GlobalTel
News Release
SOUTH FLORIDA BUSINESS JOURNAL - August 9, 1997
Interactive Media dials big numbers with international telecom services
By FELICIA LEVINE BOCA RATON
When Boca businessman Steven Mark Williams wanted to start a
business, he went with what he considered to be a sure thing: international
communications.
"This industry is forever," said Williams, president and chief
executive officer of Interactive Media Technologies Inc., who started the company in June
1991.
"People can't get enough of it."
Seems people can't get enough of Interactive, either. In
just the past three years, company revenues have climbed from $75,000 in 1993 to $350,000
in 1995. That was enough to push the company into the No. 3 spot on South Florida
Business Journal's Fast Tech 40, a list of the fastest growing high technology
companies in South Florida.
So far in 1996, Interactive has grossed about $1 million.
Williams expects to close the year with about $2 million.
"It hasn't been luck, just a lot of hard work,"
said Williams, a former director of business development with Vodeo Jukebox Network in
Miami Beach. "We've got very good customer service."
Apparently, the staff of Tarrifica, an international
newsletter, agreed. The newspaper recently named Interactive one of the top four call-back
companies in the world, said Williams.
Williams said Interactive also stays competitive by
developing and using its own technologies. Among Interactive's inventions is a PC-based
call-processing technology for the world market. It also operates PC-based international
long distance and other telecommunications services, such as pre-paid calling cards,
international call-backs and voice mail.
Williams said Interactive
is now working on a deal for Barnett Bank to install an emergency alert system for all
employees in case of bomb scares. Other clients have included Shared Technology, formerly
Peoples Telephone Company, in Miami; and Boca Raton-based Daleen Technologies.
Another important factor to interactive's success: keeping
the staff happy. Interactive employs 10 people via one South Florida office and three
Brazilian offices, plus 50 reps in 30 countries.
"In international business it's hard to trust
people," he said. "if they can't rely on their paychecks, they find something
else to do."
The company's other principal officers include Eric Bacon,
executive vice president; James Artimez, who acts as vice president of GlobalTel, the
company's long-distance calling division; and board member Allen Sweeney, also president
of the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce.
