December’s newsletter is always an interesting one to write, as we close the books on one year and anticipate events from the coming year.
The year 1998 was a record setting year for INFONETICS. We installed as many new systems this year as we had in the previous two years combined. We also tied a record for number of new installations with 1993, and we did it with fewer active Account Specialists this year! While it has been an exhausting year, it has been exciting and rewarding to work with so many new customers. Of course, our existing base of customers have likewise generated record levels of work and opportunity. New products have been introduced, hardware and software upgrades continue to stream out of our R&D efforts, and the ever present flow of tech support questions from customers continues to keep us quite busy.
Next year promises to be even busier (if that’s even possible). We’ve already booked installations further into the new year than ever before. And the pace of inquiries and requests for literature and demos seems to be growing at an exponential rate. However, we remain steadfast in our commitment to accept only as many new installations as we can properly undertake without risk of compromising an installation, or adversely affecting support of existing customers.
1999 promises to be a breakthrough technological year in a couple of areas. New hardware which should debut next year includes the even faster Pentium-II/XEON processors, dual and quad processor motherboard/servers, and a long anticipated offering in the laptop-in-the-truck market (dubbed internally here as the “Truck-Top” project). In addition, look for the price differential between dumb terminals and PC/Workstations to narrow to the point of possibly killing the dumb terminal market once and for all.
Software wise, we’re working on the programming necessary to finish off the “truck-top” project, advanced “EDI” capabilities, and the beginnings of our integration efforts between the INFONETICS Accounting Software suite and Internet/Web based technologies.
Throw in a new building (announced last month), and our first ever user group meeting(s), and you get the picture of INFONETICS as a dynamic, growing, exciting young software company on the brink of great things to come. Of course, we’re only a reflection of you, our customers. These are your ideas, not ours. We’re just fortunate that you’ve placed your trust and confidence in us to carry the torch for you in the implementation of these exciting projects. Thanks again for a great year, and we’ll keep working hard to continue to earn your trust and confidence each and every day.
I’d like to welcome Bruce & Gary at Raimy/Welder Service in Erie, PA and Steve, Rick and Adrienne at C.G.I. in Washington, PA as new customers. Glad to have you.
— David J Frea