AT THE HELM

Jim Krzywicki, chief executive officer of Docutron Systems, believes the company is on the verge of "tremendous success." Photo:  Michael McCord

Founded in 2002, Docutron Systems is a fast-growing company that specializes in the exploding marketplace of document management software solutions. The Portsmouth-based company has secured more than 100 domestic and international clients focusing on the education, health care and insurance sectors. These clients include the Republic of Ireland Dairy Board, the Saskatchewan, Canada, provincial government and the University of New Hampshire Human Resources Department.

The 17-employee firm is led by Chief Executive Officer Jim Krzywicki, whose career has spanned the information age. Krzywicki, an accountant by training, has more than two decades of senior management experience, including significant stints with General Electric, Prime Computer, Lotus and IBM.

Ventures recently caught up Krzywicki to talk about guiding a young company into its next phase of growth, the importance of "killing bureaucracy," and the end of the "Frankenstein technology."

On Docutron's guiding principles: One of the issues that's really critical for us is to kill bureaucracy. Of course you need to have some bureaucracy in a company but one important thing I learned in previous jobs is the disparity between what you do compared to what you can do. We believe it's vital to make clear and fast decisions -- and to realize that clients have important things to say to us.

On Docutron's size and capability: We look at the company as a very small large company. Our engineers are incredibly brilliant but it's important to do more than R&D or to make the sale. You have to be to able to offer full service and support. We are in competition with the top document companies around. And when we talk to potential clients, they are surprised to find out how many clients we have and who they are. Our clients are responding to the architecture, service, scalability and communication abilities of Docutron.

On waking up every morning: We're still a young company and there's so much work to do but it's not exhausting at all. It's incredibly energizing and I'm really really energized every day because I work with some of the brightest young tech people around.

I've always had an entrepreneurial drive, even when I was a kid selling newspapers in front of the Lowell (Mass.) GE plant. Even when I worked (for GE and Lotus), I had jobs starting a new business or venturing into new markets. This was a chance to build a company from the ground up and I believe we are on the verge of tremendous success.

On handling growth challenges: We estimate that we will more than double or triple our revenues in 2007 and we will also be adding employees and likely opening a European office along with developing important business partnerships. We have a challenge to keep to managed growth so it can be successful growth.

On the state of document management: We are entering a new world where prices are plummeting and application integration for businesses of all sizes is where it's at. Its an organizational phase where you can scale applications to support 10 to 10,000 users with high value and quick deployment. The days of Frankenstein technology are over.