Augusoft sheds light on lifelong-learning process
Minnesota Business – August 1, 2005
Career-guidance gurus often stress the importance of lifelong learning for those who hope to succeed in a constantly-changing business world. This trend has helped fuel the growth of Golden Valley-based Augusoft, Inc., whose Web-based Lumens software helps continuing education providers manage registration and other administrative tasks.
Augusoft CEO Cem (pronounced "gem") Erdem, 36, founded the company in 1994, the year he arrived in Minnesota from his native Turkey. (He moved, he says, for love. His wife is a native Minnesotan.) Erdem had made a snap decision to seek a career in e-commerce after reading an article on the Internet in an in-flight magazine. Using his gift for mathematics to become a self-taught software engineer, he worked for a dot.com startup and as an IT consultant before launching Augusoft.
In 2000, Augusoft introduced Lumens, the first customized, Web-based solution for lifelong learning providers, including community colleges, school districts, universities, technical schools, museums, libraries, community education and independent learning programs, and government agencies.
"Anyone who has access to the Web can use our application," Erdem explains. Another advantage of the Web-based approach is that "we maintain the application for them instead of them relying on their IT departments, which are often inadequate."
As a market, the sector has been under-served by major IT companies, who mostly focus on the "for-credit" side of the continuing-ed industry, he says.
Erdem contends Augusoft is the market learder in the space. "Our competitors are sill on PC-based software. They are just starting to offer Web-based solutions, but our product is much more advanced and we have a long head-start. Our product incorporates best-practices they cannot replicate."
Augusoft has doubled its sales annually in each year of the last three years, and grown revenue at 50 to 100 percent in each of the last four years, according to Erdem, who hopes to keep doubling sales annually over the next three to five years.BIZBRIEFING
Company: Augusoft, Inc.
Inception: 1994
Headquarters: Golden Valley
Seed Capital: None Patents: 1
Employees: 14
Description: Web-based lifelong learning management systems provider
Web Site: www.augusoft.net
About Augusoft
Augusoft, Inc., the #1 leader in non-credit education software market, develops and maintains Lumens - the first complete, entirely Web-based, customizable on-demand Lifelong Learning Management System (LLMS). Complementing and integrating with traditional academic and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Lumens is specifically designed for the unique needs of continuing education, customized contract training and workforce development programs.
Augusoft Lumens allows non-credit education programs the ability to outsource the liability, security, hosting and compliance issues that are analogous with online commerce. Augusoft Lumens users benefit from non-credit best practice features, comprehensive financial program analysis tools, greater user satisfaction, increased student registrations, 24/7 user access and improved program ROI. For more information about Augusoft, visit augusoft.net or call (612) 605-1200.
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Copyright (c) 2005 Augusoft, Inc. All rights reserved. Augusoft, the Lumens name and identifier are registered trademarks of Augusoft, Inc. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.