Keeping Track of the Paper

The Litchfield County Times
Friday, October 08, 1999

Remember the paperless office? The idea that computers would rid the workplace of paper seemed a foregone conclusion not so long ago. But printed files and documents remain the norm in a great many offices, and Southbury resident A.J. Wasserstein, for one, is happy that it's so.

Mr. Wasserstein has built a business rescuing other businesses-law firms, hospitals, insurance companies and the like-from the plight of paper overload, storing their files and providing ready access upon request.

ArchivesOne, the company he founded in 1991, recently moved 25 of its 30 employees to new quarters on Commercial Street in Watertown. "We needed additional space." Mr. Wasserstein said, "and the building was available at the right price" - reported to be $950,000.

The structure contained 50,000 square feet when it was acquired two years ago, and a 40,000-square-foot addition with customized shelving was recently completed and is being readied for use. By the time the entire space has been utilized, ArchivesOne will have invested $2.7 million in the Watertown location, according to Mr. Wasserstein.

Combined with a warehouse in Waterbury and storage space in Milford, the company now has more than 200,000 square feet to store documents for about 500 customers that populate an area stretching from White Plains, N.Y., to Springfield, Mass.

"Why shouldn't I just use self-storage?" some prospective customers ask Mr. Wasserstein. His answer is that ArchivesOne does much more than simply store files. A law firm, for example, might request a box or boxes of files from among literally hundreds of thousands in storage.

Using bar-code technology and hand-held scanner-printers, ArchivesOne fulfills such requests daily. Each box bears a bar coded sticker on its side. When customers request boxes, by bar code, employees enter the bar code number into the hand-held computers, which respond with the "address" - the location of the box in the warehouse.

ArchivesOne has eight vans that make nearly 60 trips a day to drop off or pick up records. Drivers wear the portable scanner/printers on their belts. Bar codes from boxes to be delivered or picked up are entered into the units at the start of the day. At each location, drivers print out a receipt for the customer.

"We are very sophisticated users of technology," Mr. Wasserstein asserted. The company's web site is being expanded to provide additional service. By the end of this month, customers will be able to review up-to-date reports showing their use of ArchiveOne's service, he says.

"We're not giving you raw, empty space," Mr. Wasserstein observed. "You can't compare us to a garage."

The privately held company's revenues this year are expected to be approximately $2.6 million, Mr. Wasserstein reports. Acquisitions of other record-storage- and management companies are in the works, he says. Plans for growth include not only "drilling deeper in our current marketplace," but also expanding services, possibly to microfilm and secure storage of electronic records. Contracted records management at a customer's location is another potential route to growth. For example, the company could manage a central records department in a hospital. But Mr. Wasserstein said: "We approach with trepidation because we're not expert in those now."

As for those who might still posit the paperless office, Mr. Wasserstein is unfazed. While "erosion of paper," as he puts it, cannot be ruled out, it's a distant threat in his view. Computers hardly bode ill for his business.

"The greatest growth in the records-management industry has occurred over the past 10 to 15 years," he pointed out. "Our industry has mushroomed in direct correlation with PC acquisitions."

Housatonic Partners clearly sees things the same way. Eighteen months ago, the Boston venture fund purchased a 20 percent stake in the company for $500,000. Housatonic's investment could grow, Mr. Wasserstein remarks, but its role goes beyond financing. "These are smart guys, "Mr. Wasserstein said of the investment partners. "They have a history of nurturing or hooking up with small companies and growing them." Washington Depot resident Mike Jackson is one or the Housatonic partners, according to Mr. Wasserstein, and he serves on the board of ArchivesOne.

As a young entrepreneur-he is 32-Mr. Wasserstein has won honors from business organizations and recognition from the press.

In its May issue, Inc. magazine identified the company as one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in U.S. inner cities. A one page feature in the magazine described how he returned to the New Preston home of his parents, Martin and Linda Wasserstein, after graduating from New York University's Stern School of Business and raised $70,000 from family and friends to establish the business in 1991 in Oxford. A few months later he moved the company to a warehouse in Waterbury and hired local residents who proved "a willing and able labor force to tap into."

The company is also being recognized for innovation-the use of the hand-held scanner/printers-by the Connecticut Quality Improvement Award, a business group that promotes and honors organizations in the state. The award is to be presented Wednesday in a ceremony at the Southbury Hilton.

Mr. Wasserstein repeatedly points our that other people in the company deserve much credit because they "do amazing things every day that I never hear about."

On the sales and marketing side, there's a concerted effort to inject some levity into the art of wooing new customers, literally sweetening relations with current and potential clients. Every quarter, 50 key customers receive a jar of candy. More substantially, quarterly invoices are sent out with a customer feedback card on which to jot complaints, questions, praise.

"Too often, customer relationships degenerate to invoices and complaints, "Mr. Wasserstein observes. "Well, that's a bad relationship."

To underline the importance of good business relationships, on his business card, Mr. Wasserstein is identified as "President and Director of Customer Happiness."

"Some people make fun of it," he said with a shrug. "That's O.K. I think in the ritual of exchanging business cards it breaks the ice. It relaxes things a bit."