. Customers can take a photo of valuables in their home and date-stamp the pictures before saving them to a zip drive and then storing them in the safety deposit box. If a tornado or other disaster destroys the home or valuables, the records remain safe. Later, Imagery plans to have a secure online storage to keep such records for customers.

Another way Imagery is marketing the software is through what they call ad specialties. Imagery uses a banner ad designed for a business that Home-Organizer customers see on their screens for about eight seconds. This is part of the package that a business can offer free to prospective customers and it includes a hot link button that provides a direct link to a business Web site.

A Realtor can have a Web site set up so customers can receive an e-mail with a photograph of houses for sale. The business can use customer information to design advertising specifically for them that is sent by e-mail.

Rector and Quinn said the organizer has an ecological twist. They said they're doing their little bit to save trees as they build a business and contribute to a more technology-based economy.

"My wife says I'm redeeming myself after 14 years in the form printing business," Quinn said.