In tech time, 10 years is
forever, and if a privately owned software company reaches that milestone, it's through hard work and adaptivity.
AI Software, in Kenwood, recently passed that 10-year mark, meeting market and economic challenges along the way.
The company, headquartered in Cincinnati with another office in Arizona, was founded by high school buddies and Cincinnati natives Dave Ebbesmeyer and Ed Buringrud. The pair ran into each other after college and found they both were trying to start web development companies.
Teaming up, they began AI Software, offering development services including a signature content management system. They developed the system for non-coders at a time when those systems were far less ubiquitous than today.
Now, AI Software has six full-time employees, two part-time employees and occasionally hires subcontractors. They continue to sell their SiteManager v5.0 content management system, but have added a full array of digital marketing products to meet client demand. In the last 18 months, the company has started offering content services as well.
"Clients want a single point of contact for their web development and web and social media campaigns," Ebbesmeyer says. "We've become a place that handles companies' entire online web strategies. That could include an online web store or video,"
Expanding AI Software's services also has helped them compete against a crowd of freelancers, Ebbesmeyer says.
"Freelance competitions still continues to be a bit of a challenge, but it's difficult for freelancers to offer everything," he says.
This service shift has helped the company weather the economic downturn and subsequent sluggish rebound since 2008.
"We do offer a great content management system, but our clients are less concerned about tech than they are about managing their web presence," Ebbesmeyer says. "We've really seen a lot of that in the last year. And because of the growth of that demand, we are adding talent to deliver things outside the scope of ones and zeros (the bedrock of computer coding language)."
By Feoshia H. Davis
Follow Feoshia on Twitter
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.