Division at FORMation mg Spawns Two New Companies

by Dan Burger

Start with the personnel. Former FORMation founder and president Dan Forster is now running the show at inFORM Decisions. The former vice president of engineering and chairman of the board at FORMation mg, Andy Rackauckas, is now president at Elite Document Solutions. The group at Elite also includes Robert Balmes, an original investor in FORMation mg, and now the CFO at Elite, and three members of the old FORMation sales team. Forster kept the programming team, minus Rackauckas, and a staff that totals 12, while the Elite group consists of 10 employees. Erick Garske, has been named vice president of software development at inFORM Decisions.

When the curtain fell at FORMation, the company had an estimated 600 customers. Those customers were split between Elite and inFORM, with more than half landing on the inFORM side due to negotiations that were agreed upon at the fracture. Despite the agreement, both Forster and Rackauckas agree that customers will ultimately decide which companies they will do business with.

Both companies are currently offering essentially the same iSeries product line that was available from FORMation before the split; however, each company has plans for enhancements and new product developments on the horizon.

Although neither side will talk about details of the separation, it's safe to say the two sides are unlikely to exchange greeting cards during any future holidays. Rackauckas and his group seem to have precipitated the split based on irreconcilable differences regarding company product decisions.

According to Forster, he chose dissolution of FORMation mg rather than slogging through a protracted legal quagmire, claiming it was the price he had to pay in order to own the entire corporation. Both Rackauckas and Balmes had partial ownership in FORMation.

Rackauckas says Elite plans to roll out new products and enhancements to existing products in August. One item to be expected at that time is an iSeries spool manager tool that includes features such as archiving, email, and burst and sort. Users will have the option, he says, of using forms overlays, but that method will not be required as it was with FORMation products. The archival and retrieval functionality for spool files are features that Rackauckas believes will be well received in the iSeries marketplace. Historically the interchange between an imaging company and a forms company has prevented an efficient archival and retrieval solution because it involved stripping the code or the form overlay before archiving the spool file. The product he plans to introduce will archive exactly what is produced in print, or email, or fax, including the graphics and the overlay, thus improving productivity.

Also in the works are products that will move Elite toward a more complete electronic document solution including document workflow, a strategy for archiving on an inexpensive network appliance rather than the IBM jukebox, and a product that will integrate with J.D. Edwards OneWorld ERP suite.

Forster says inFORM Decisions has already made some enhancements to products that were previously sold by FORMation, and new products will be introduced in about four months. He predicts the that some core products will remain the same for each company, but that the product lines for each company will separate fairly quickly.

As for the future direction at inFORM, Forster says he will move toward utilizing Internet-based technologies--the transmission of forms, reports, or data through the Internet. Also on his short list of product advancements are increasing archival and retrieval capabilities and a bigger push in the area of ebanking where he expects electronic payments via the iSeries will be an area of growth.

Forster also noted that inFORM has a foothold in the international market with a division called FORMation mg UK, which is obviously located in the United Kingdom; it also has several partnerships with firms in Asia. He also pointed out that inFORM has a substantial customer base within the construction industry that results from his longtime business relationships in that industry.

Editor's Note: This article has been edited since its original publication to correct several errors. The article incorrectly stated that Andy Rackauckas was a programmer at FORMation mg. He was, in fact, vice president of engineering and chairman of the board at FORMation mg. The article also incorrectly stated that when FORMation was dissolved, in January, the company had an estimated 600 to 800 customers. The number of customers was, in fact, closer to 600. The article also incorrectly stated that Elite Document Solutions has five employees. The number of employees is, in fact, 10, according to Rackauckas. Midrange Server regrets the errors. [Corrections made 4/25/02]