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 Enmark marking 25th birthday with growth

Ann Arbor-based Enmark Systems Inc. is celebrating its 25th year in business with solid growth -- and a couple of openings for software developers.

The company, which develops accounting and management software for metal service centers, expects to end the year with revenue of about $5 million and now stands at 30 employees -- roughly double the level in 2000.

Enmark president John Bilek said the company was founded by his brother, Mark, in 1983. The company was Mark Bilek's second software firm -- the first developed accounting software for all types of industries and was sold to Burroughs Corp. Enmark took a different tack, developing software specifically tailored to the steel industry.

John Bilek said the company has enjoyed annual growth of between 10 and 15 percent since the slowdown shortly after the year 2000 switchover. It now has about 270 accounts in the United States and Canada.

Part of the reason for the company's growth is good times for the steel industry, as the value of scrap steel rocketed from $100 a ton to $400 virtually overnight, primarily due to new demand from China and India. So the steel industry has money for better software.

Enmark also spent the last six years rewriting its software on a Microsoft Visual Basic, SQL Server and .Net architecture. That led Enmark to establish a full-time development team that it's now seeking to add to.

Bilek said Enmark has looked at offering its software in a hosted version, under the "software-as-a-service" model, but the steel industry prefers the security of keeping its own data in-house.

More at www.enmark.com.

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