WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa. -- In a quiet off-the-beaten-path location  sits a company that is growing quietly, but at a breakneck speed. By the end of the year, Autosoft Inc. expects to see its revenues zoom ahead by 30% over last year’s nearly $14 million.

“This year we’re targeting $21 million,” says its executive vice president and chief technology officer, Mark Hellbusch.

Two thousand car dealerships and 30,000 customers across this country and Canada use the software developed by Autosoft, says Hellbusch. Its dealer management system (DMS) makes the job of a dealership easier, he says, because the system is specific to each department and person who works there.

“We provide a complete solution for automotive dealerships that they use to run their business,” Hellbusch explains. “All the way from initially selling the cars through service, accounting, payroll – everything they need as far as their core systems for their business.”

The building itself is near Interstate 80, but is obscured by trees at the end of a residential road. When you walk inside you find a modern plant with glass offices and skylights.

This freshly remodeled building comes with fresh leadership. Bryce Veon joined Autosoft in early 2012. The young CEO, who prefers to stay out of the limelight, was recently honored with the Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce’s 40 under 40 award. Under his leadership, Autosoft has rebuilt its growth model, added a new management team, invested in product development and increased its staff to nearly 150 and opened a sales office in Dayton.

“My dad started it about 25 years ago. And started up in our basement,” Veon recalls.

Hellbusch picks it up from there. “Harry Veon would go around and reprogram mainframes for the tax changes at the beginning of each year, so he was really busy then. But the rest of the year he had time on his hands.”

Hellbusch says Harry had several buddies who worked at car dealerships and thought he could build a better program for a PC instead of a mainframe. So he went to work. The result was a new company – Autosoft.

When he was younger, says Bryce Veon, he went on installations at dealerships for his dad. But later he decided to take a different direction and became the owner of a construction company. In fact, he built the Autosoft building for his father. The younger Veon also had a successful career in business startup development and management, despite dropping out of college.

“Now I have an opportunity to take my vision and put it in place,” remarks Veon. “So it’s been a challenge. That’s what I like. That’s what brought me back.”

Part of that vision is fundamentally changing the revenue equation by switching from a distributor network to a 100% direct approach – distributing, selling, installing and supporting their product.

Hellbusch attributes about half of Autosoft’s expansion to that changeover that also meant ramping up sales. Another big change is in the industry itself.

“A typical dealer will have 20 to 30 other software packages and a lot of those are cloud-based,” Hellbusch explains. “You’ve got to have your core systems but they have to touch and integrate with a lot of other systems out there. And we’ve created a whole business unit and product offering for all of these integrations and Web services. With that comes new revenue. It’s a whole new business for us.”

While Autosoft’s core DMS is made up of four key modules – finance and insurance, accounting, parts and service – there are add-ons including a dealer communication system that allows a dealership to communicate with a manufacturer such as Toyota, or General Motors.

“We’ve been using it for quite some time,” says Bobby Eddy, sales associate at Bob and Chuck Eddy Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Austintown. “We’ve benefited from the software that keeps everything organized in the system. It makes things move a lot quicker.”

Eddy also says Autosoft has a solid security system that protects the information of his business and that of its customers. Another benefit is the communication system.

“It’s the same system for management [from] sales to the service department to parts,” Eddy says. “Everything is organized in one universal system. Autosoft really communicates well through all the departments.”

The ground floor of the Autosoft building is dedicated entirely to customer service with a big colorful computer screen on the wall that keeps track of the incoming calls and how long it takes each agent to resolve an issue. Much of the first floor focuses on software development.

And the company continues to hire – adding 40 employees in the last six months with plans to hire another 40 to 45 more this year, nearly doubling in size in a year’s time.

“The biggest limiting factor right now hasn’t been the growth, it’s been finding people,” laments Hellbusch. “It’s difficult to find that many software engineers here in West Middlesex. And there’s a lot of competition for talent.”

There’s also competition in the industry with the two biggest competitors having annual revenues in excess of $1 billion. But with the next wave of technology, Autosoft is quietly making its move.

“We’ve recently released the next generation,” Hellbusch relates. “We’re writing all our core applications on it. It’s cloud-based. Just go to the browser and away you go.”

In another building next door, a slightly less high-tech secondary business has employees amid stacks of paper with printers turning out the thousands of forms dealers use everyday. Those forms will be sent to dealerships all over the country.

“We are looking a lot at new products and so we want to make sure that we can offer all the dealers across America the best DMS, the best software and services for the lowest price,” Veon says. “That’s our goal and I think we’re doing a good job at it.”

But with the current rate of expansion, will West Middlesex remain home to the company? “We have a lot of history here,” Veon answers, “a lot of dedicated employees that have helped us get to where we are today. And I’m pretty well-rooted here as well.”

So while the elder Veon has retired and is living in Florida, his teachings remain ingrained with his son: “Be ethical and moral and always do the right thing,” his son relates. “Treat people fairly. Work hard. A good strong work ethic is probably the most important thing.”

Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the MidMay edition of The Business Journal.

Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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