OVERALL PERFORMANCE
8. Concord Communications Inc.

By Gregg Krupa, Globe Staff, 05/18/99

lmost every company is immersed in high technology these days, with information technology networks enabling them to manage inventory, keep tabs on accounts receivable, and generally attend to large and diverse groups of customers and clients.

But how do they know they are getting their money's worth from their systems providers?

Concord Communications Inc. knows. And having firmly established a niche in the vital and growing area of computer systems management, the Marlborough firm - in its first full year as a public company - has pushed into the upper echelons of The Globe 100.

''We identified in 1995 and '96 a market need and a product requirement that no one else was addressing,'' said Jack Blaeser, president and chief executive. ''And we hired some bright and dedicated employees, and the result is that now we have about 1,100 major, Fortune 500-type companies as customers as well as another 1,000 or so smaller ones.

''The business grew by 100 percent a year in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998,'' Blaeser said. ''We went public in October 1997 at $4 a share, and we closed [recently] at 461/8.''

Concord keeps tabs on the reliability, cost, and function of information systems, guaranteeing performance and contributing to cost savings.

''We let chief executive officers know why they are spending $10 million a year on high technology, and why it makes sense for them to spend $20 million next year,'' said Blaeser. ''We also provide a way to see problems cropping up in these networks before they occur.''

Concord Communications had 38 employees in 1995; by the beginning of 1999 that had grown to 211. In February 1998, the employees went to Cancun, Mexico, on the company.

By the end of this year, Blaeser said, the company will employ about 270. Who knows? They might all go to Mexico again.

This story ran on page D12 of the Boston Globe on 05/18/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.