In Barrie Ontario there is a software company called Pavliks.com who advertises on the radio a lot. They're always talking about their web content management product, or how they can make a website for your business. I visited their website to undertand what the company does. They have two main products: 1) pavliks.wcm which is their custom built web content management system that they probably host, customize (graphics, initial setup etc) and have successfully sold to a number of Barrie businesses. I believe the product was written in Cold Fusion. 2) Magenda ERP, their own ERP system. From the screenshot I can't tell if it's a desktop app, web app or what? I know what ERP is so it's impressive that they have the knowledge to create a full ERP system. Running a software company with many clients and employees requires such systems. They probably used one and later developed their own.

The company also does custom programming, webdesign, and hosting. There are over 20 employees. I've read them mention MS SQL Server, MS Access, Visual Basic, I've seen Cold Fusion content, and I'll bet by now they are using .NET for development.

No I am not thinking of going to work for them. I've been curious what they do, how they survive etc.. and especially after I read there are 20 employees. Over the last couple years I've been looking at web content management systems and reading about ERP systems. I can understand how these are very important to businesses and why they are so successful. Last year I started planning out the design of my own web content management system and wondered if I could make a living developing these kinds of systems. When I realized how much competition is out there and how many free open source systems there are I backed off. It's very interesting to see a company this size being successful based on these two types of systems. Not that I didn't think it could be done, I just thought it would be extremely difficult to enter the market. They advertise so much on the radio and not everyone is a technology guru so this is probably a great example of what marketing can do.

I'm sure they've been into these technologies much longer than I have, but it's interesting to see that I had the same line of thought.