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Lansing State Journal (MI)
July 28, 2008
IT INNOVATOR: Axiom Group growing in hot sector - a few jobs at a time
Author: Barbara Wieland
When Leah Boroski woke up one morning in 1998 unable to hear in one ear, she realized her life would have to change radically.
Boroski was a court reporter at the time, so the loss of hearing on one side made her job nearly impossible. She struggled through the next four months, doing the best she could, but she knew she would have to find some other line of work.
Boroski found a solution in the ways of business law. She decided to build a company around an attorney's need to obtain, manage and retrieve documents.
Such services existed, but Boroski went in a different direction, using the latest technology to digitize the many pieces of paper and make those documents accessible online.
The Axiom Group Inc., the company born out of Boroski's personal crisis, is now on the cusp of rapid growth. It has grown beyond its earlier mission and now serves companies in any field.
Managing documents
The technology company recently landed a contract to manage documents related to medical malpractice, workers compensation and other cases for the law firms representing Hanover Insurance. The New Jersey-based insurance company turned to Axiom to consolidate document management that had been done in offices in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont.
Because of that contract, Axiom expects to boost its work volume by 80 percent from last year. It also should lead to the creation of up to 15 jobs, bringing the company's work force to 50 by year's end.
Most of those jobs will be entry-level, but there will be a need for some computer specialists, too. In the Lansing area, computer professionals such as network analysts and computer support specialists make a median wage of less than $60,000, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth's Labor Market Information.
Axiom is an example of what some say will lead future economic growth in the Lansing area and statewide - technology- related companies growing gradually, a few jobs at a time.
"I think that small business often goes unnoticed and unrecognized in terms of jobs creation," said Kate Tykocki, spokeswoman for work force development agency Michigan Works. "People tend not to realize that there are more than 300 IT companies in the greater Lansing area and a lot of those are small companies. They might not be adding 600 jobs at a time but they are still growing and successful."
And for Boroski, the success was somewhat surprising.
"I had no idea we'd get to this point when I started. I thought maybe we'd have work enough to keep me and my brother-in-law (business partner Todd Vallad) busy," Boroski said.
Boroski developed the idea for Axiom in the courtroom, watching lawyers fumble with papers and grumble about how difficult it could be to get legal documents in order.
Document management services were already around, Boroski said, but none in mid-Michigan were then using the Internet to make an attorney's job easier.
She had long been an amateur tech fiend, so Boroski set about developing a system to digitize documents and make them accessible online.
With the help of her husband, Timothy, whom she said "has the gift of gab," the budding privately owned company started securing clients. Things expanded quickly.
"In our second year in business, sales grew 300 percent," Boroski said.
Revenue up 29 percent
Last year, the company had revenue of $2.3 million, a 29 percent increase over the previous year. It currently manages approximately 7 million pages of documents for its clients.
As sales grew, so did the company's need for space. It spilled out of its first 450-square-foot space and into a neighboring office and then required a move to a new office site altogether.
"We grew faster than expected because of technology," Vallad said.
As the company grew, it benefited from new laws that required secure document storage, he said. Laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act require businesses to secure documents and personal information.
As the need for document handling services grew, so did Axiom, said Joel Price, vice president of corporate development. The company developed the goDox service to expand document management services to insurance companies, doctor offices and other places that need to handle paperwork securely.
"We can offer a huge cost savings," Price said. "There's no hardware or software cost involved to the client and no need to set up an (information technology) department."
Rather, Axiom sets up the company to handle digital documents for a fee of $600 and a monthly fee averaging $150 to $200. The company also will consult with clients on technology needs, monitor system security and even help with office relocations.
"We used Axiom when we moved to a new facility," said Amy Cousineau, a doctor of optometry at Holt Eye Care. "They expanded and installed our Mac system and did it over a weekend, so we were up and running right away,"
The eye-care center is in the process of going paperless with Axiom's help, she said.
Files more accessible
Using Axiom also means several professionals can access a client's file, no matter where a doctor or technician might be located - in an exam room down the hall or miles away on vacation.
Those kinds of advantages are winning Axiom clients outside of Michigan, such as the sizable Hanover contract. But Boroski said the bulk of the work - and the workers - will remain in Lansing.
Boroski said her company - and other tech ventures in the area - could use some help if they are to thrive in mid- Michigan. She said that newer and smaller companies like hers are often overlooked in favor of larger, national companies.
"A lot of companies in this area have good ideas but sometimes get passed over because they're not big," she said.
While organizations such as the Small Business and Technology Development Center will help get companies going, there's little support to keep them alive, Boroski said.
"I'd love to see a sponsor group along the lines of Big Brother/Big Sister that would mentor small companies," she said. "Once you're going, there's not much help."
And worker Darryl Taylor, who works as a network support engineer at Axiom while completing a degree in computer networking at Davenport University, said that area companies often don't realize how high tech local firms can be.
"There are a lot of companies out there that are old school and don't trust technology," Taylor said. "They fear making the leap to a paperless environment. They just need to be shown how safe it can be."
Axiom group
· Location: 447 North Canal Road, Delta Township
· What they do: Digitize, manage and make documents accessible by Internet
· President: Leah Boroski
· 2007 sales: $2.3 million, up 29 percent from 2006
· Employees: 35
· Founded: 2002
Copyright (c) Lansing State Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Record Number: lan48089486 |