Gary J. Langton calls IBM a “great breeding ground for entrepreneurs.” He should know. Langton spent six years at IBM, where he was a highly successful salesmen. He learned a lot during those days. Langton learned that when you are presented problems, you see opportunities. And he learned that when you satisfy your customers – they stay customers.
”I learned so much about organizations and being in business,” Langton said. “And I learned about doing business above board. It was ingrained in me from day one.”
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Langton is now the president and co-founder of the Taunton, Mass.-based Quadrant Software, an 82-employee high-tech firm established in 1990.
The company has pioneered fax technology, developing software for both AS/400 and PC networks. Quadrant Software created the widely successful “FastFax Family of Products” and is recognized as an IBM business partner.
Quadrant has created integrated, centrally managed faxing from the AS/400 platform and enjoys a 40 percent market share for AS/400 fax servers. Its FastFax solutions are installed throughout the world, managing internal computer-based fax networks at some of the world’s largest companies.
Among its 2,500 clients are: Akzo Nobel; Bank of India; Bausch & Lomb; Bristol Myers Squibb; Calvin Klein; Exxon; Hershey’s; Hertz; Maytag; Mobil Oil; Owens Corning; Parke-Davis; Time-Life; Westinghouse; and 3M.
Langton and his partner, Peter DePierro, got a first-hand look at the demand for their company’s current products soon after starting Quadrant Software as a company in the business of inter-modal transportation.
In short, Quadrant Software automated computer services for container yards – tracking freight to and from destinations. Among the range of services the company offered, were fax capabilities.
“We dropped what we were originally doing because of the success of the fax services products,” said Langton. “Everyone wanted to buy the fax services.”
To Langton and DePierro, who serves as the company’s chief executive officer, the demand for fax services did not present a problem, but rather, an opportunity. Concentrating on fax services, they reasoned, opened up limitless possibilities – most notably, the ability to sell to virtually any industry.
“Fortunately, when you are small, you can make changes quickly,” he said.
So they did. And Quadrant Software, still a business in its infancy, was reborn.
”The most exciting thing about high technology is the constant change,” said Langton. “It is your biggest nemesis – and your biggest opportunity.”
The success of Quadrant Software has been nothing short of dramatic.
The company is self-funded and has grown each year by between 40 and 50 percent. But if it sounds like it has been easy, it hasn’t. It has been about hard work – another thing that Langton witnessed at IBM.
But Langton has always been about hard work. As a boy he delivered newspapers for years and washed dishes. He dreamed big dreams.
”I don’t think your personality changes much from when you are young,” he said. “I have always been a worker – a definite Type-A.”
He has also been driven to reach for a higher place. It’s a trait he shares with DePierro.
It translates into taking chances. Like the risk of leaving IBM, a place where an aggressive salesmen can make a nice career for himself. But Langton and DePierro, the original architect of the “FastFax Family of Products,” reached deep into their own pockets, found mostly plastic, and took a risk.
”We started this company the American way,” said Langton. “American Express, VISA, ”
It wasn’t easy. Not when Langton and DePierro looked around and saw only each other. Then, maybe it was a couple of other employees. And then a couple more.
DAVE FIORILLO’S hard work has paid off.
”We emptied the trash and cleaned the bathrooms,” Langton said.
But before very long, Quadrant Software started to grow. And before long, Langton and DePierro knew they were onto something big.
In some ways, Langton runs the company like an IBM. He learned long ago to tick with a business plan – never get off track.
”We are successful today because we focus,” said Langton. “We know where we are going and how we are going to get there.”
There have been numerous opportunities, he said, to make a quick buck by branching off into another direction. But those are short-term opportunities. And they are not part of the Quadrant Software business plan.
”We’ve turned down a lot of projects,” Langton said.
Instead he and DePierro concentrate on what they do best.
”The biggest theme we have here is a commitment to total quality and excellence,” he said. “We’re trying to be the absolute best at what we do.”
To Langton, that means 100 percent customer satisfaction – not 99 percent.
”Happy customers buy more products,” he said.
And happy employees, he said, are more productive.
Barbara Harrison, who recently joined the company as marketing communications manager, said she was a bit surprised by the “family atmosphere.”
”Gary and Peter have old fashioned values,” she said. “They respect familythey promote from within.”
There may be no better example of that approach than Dave Fiorillo, who joined the company about seven years ago. Fiorillo had a bachelor’s degree in hand, but little experience. He wanted to be a programmer. When told he needed more experience, Fiorillo offered to take another job with the company – as long as it came with an opportunity.
He was hired as a technical support person, at first performing a lot of mail room tasks and anything else that had to be done. But he worked hard – and his bosses noticed. The promotions came fast.
”It was always a goal of mine to become a programmer,” said Fiorillo, who is now the company’s senior project leader.
Langton looks back and marvels at Fiorillo’s climb. He was especially impressed by the way the young worker embraced each assignment. When he was taking customer calls, Fiorillo not only solved problems – but learned from them.
”Dave is successful because he works so hard,” Langton said. “You don’t learn that in school.”
Langton isn’t thinking about maintaining any status quo. He only knows one way to think – and that’s big.
“Grow or die,” he said.
And so Quadrant Software grows.
The company recently added an address to its letter head – Virginia Water, Surrey, England. It is about 20 miles outside of London, in a cluster with several other high technology companies.
It’s a long way from Myles Standish Boulevard in Taunton, Mass. But since the business is there, Quadrant Software will be there. If not, said Langton, the competition will. Besides, tapping into that market is not a problem for Langton and DePierro – it’s an opportunity.
