Having success is a dream; repeating it can be a nightmare. Just ask the managers or coaches of winning World Series or Super Bowl teams or business entrepreneurs. It's always tougher the second time around... or so they say.

So when Dan Estes and Peggy Nordeen sought to re-establish Starmark, their highly successful Chicago-based marketing communications agency, in sunny South Florida, the odds were stacked against them. But what they did have going for them was experience, a clear vision, great business acumen and a superior infrastructure for monitoring projects, expenses, vendor relationships and other business-critical activities. In fact, Starmark/Chicago was a model for growth, earning a place on the Inc. 500 honor roll by making the coveted list of America?s 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies for five straight years.

Estes and Nordeen recognized that restarting Starmark would require a combination of great people, creativity and an even more efficiently running operation.

"In Chicago, we never had issues with executing our business plan. But back in the 80s, we were inundated by a wave of paper-based inefficiencies. Peggy [Nordeen, President of Starmark] and I filed that in the back of our minds when we re-established Starmark International in Fort Lauderdale," says CEO Dan Estes.

Working with Starmark partner/interactive guru Brett Circe and his team, Estes and Nordeen translated their paper office system into an integrated digital office. Thus, Starmark became the incubator and 'beta site,' for what today is called OmniPilot Agency.

"OmniPilot Agency is now part of the fabric of our company. Everyone relies on this highly automated program on a daily basis. What's more, we are currently running more efficiently and getting more done with 20% fewer employees than Starmark/Chicago had at this point in our growth," adds, Peggy Nordeen.

Even more remarkable is that 16 years later, Starmark is back on the Inc. 500 list, ranked #43 in growth among all private U.S. companies in 2003. And Starmark's principals make a definite correlation between Starmark's adoption of OmniPilot Agency and a five-year sales growth rate of a whopping 2,929%!

Today, there's plenty of talk about the relationship between business goals and information technology. OmniPilot Agency - now commercially available to all advertising agencies, design firms and in-house advertising departments - represents the fulfillment of this kind of thinking. It is designed to help creative agencies navigate towards greater productivity by helping them get organized, and communicate better both internally and with clients.

And nobody understands that better than Brett Circe.

"OmniPilot was created out of our client's need. Starmark was patient as we worked through their many requirements during two years of development. We wanted to make sure we had an integrated solution that everyone in the agency could tap into and, most important, feel comfortable using. We wanted to eliminate the paper crush without inhibiting creativity," says Circe.

Ultimately, OmniPilot Agency is designed to make sure that the right people have the right information at the right time. It not only tracks all active job data, it generates a myriad of management reports, maintains all-agency calendars, stores personnel information, tracks time, inventories agency hardware and software, issues purchase and insertion orders - and even issues personal reminders! It all translates to higher productivity and accountability - an absolute priority for Starmark's CEO Dan Estes.

"Accountability is one of the key pillars of Starmark's foundation. It has become an even more important issue in today's business climate. OmniPilot Agency is the lynchpin in providing accountability to our clients," observes Estes. "And Starmark's ability to take productivity to a new level is inextricably tied to OmniPilot Agency."

Today, the success of OmniPilot Agency goes beyond Starmark International. In fact, the second largest marketing communications agency in Florida, Orlando's YPB&R, was OmniPilot Agency's first commercial customer. Currently, agencies throughout the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico are taking advantage of this versatile solution. And as OmniPilot Software reaches out to more agencies, attaining the dream of maximum productivity - and accountability - will be realized throughout the advertising community.

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