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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | SEPTEMBER 11, 2000 ENTREPRENEUR PROFILES The Man Who Loves Technophobes Dov Goldman's Cognet automates the process of updating and installing software, making life easier for computer users
"They didn't know the concept of user-interface at Columbia in the mid-'80s," says Goldman, who mastered the concept through trial and error. It took him about nine months to develop and debug the software, recalls Harris, who had studied computer programming himself but didn't have the expertise to match the eager college kid. "He knew his business, let me tell you. He used to aggravate the hell out of me because he could do things I couldn't," says Harris, who speculated that his Wykagyl Service Station in New Rochelle, N.Y., was one of the first to be computerized. TAILORED TECHNOLOGY. Howard Rahn in New York's garment district was the second guinea pig. Goldman and a classmate approached Rahn about developing software for his dressmaking business. "He took a bet on us," Goldman says, figuring Rahn spent about $40,000 on hardware and software development over three years. What he got was a program that ran the company's business systems -- inventory, import/export, accounting, billing, etc. -- for at least a decade. During his post-college years as a computer consultant, Goldman tweaked software, replaced hardware, and fixed wiring. "I became very good at plumbing," he says. At the same time, "I was both learning a business and learning how people respond to technology." Those responses ranged from adoration to terror, says Goldman, 35, founder and CEO of Cognet Corp. in Valhalla, N.Y. It was all those years of going desk to desk, computer to computer, and commiserating with technophobic users that led Goldman to develop Cognet's software, which manages other software. Now, corporate technology departments are using it to add, update, and delete software -- and it's all being done automatically and remotely. With the cost of having a technician personally service a computer upward of $100, "You want to avoid that visit at all costs," warns Goldman, whose clients include T. Rowe Price, Prudential Insurance, and the Internal Revenue Service. QUICK FIX. The company sells two software packages: myITware (pronounced "mightyware"), which does hardware and software inventory as well as software monitoring; and Cognet, which automatically distributes and manages software. Plans call for integrating the two into one package within a year. The average price for myITware is $30 per application. Cognet runs between $50 and $60 per application. Cognet, Goldman says, would allow a software company to deliver product and updates over the Internet without any programming. This is not much different, in terms of results, from what America Online does for its subscribers. To provide that service, AOL must write its own programs. When it adds a new service, such as instant messaging, programmers have to write and test a new program or script that can download it. Cognet, says Goldman, is an alternative to having programmers and testers build and maintain such capability. If, say, the makers of Adobe Illustrator software incorporated his technology, users could log on to Adobe's Web site to purchase a subscription. The software, and updates, would be installed automatically. If other items on the computer, such as a phone book, word processor, or e-mail program, could interface with Adobe, the Cognet technology would automatically make the right configuration changes to connect them with the updated versions. If Adobe stops working, the user could click a fix-it button, and Cognet would search for problems. If it found something that doesn't match the original installation, it would automatically try to correct it. Goldman's pitch to software makers is that Cognet allows them to concentrate on their core products. SOFTWARE EVERYWHERE. His software, which has been on the market for nearly three years, has been sold to large corporations. Goldman envisions a future in which computer manufacturers will load it onto their machines and service providers, such as cable companies and phone companies, will use it to manage their systems' software. As he sees it, automatic updating and debugging will become a necessity as consumers become increasingly reliant on software-rich "personal digital domains" -- their laptops, cell phones with Web access, handheld computers, and the like. That vision raised $11.5 million from two venture-capital firms this year -- a vote of confidence for a company that Goldman admits was limping only six months ago. He defines for his backers "a future where software was everywhere." Although Cognet is sold only through direct sales today, Goldman expects to take on strategic partners, like computer manufacturers and cable companies, which might lease Cognet for, say, $1 per month per subscriber. Other software, such as Novadigm's Enterprise Desktop Manager, Microsoft's SMS, and Novell's Zenworks, perform similar functions to Cognet's products, but Goldman says none are as complete. A larger competitor, who asked not to be named, says Cognet's challenge is to grow quickly while the software-management market still has room for newcomers. "They know what they're doing -- they have a better idea than most of them out there," he says. "They have the technology, [but] they need to grow the business." That's one reason why Cognet is planning a million-dollar advertising and publicity campaign. It projects net sales revenue of $3.3 million for this year, compared with $1.6 million last year. ENTRANCED. With its recent purchase of software developer MyITCorp in Haifa, Israel, Cognet now has 65 employees and a foothold in a foreign market. "For all the talk about Israel being the 51st state, it really is much more like Europe than like the U.S." says Goldman, who's looking to go global. Some 15 years after computerizing the Wykagyl Service Station, Goldman still swears by his focus on the computer user rather than the computer, seeing his business as "2% technology, 98% human interaction." Goldman illustrates his point by describing a gifted programmer in Haifa. "He works in a basement room. He puts on this music he calls 'Trance.' It's blaring. That's his idea of an environment to work in. When he's done, he has produced something brilliant." But even brilliant products don't sell themselves, Goldman says: "For the people side of the business, you need someone who's a little more human-compatible."  By Theresa Forsman in New York Edited by Robin J. Phillips  | | |
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