This firm's expertise: integration

What: FusionWare

Who: Alan Davis, president and chief executive

What it does: Develops software that ties together stored data in different software platforms.

Employees: Four in Seattle; nine in Vancouver, B.C.; four in Orange County, Calif.; and one in Atlanta.

Customer example: Saint-Gobain Calmar, a perfume-spritzer manufacturer, uses FusionWare's platform. Previously, when a customer called about an order, a customer-service representative would, in turn, call multiple production plants for updates on the order, a process that could take a day. "Now a customer calls or can go on a Web site and the (FusionWare-developed) server queries the databases of the manufacturing plants and tells them when the order will be produced," Davis said.

Competition: IBM and others offer data-integration products and services, but they often focus on the consulting end, which includes manually writing code.

The pitch: Davis said that accounting for all related expenses, FusionWare products cost less than consulting-based projects. Also, setting up FusionWare's platform takes less time than a project executed by a consultant, Davis said.

Costs: Customers spend on average $100,000 on the FusionWare implementation. The price depends on how many servers and other components they require.

Roots: Davis was hired by investors who had lent $11 million to GA eXpress, a struggling software developer, to investigate whether there was anything worth salvaging at the company. GA eXpress was originally based in California but moved to Vancouver, B.C., when it faced financial and legal problems.

What he found: Davis said he discovered there was no way to save it. But customers "kept calling and buying things," he said.

The genesis: FusionWare was formed in 2003 when Davis bought the assets of GA eXpress for stock in the new company. He then sold more stock to the original lenders to raise working capital.

Investors: Pacific Mezzanine Fund and Plus Four Investments have funded an undisclosed amount of FusionWare.

Profitability: FusionWare's Australian operation is profitable and Davis expects North American operations to become profitable in 2005.

Growth: FusionWare is announcing today a partner program that allows other software vendors to integrate and resell FusionWare products.

— Nancy Gohring