EBSCO sets a new standard

By TONIA NOELL MOLINSKI

Essex County Newspapers

IPSWICH _ The water rushing under his corner office and over a dam seems symbolic of the progress of EBSCO Publishing and its President Tim Collins.

The high tech company sits on the banks of the Ipswich river, headquartered in two beautifully restored nineteenth century brick factory buildings.

"I graduated a year early from college because I got credit for starting this business," said Collins.

The original product was the brainchild of his step-father, co-founder, Jerry Seaman, Collins explained. Seaman envisioned a paper-based journal of academic abstracts for library reference. The product was an instant success and very quickly migrated to CD-ROM and the Internet.

EBSCO Publishing never even blinked during the recent dot.com shakeout _ that first product had morphed into a hundred and represents the standard in educational research.

Started eight years ago in a garage and a college dorm with this one product aimed at the library market, EBSCO Publishing now has hundreds of products, all sold and serviced over the Internet.

The business fills 140,000 square feet of two buildings.

The loudest noise is quick footsteps on soft carpeting while employees compare notes on the latest Internet product reports.

The products are database research tools used by 90 percent of the schools and public libraries in the country. Access to the databases is marketed internationally and, more recently, these same databases have turned into a new product zone: school curriculum enhancement.

In eight years the company has gone from Ground Zero to $50 million and is growing at about 10 percent a year.

And, almost unique in the dot-com world, the company has been profitable from the start.

For Ipswich EBSCO Publishing is a catch: a clean business; a large, economically stable employer with constantly growing employment; and a company with an unusually strong, easy-going, "good neighbor" policy.

EBSCO Publishing opens its corridors to community organizations and non-profits. They come in to use the copiers. They come in to borrow scissors. They come to ask for help.

When the local Christmas toy drive needed cardboard boxes, tape and string, they got it.

"They're amazing," said Deborah Moules of the local non-profit S.A.F.E. Studio. "When we had to move and had no place to go they were there. They just have this great we-know-we-can-help attitude and they do it. They make things possible."

"I can't imagine doing business any other way," said Collins. "Being part of the town is very important to us."

"If someone needs something, I just can't imagine why I would say "No," said Collins, "if it makes sense and it's something we can help with, then let's do it. It's not a big deal."

The company's big deal is the computer-based search engines and software linked into more than 100 databases, 5000 newspapers, magazines and journals, and a growing number of school curriculum products.

"I can remember when we moved from Danvers," recalled Collins. "We were in the middle of renovating these buildings, but we had to keep our computers going, so here in the middle of all this construction was this one perfectly finished, sealed room like a little house, our computer room, and absolutely nothing else."

The computer operators, Collins said, used to play tag football in the wide open spaces.

Today, four years later the wide-open spaces have mushroomed into offices, while the computer operators are busy installing the latest in cutting edge computer technology and warding off hacker attacks.

"It keeps us busy," said Mike Kelly, manager of on-line services.

Kelly and Mike Correll, Chief Information Officer, have carefully designed and maintain a computer system to be completely redundant.

"If something happens and one part goes down there is at least one or two backups to pick up the work immediately," said Correll.

All technology-based businesses are subject to the constant danger of random hacker attacks. EBSCO Publishing has escaped potentially crippling attacks because of their carefully designed redundant systems.

"Authentication is our biggest problem," said Kelly, standing in a room stacked floor to ceiling with the computer equipment responsible for okaying access, routing traffic, searching, finding _ making the whole thing work seamlessly as far as the user can see.

The boxes have names just like pets: Zeus, Shaggy, Pecaboo, Blackie, Zombie, Hurricane.

"Each box can handle 200 to 300 search requests per session," said Kelly. "The new ones can handle 800 to 900 sessions." He runs his hand thoughtfully over a bright metal edge, there is not a speck of dust anywhere.

The network handles thousands of search requests per hour from all over the globe.

Before a new product is loaded, it is extensively tested, he said, and then during the loading process six to seven people have to individually sign off on each stage of the product as it is loaded.

This rare bit of red tape shows how critical each product is to the company, but generally "there's not a lot of the big-company red tape; that makes it pretty fun here," said Kelly.

"When the head of the company sits in with the sales people as they're on the phone; when he wants to know, How can we make it better? That's his vision," said Scott Bernier, company communication manager.

EBSCO serves 90 percent of the academics and school children in the U.S. and has a large overseas presence, Bernier said, and the company prides itself at being at the root of educational and professional research.

But the business is also about living life, says Collins, which is why he has chosen to locate a large company in a small town.

"I want to be able to walk down the street and know the names and faces of the people in my community," said Collins. "I want to know I am part of the solution; not part of the problem."