Ed Marflak, president & CEO of Schoolwires, Inc.

Ed Marflak is president and CEO of Schoolwires, a State College-based company providing strategic online communication, Web site  and community management and productivity solutions for school districts across the United States. The company has relationships with more than 1,000 districts,  5,000 schools and an estimated five million users. Founded in 2000, the company has 80 employees and logged. $7 million in revenue in 2008.

PBC: Tell me about the early days of the company. How and when did you come up with the idea of Schoolwires, and how did you begin to develop it?

EM: After graduating in business from a state university, I worked at a technology practice that developed forward-looking online solutions for Fortune 500 companies, national associations and educational organizations. I also had firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing school districts and teachers: my parents were both professional educators. So I began considering how schools could leverage online solutions to improve education. I also knew that schools have much more modest IT budgets and staffing levels as compared to the private sector, so any solution would need to be easy to use and easy to manage, as well as affordable.

PBC: I’d also love to hear about your experiences with the CBICC’s Incubator program and how it helped you, and when and how things first began to really take off for Schoolwires.

EM: The [Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County]’s Incubator program provided access to mentors and support services that contributed to Schoolwires momentum and success. That success became palpable when Schoolwires achieved nearly 1,200 percent three-year revenue growth between 2003 and 2006. During that time,we more than doubled sales each year for four years in a row. And in September of 2007, Schoolwires was recognized in Inc. Magazine’s 5,000 List as the 174th fastest-growing private company in the nation and the third fastest growing within the education industry. In addition, Schoolwires is recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the top ten fastest-growing private education companies across the nation for three consecutive years.

PBC: Why locate in State College? What is the draw of the area, both from a professional and perhaps a personal standpoint?

EM: Quality of life and quality of people.

Over the past two decades, this region has been variously ranked as one of the least stressful, smartest, and safest small metro areas in America. It’s simply a great place to live and work. The area is also brimming with individuals who are passionate about the importance of education.

As a result, the region has real appeal and can attract great talent.  Frankly, nothing has contributed to our success more than the quality and commitment of our people. Our people have helped to make Schoolwires the industry leader.

PBC: The company has experienced absolutely phenomenal growth since it was founded. How have you managed to maintain that growth and how have you managed to control it?

EM: We’ve maintained our phenomenal growth in part due to our reputation for outstanding support and superior product quality.   When we have conducted client surveys, nearly 100 percent of the respondents indicated that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with our service, even during our periods of rapid growth. And Schoolwires continues to meet or exceed industry standards for service uptime (99.9 percent uptime) for the solutions that we host. As a result, Schoolwires is always on the short list when a district is considering purchasing a website/community management solution.

PBC: How big do you see the company getting? Where do you see growth opportunities?

EM: We firmly believe the Internet is one of the next great equalizers of education and we are leveraging it to help students and schools achieve more. In the process, we are blessed and gratified to be building one of America’s fastest-growing and most respected education technology companies. What we do is truly transformative and can help contribute to an important national priority: improving public education.

Our aim is no less than to lead the market by connecting more schools and families than any other service. We take great pride in fulfilling this objective. My personal goal is that someday, when most Americans hear “State College” they will think “home of Schoolwires” even before they think of that great university that shares the same hometown.

PBC: How important was Kennet Partners’ $12 million investment last January? What has it allowed you to accomplish?

EM: It was significant on two fronts. First, the fact that we could secure this amount of funding – and in this poor economic climate – was further affirmation of the growth potential that we see and that our solutions are meeting a strategic need in the market. Equally important, it gave us added resources to intensify our growth activities and to accelerate delivery of new products to meet the evolving needs of the our market.

PBC: With budget constraints affecting many school districts across the nation, are you having trouble finding new customers? Why or why not?

EM: Actually, we are adding more customers now than ever before. School districts today are facing many new challenges including: demands of accountability, shifting demographics, issues of student safety, improved student success and budget constraints. To help meet these challenges, now more than ever they must do more with less, and they must enfranchise parents as part of the educational process, bringing together all community constituents from the conference room to the classroom to the living room. We’re enjoying fast growth in an economy where, frankly, many businesses are contracting, because our solutions meet these essential needs while helping our customers to achieve more with less.rengthening…mes can come in many forms. For example…me hometown.milies then any other service.

PBC: Are you planning on rolling out any new products in the near future?

EM: We are on track to deliver the next generation of our platform, Centricity² this summer. With a focus on the user experience, and a commitment to core improvements that deliver even greater control over how districts connect and engage all members of their community, Centricity² takes website and community management to the next level with a unifying technology platform designed to activate district communities — where all members of the district’s community can be more deeply connected in a safe and controlled environment; where more individualized services can be delivered to all district constituents and where levels of constituent engagement are measureable in order to drive even deeper adoption. These new features will truly transform community engagement and collaborative learning for our 21^st century teachers and learners.

PBC: Schoolwires is on the cutting edge of bringing technology to a field where it can do a lot of good – education. What is the most groundbreaking or interesting outcome that you’ve seen from the use of your products?
EM: Every school district has unique needs and their success is defined by their needs and objectives. However, there are some common positive outcomes that we see at most of our customer districts. These include strengthened and more widespread communications that result in greater community engagement; widespread technology adoption that results in more engaged students and enhanced teaching and learning; lower IT costs and complexity; and improved safety and crisis readiness.