SOFTWARE INDUSTRY SOARING.(CAPITALAND RPT)

Byline: DANIELLE T. FURFARO Staff writer

When you think of the software industry in the Capital Region, Lucia Fisher wants you to imagine a hockey stick.

``It creeps for a long time and suddenly it takes a sharp turn upward,'' said Fischer, executive director of the Capital Region Software Alliance. The alliance now has 185 members, with about $300 million in revenues. At the end of 1998, revenues were at about $200 million.

The software industry locally hopes to account for $1 billion or more in sales by 2004.

For years, MapInfo revenues have made up a large portion of that total. Started in 1982 by Michael Marvin and three RPI students, the North Greenbush company paved the way for street mapping software. Today, the company has more than 500 employees and revenues of $74.4 million, putting it at the top of the Capital Region software industry.

``This was our best year ever,'' said John Cavalier, president and chief executive officer of MapInfo.

That sentiment has been repeated by many in the industry.

Companies like Poweradz.com and Flow Management Technologies are also expanding dramatically.

Poweradz.com, a company that creates Internet sites for newspapers, grew from eight employees to more than 80 in 1999 and has increased its customer base from 20 to more than 900 newspapers.

Flow Management Technologies, a medical software firm, doubled its revenues in 1999 and plans to add staff, which president Craig Skevington said ``grows by the hour.''

Companies like PrimaComp Inc. represent the small end of the local software scale. The company, which has created digital image compression technology, has been around for a year and a half and has 6 employees. Yet its 12 customers include large companies such as Global Imaging Systems, the University of Geneva Swiss Medical Center and Harris Communications. PrimaComp won the significant technology award at the Capital Region Software Alliance's 1998 Software Companies of the Year Awards.

Like several other area software companies, PrimaComp is a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's incubator program, which helps start-up companies get off the ground by giving them a place to share resources and ideas. Out of the 22 companies the incubator assists today, 17 are either dedicated to software or have software as a major component. Learnlinc, a manufacturer of Internet learning software, is a graduate of RPI's incubator program. It now has close to 200 customers, including Lucent Technologies, Aetna and Chase Manhattan. They use Learnlinc's product to train employees in a virtual classroom.

``The classrooms have a blackboard, presentation sites and spreadsheet capabilities,'' said president Degerhan Usluel. ``Students can even raise their hands electronically.''

The Capital Region Software Alliance was formed in 1996 by Fischer, members of Albany's Center for Economic Growth and Michael Marvin, chairman of MapInfo and a local venture capitalist. The software alliance aids local software companies by helping them gain visibility, recruit employees and promote local university programs that can farm future techies.

``While all the companies are important in their own right, they are also a part of something larger,'' said Marvin. ``We are all trying to reach one collective goal.''

Fischer, Marvin and Poweradz.com chairman Bob Godgart all agree that no matter how promising the Capital Region software industry is, it will be hard to get ahead without the backing of investors and new blood from the universities.

Investors seem to have realized it as well. First Albany Corp. and Troy Savings have both started venture capital companies. So far, they have invested in a total of seven area software companies.

``We noticed a sizable number of young companies who were really looking for equity instead of a commercial loan,'' said Jim Trainor, senior vice president of T.S. Capital, Troy Savings' venture capital company. ``We realize these companies have a great potential for growth.''