Welch got her start in the early 1980s working as an import manager for Zayre, a large erstwhile apparel retailer, when she realized there was a real need to automate international trade processes. She learned on the fly that the profit margin for imported goods was far greater than for domestic goods, and she attempted a concerted effort to increase the number of imports. Being well ahead of the times—even heretical—she boldly suggested eliminating the buyers, thinking that with a heightened number of transactions supported by fewer humans, profits would increase even more. However, at the time, neither the technology, nor her superiors' approval, was available to support the endeavor.
For an extensive discussion of global retail sourcing, see The Gain and Pain of Global Retail Sourcing, The Intricacies of Global Retail Sourcing, and The Fashion and Apparel Retailers' Conundrum.
Disappointed, but neither discouraged nor dismayed, Welch started her first company in 1984, called IMC Systems Group, to provide PC-based import software technology solutions to the international market and to automate the import operations of global organizations. Teaming up with her long-standing business partner Jack Zakarian to form IMC, Welch took care of the conceptual product design, while he performed the software coding. It was the first import program delivered to the market, and was launched at a trade show, where the company managed to sell international trade automation to Spiegel and TJ Maxx. Disney and JC Penney bought the product later, but the weakling ahead-of-the-curve company struggled to break even.
It was the very first company with software for importing, at a time when companies did very little direct importing themselves. This meant a lot of proselytizing, and painstaking market awareness work. They raised venture capital (VC) in 1987, but was still not profitable by 1992, and the VC investors became impatient. Eventually, in 1994, the investors infused more money, and put themselves at the helm of IMC, which did not exactly correspond to Welch's vision.
Welch walked away with plans to found another company, and did just that (reportedly on the very day after being let go from IMC; other former co-workers at IMC joined soon after). She built on the foundation of IMC's import software, but with many improvements based on customer feedback and suggestions (along with the advent of Microsoft Windows). She named the business RockPort Trade Systems, and the Windows-based sourcing software RockBlocks. Microsoft Windows was a new technology (and a user interface [UI] metaphor) at the time, and there was also an opportunity for combining exporting and importing, which was an either-or proposition at the time.
RockPort Trade Systems became the number one global sourcing and supply software package in the world, with Global 2000 customers including Home Depot, JC Penney, Unisys Computer, Sears, Ames, Federated, Timberland, and UPS. The product was agnostic with respect to import, export, product, and country, and it lured all the old IMC customers to the new company. IMC never sold another software package, and eventually sank into oblivion.
In contrast to IMC, RockPort was profitable virtually from its inception, thanks to its lucrative and value-adding consulting practice, and thanks also to the early critical mass of customers signing up, which all helped the sustained development of the technology. As with Windows, when the Internet took off as another disruptive technology, the RockPort team excitedly tracked the evolution of web-based browser technology.
In the late 1990s, the company added an Internet-based front end to RockBlocks, enabling its customers and their suppliers to access relevant data, and to send responses using just a web browser. By 2000, the company was filling its entire Gloucester, Massachusetts (US) harbor headquarters building, supporting offices in London (UK) and Hong Kong (China), employing about one hundred, and serving the Who's Who of the global retail space. In 2000, amidst pressure to either go public, go for additional VC investment, or be acquired, Welch sold RockPort to California (US)-based QRS Corporation (now part of Inovis—see Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS) for over $100 million (USD).
For an extensive discussion of global retail sourcing, see The Gain and Pain of Global Retail Sourcing, The Intricacies of Global Retail Sourcing, and The Fashion and Apparel Retailers' Conundrum.
Disappointed, but neither discouraged nor dismayed, Welch started her first company in 1984, called IMC Systems Group, to provide PC-based import software technology solutions to the international market and to automate the import operations of global organizations. Teaming up with her long-standing business partner Jack Zakarian to form IMC, Welch took care of the conceptual product design, while he performed the software coding. It was the first import program delivered to the market, and was launched at a trade show, where the company managed to sell international trade automation to Spiegel and TJ Maxx. Disney and JC Penney bought the product later, but the weakling ahead-of-the-curve company struggled to break even.
It was the very first company with software for importing, at a time when companies did very little direct importing themselves. This meant a lot of proselytizing, and painstaking market awareness work. They raised venture capital (VC) in 1987, but was still not profitable by 1992, and the VC investors became impatient. Eventually, in 1994, the investors infused more money, and put themselves at the helm of IMC, which did not exactly correspond to Welch's vision.
Welch walked away with plans to found another company, and did just that (reportedly on the very day after being let go from IMC; other former co-workers at IMC joined soon after). She built on the foundation of IMC's import software, but with many improvements based on customer feedback and suggestions (along with the advent of Microsoft Windows). She named the business RockPort Trade Systems, and the Windows-based sourcing software RockBlocks. Microsoft Windows was a new technology (and a user interface [UI] metaphor) at the time, and there was also an opportunity for combining exporting and importing, which was an either-or proposition at the time.
RockPort Trade Systems became the number one global sourcing and supply software package in the world, with Global 2000 customers including Home Depot, JC Penney, Unisys Computer, Sears, Ames, Federated, Timberland, and UPS. The product was agnostic with respect to import, export, product, and country, and it lured all the old IMC customers to the new company. IMC never sold another software package, and eventually sank into oblivion.
In contrast to IMC, RockPort was profitable virtually from its inception, thanks to its lucrative and value-adding consulting practice, and thanks also to the early critical mass of customers signing up, which all helped the sustained development of the technology. As with Windows, when the Internet took off as another disruptive technology, the RockPort team excitedly tracked the evolution of web-based browser technology.
In the late 1990s, the company added an Internet-based front end to RockBlocks, enabling its customers and their suppliers to access relevant data, and to send responses using just a web browser. By 2000, the company was filling its entire Gloucester, Massachusetts (US) harbor headquarters building, supporting offices in London (UK) and Hong Kong (China), employing about one hundred, and serving the Who's Who of the global retail space. In 2000, amidst pressure to either go public, go for additional VC investment, or be acquired, Welch sold RockPort to California (US)-based QRS Corporation (now part of Inovis—see Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS) for over $100 million (USD).
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