Business Spotlight: The Data Team

Tucked into the north side of National Avenue Office Park’s fourth floor is a dozen technology gurus writing code and analyzing data while servers whir in the background.

Team members carry titles such as chief software architect – held by office lead Don Worthley – and talk on headsets with staff members at headquarters in Alexandria, Va.

The work has helped their employer, Old Town IT LLC, grow revenues 844 percent during the last three years to $2.8 million in 2011 – good enough to crack into the Inc. 500. Each year, Inc. magazine researches and ranks the 5,000 fastest-growing private U.S. companies, and Old Town ranked No. 444. Among its information technology peers, the firm was listed No. 48.

Old Town’s ascent is notable given the firm primarily creates software for a single sector – professional associations. But officials say the team hasn’t yet exhausted that niche.

“There is an association for everything,” says Worthley, noting most of Old Town’s clients are in Alexandria, just outside Washington, D.C., which is known to have the highest number of associations per capita in the U.S.

Founded in 2007 by Tim Ward, president and CEO, and Meg Schwind, chief marketing and operations officer, Old Town specializes in custom software development and technology consulting, largely for handling renewals, dues and purchasing process, or event registration for its professional society clients, which average between 120,000 and 140,000 members. A key component is integrating such public-facing aspects with the associations’ internal content management systems.

Among the roughly 70 clients on its roster are the American Institute of Architects, National Association of Convenience Stores, U.S. Travel Association and the Urban Land Institute. The client operating closest to Springfield is the American Academy of Family Physicians in Kansas City, Worthley says.

Old Town developers worked with suburban D.C.-based American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to streamline its complex online dues renewal process. ASHA Information Systems Director Mike Guerrieri says the association’s 145,000 members typically pay their annual dues during the last quarter of the year, resulting in hefty transaction volumes of up to 5,000 per day.

“We get this crush of renewals at the end of the year. We wanted a system that would withstand that kind of load, and it has,” Guerrieri says.

The more than $20,000 project is one of many the two organizations have worked on together, Guerrieri says, pointing to a point of sale and online store created by Old Town developers.

“We like to keep them busy,” he says, noting two projects coming down the pike – a data analytics job and a second version of the online store where members can purchase ASHA coffee mugs on up to pricey professional development courses.

Old Town is sometimes called in to troubleshoot the renewal and recruiting process for clients that might have a five-year-old membership system, 10 steps to register online or manual data entry on the backend. “We’re able to most efficiently allow these potential members become members of the organization so they can do the good they are seeking out to do,” says David Schlum, a software architect and the first area employee hired by Old Town. “In most cases, our clients have this wonderful cause.”

The Old Town staff is evenly split between the two offices, and the husband-and-wife owners visit Springfield roughly each quarter.

Springfield associates also perform analytics for client programs as well as research and development for a new product that might have broad application as a plug-in. “We are working on a product designed to address issues related to member engagement,” Worthley says, adding the team is looking for ways that members can connect and share via technology. “Long-term, we would be able to take that product and extend it into other industries. But the industry that we know and love right now is the association industry.”

Schlum says the Microsoft-certified shop uses the Lync corporate messaging system to communicate across offices. The Microsoft Office-integrated desktop or mobile tool enables instant messaging, video conferencing and direct voice communication.

“I sometimes communicate more with the people in Virginia than I do during the day with people here,” Schlum says. “It just depends on the project I’m working on. I’m able to hit call and in about a second and a half, I’ll get somebody in Virginia. It allows us to collaborate as we need to. We’re not hindered by the distance.”

Old Town entered the Springfield market through a 2009 merger of Worthley’s company, IT Crossing LLC. He operated the company from Nixa, and Old Town moved to the 1911 S. National Ave. building about 18 months ago.

“We have a three year lease, and we’re already at capacity,” Worthley says.