Reprinted from the Northland Ledger THE LOW END OF HIGH-TECH, BUT A BIG SUCCESS Info-Data Services of North Kansas City has built a reputation of taking on the really big jobs - and getting them done quickly. Gary Abernathy, owner of Info-Data Services in North Kansas City, considers his company to be at the lower end of today's high-tech world. But he takes on mammoth projects and gets them done in record time. And, as word of his successes gets him other big projects, it kind of goes on and on. His company is a computer data base builder, and his typical customer, like publishing houses and libraries, requires a pretty large data base. Typical services include image and OCR scanning, database development, data entry and data conversion, coding and indexing, document image processing and data management, project management and consultation. In addition to the North Kansas City and Des Moines offices, Info-Data Services has off-shore resources in India and the Pacific Rim, which offer supplemental opportunities for high-volume assignments or for especially cost-sensitive projects. Abernathy started his business in 1969 with a degree in math and economics and a strong desire to do something with his talent. The company did well, and Abernathy soon merged with Saztec International. In 1986 he helped take Saztec public and remain as president. Saztec branched out and bought a similar company in Boston and started a European division. Abernathy then moved his corporate headquarters to Boston. While he maintained a home in Platte Woods, he spent most of his time either in Boston or Europe with plenty of time in airplanes between the two points. About this time the Kansas City division was sold. The European division did well and actually converted every major library in Europe from card catalogues to computer databases. That amounted to nearly 20 million records! Even with that success, Abernathy had a yen to take over as owner of Info-Data Services. He set certain goals as his criteria. The company met the goals, and Abernathy purchased the company. His mission remained the same, to take on the complex, labor-intensive and time-consuming tasks of data capture and conversion. The companies that utilize Info-Data Services are as varied as their projects. They include hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical and information companies, law firms, publishers, manufacturers, utilities and technology firms, document archiving and membership organizations such as frequent flier, discount and preferred customer clubs. Simon & Schuster, for example, needed someone to convert its nearly 1,000 volume set of previously published children's books for use on the Internet. They found Info-Data on the Internet. It was a monumental task. Each publication had a different set of requirements, including digital photography to replicate the "pop-ups." The 1,000 publications were processed in record time. In the entire process, no one from either company met anyone from the other. They communicated electronically and by phone. Yet, Simon & Schuster recommended Info-Data to other companies including another New York publisher for whom Info-Data recently completed a pilot project to convert thousands of technical manuals and books. Michelle Weiler, database coordinator at Boomtown Casino in Harvey, La., needed someone to convert unsorted entry forms for nine different promotional contests. She, too, found Info-Data Services on the Internet. Weiler shipped the contest entry forums to North Kansas City in 70 big boxes. The staff began sorting and categorizing at the rate of 20,000 records a day. In less than the required time, Info-Data delivered the completed database of 163,000 records. Abernathy credits his staff for the company's success, particularly Vice President and General Manager Bill Rice along with Bill Brown, Debby Smith, Cheryl DeMeyer and Karen Turner. "They make my day much easier," Abernathy said. "I never have to worry about whether or not the job gets done, and gets done right." In all, Abernathy has a staff of about 70 people, 40 of whom work out of their homes. "We even have a lot of second generation employees here," Abernathy said. "A lot of their mothers worked here when we started the company." All this gives Abernathy time to do other things like joining the Northland Business Breakfast Club, of which he is very proud, as well as the North Kansas City Business Council. Info-Data Services can be reached on the Internet at www.info-data-srv.com.