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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TSIS: WHAT IS GOING ON? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jmt who wrote (3088)	7/14/1998 7:55:00 AM
From: John S. Baker	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6931

Barriers to entry -- my take on the subject: The barriers to entry for potential competitors are less than in a situation where a company holds a patent or an exclusive franchise or something similar. The equipment is readily available -- PC's, networking stuff, T-1 lines. There is commercially-available software (though not necessarily shrink-wrapped, for sure) which will handle pieces of what TSIS does. WinFAX, for instance, can convert a magnetic memory item into a transmittable FAX. And there are programs to store audio content in a magnetic form. Soundblaster will do this. And there are systems which can be programmed to accept the special sounds uttered by a touch tone phone and to convert those into input instructions understandable by a computer. A 7-year-old with a tape recorder could do this. TSIS has integrated all this capability together into a smoothly-operating ("seamless") business offering -- the InvestorReach service. TSIS has perhaps a one- to two-year head start on anyone else who might choose to begin. And TSIS has successfully convinced a number of big, savvy firms that TSIS's approach is better ... or cheaper? ... than trying to do it themselves. And TSIS has the customer-service savvy to keep those clients, once signed. (This last point probably should not be overlooked. Don Cameron is fond of mentioning that they are customer-driven, and can turn out a solution in considerably less time than could a larger, more-ponderous company. It is useful to look at any potential competition with this in mind. I suggest that most companies with pockets deep enough to "throw money at a solution" are likely to be ponderous enough that an agile, less-well-funded company like TSIS will be able to stay out of reach.) But perhaps more importantly, TSIS has gained experience in designing (and programing) IVR capabilities to do a host of other things. I believe that the GTE deal, the details of which have not been described publicly, represents the first payoff of that capability. And, as several have posted here recently, there are a number of other possible IVR applications which might be explored immediately, or as time and finance permit. Is this hi-tech? In the sense of finding a cure for cancer, probably not. In the sense of creating a new way to build chips so that they generate no heat and operate 50x as fast, probably not. Is this a valid business approach? I think so. After all, one could apply some very simplistic analogies to the whole concept of computer networking by describing them as... ..."nothing but a bunch of computer messages running around, each containing instructions as to where it is supposed to go, with everything else (bridges, routers, switchers, etc.) being merely dumb hardware" ...but I think such an approach would clearly not factor in the value of all the advances which have occurred in networking over the past 10-15 years. So is TSIS a service company? Or an engineering company? Or a value-added source? Or a whatever? At this point, I'm not sure, though I tend to think in terms of "service company with a unique capability." The barriers to entry, then, are (1) primacy, (2) established (and satisfied) customer base, (3) sunk (already-paid-for) development, and (4) attitude or corporate culture. I remain long a significant (for me) position. JSb.