A world of advice.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Multinational firms in Indiana

Three Indiana firms share their experience in taking products global.

Vast as the world may be, businesses from country to country have a lot in common. Of particular benefit to one Indianapolis company: ever-increasing interest in quality-management standards and a strong reliance on Windows-based computers.

Powerway Inc. develops computer software applications serving what's known as the "compliance-management field." Its programs help companies determine how ready they are to meet such well-known quality standards as ISO 9000, QS 9000 and ISO 14000. Powerway products also help companies produce and handle the documentation necessary to achieve and maintain these kinds of quality standards. And it provides the training, consulting and implementation services clients need to get the programs up and running.

"The primary benefit is that we help you automate these processes that traditionally had not been automated, reducing non-value-added costs," says Michael Boyer, vice president of international markets. "We are the largest such organization in the U.S. We have nearly 6,000 network installations and 40,000 licenses."

Interest in cracking the European market is what got a lot of American companies bandying about such terms as ISO 9000 a few years ago. Powerway turned out to be in the right business at the right time. Its first DOS-based product hit the market in 1989, with Windows applications following suit five years later. The company grew at a healthy rate without casting its gaze beyond the U.S. borders.

But in 1995, Boyer says, Powerway linked up with a firm selling computer products and services in Mexico. "They sold other products, too, but saw their revenue growing with us. With very little assistance on our part, they sold about $100,000 worth of our software."

It was a new experience for Powerway for reasons that went beyond the different currency. Until that point, the company sold all of its products directly. Doing so allowed Powerway to generate ancillary revenues through training and other services. "We had never really relied on outsiders to sell our software," Boyer says.

Powerway began looking for ways to replicate the success elsewhere. "We developed a provider in Europe who sold our products with some success," he recalls. "We started a Web site and began to get international inquiries, and we noticed that there was no other product like ours in the international market."

Thus was born an international strategy. Europe turned out to be a natural market for a products like Powerway's. "The European market was already very proactive in adopting quality standards," Boyer says. "When we started to test the waters in the European market many companies were already certified and had been for many years but were starting to discover problems in maintaining their certification."

The results of Powerway's international ventures have been impressive, as have its domestic sales. Fiscal 1998, which ended...