New Software Aspires to Be Access to Success : Computers: Company’s system is touted as more efficient than modems in tying in to databases.

When Jim Dunn and his friends decided to launch their own software company two years ago, they wanted to do more than just build a better mousetrap.

According to Dunn, it seemed that many competitors were obsessed with building new and improved modems, the devices that link phone systems to computer networks or PCs to databases for the purpose of transmitting data. Few showed interest in filling what Dunn saw as a more critical need: software to link one computer system or network with another.

Dunn and fellow co-founders of Primary Access Corp., a San Diego-based manufacturer of network-access systems, believed they could attract customers if they could develop a product that would do away with racks of modems.

Dunn says Primary Access has now delivered on that promise to make the network manager’s life simpler. In essence, a single Primary Access system does the work of 24 modems, and more important, can be made to send information faster by revising the software, reducing the expense of replacing modem hardware that has become obsolete.

Last month, the 2-year-old company introduced Primary Access, a software-based system that consolidates the functions of devices such as modems and channel banks and connects private and public networks.

Founded in June 1988, Primary Access employs a staff of 38 workers and leases a 12,000-square-foot plant in San Diego for administration, marketing, engineering and production.

As companies, large and small, increasingly use different types of networks to exchange or obtain information, industry experts say the annual $1-billion market for network-access products will increase.

Because Primary Access is the first company to offer such a software-based, network-access system, industry experts say the company must first wean potential customers away from modems and other traditional devices before they can achieve success.

“This is a whole new category, a new type of product,” said Bud Koch, managing partner of Gransden Group, a Cupertino-based high technology marketing consulting group. “They’ll have to build a market, and that’s a challenge for anyone who comes up with a new product. But I think they’ve got a really neat idea.”

Jeff Schwartz, an editor with with Communications Week, a communications industry publication based in Manhasset, N.Y., said the simplicity of Primary Access should be a key selling point.

“Primary Access combines the functions of several components, such as modems and channel banks, into a single system,” Schwartz said. “The basic advantage is, with one component you have less things to worry about. It’s a unique product.”

With fewer components to monitor, Primary Access systems, which start at $31,000, are easier and cheaper to maintain, said Vernon Yates, the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Moreover, Primary Access helps corporate network managers overcome one of their most troublesome problems: how to buy a network-access product that doesn’t become obsolete soon after purchase.

Unlike individual hardware components that eventually must be replaced with a more expensive model, Yates says, a Primary Access system can meet new technological demands by simply upgrading its software.

“Take a PC (personal computer), for example,” Yates said. “When it was first introduced, people used it as a word processor. Then people started adding functions such as spreadsheets, etc. But, when they did that, they didn’t have to buy new hardware, they just had to get new software. In a sense, that’s the same way our product works.”

That ability to cheaply and efficiently upgrade the network-access system spurred Columbus, Ohio-based CompuServe, the world’s largest information service provider for personal computer users, to purchase a Primary Access system. CompuServe offers more than 1,500 database products for 575,000 personal computer users. The company also provides 2,000 corporate customers with database products.

Typically, clients access CompuServe’s data communication network by dialing a local number that then gets routed via modem to CompuServe’s mainframe computer in Columbus, said David Kishler, a company spokesman.

“As you can imagine, we have lots of modems to process our customers’ calls,” Kishler said. “That’s how we accept and route calls and then deliver the information properly. The way people access our network is the backbone of our business. It’s important that we have the latest technology.

“One of the main reasons we’re trying the system is for the savings we would get at upgrading time,” Kishler said. “When a modem becomes obsolete, we wouldn’t have to replace it with a faster model. Because Primary Access is software-based, all we have to do is upgrade it from a personal computer. We’ll also save installation costs because we wouldn’t physically have to send someone out to replace the old modems.

Raul Matamoros, assistant director of telecommunications at The Travelers Corp., an insurance, financial services, managed health care and investment corporation based in Hartford, Conn., said his company expects to close a deal with Primary Access soon.

“We’ve been looking for a product like this for three years but no one made one,” said Matamoros who needs to upgrade the company’s network-access system and was searching for an alternative to modems.

“When you have a large number of people dialing into our data center--in our case, lots of agents who need to get information about insurance policies--the conventional way was very cumbersome,” Matamoros said. “We would have 96 modems with 96 cables going into four PADs (packet assemblers-disassemblers which consolidate the modem cables) that had four cables that went into the mainframe.

“But, by installing one Primary Access box, it can do the work of 24 modems and eliminate the need for the PADs,” Matamoros said.

“Purchasing a Primary Access system will be cheaper than replacing our modems,” he added. “We’ll save even more money the next time we have to upgrade. With a software upgradeable system we can upgrade to a new speed without having to buy hardware. And, of course, the faster you can complete a call, you’ll reduce your connect time and reduce your costs.”

The Primary Access product is bound to draw the attention of large users of data communication such as insurance and telephone companies, said Koch, the marketing consultant. The increased use of networks and new ways of using them will lead to more sales for Primary Access as well, he said.

“Franchise stores that have to report sales information back to corporate headquarters could take advantage of a system like this,” Koch said.

“And, although it’s been slow to take, telecommuting (working at home by linking employees to the office via computer networks) is going to become a way of the future,” Koch said. “More companies are having their staff do research at home. As they increase the use of their computer networks they’ll have to consider installing a system like Primary Access.

Primary Access is the brainchild of six former engineers who worked at Linkabit, a telecommunications company that was acquired by M/A-COM, a telecommunications conglomerate based in Burlington, Mass. in 1980.

“The excitement of working at a small company like Linkabit disappeared when it was acquired and then spitted out as several entities,” said Jim Dunn, Primary Access’ vice president of engineering.

Dunn said the acquisition of Linkabit spurred Primary Access founders--Terrie Boley, Debra Carmody, Joe Markee, John Rosenlof, Sam Takahashi--to pursue their dream of “starting our own company.”

Primary Access has raised $6.3 million through two rounds of financing. In June 1988, the company raised $1.5 million in venture capital from Sutter Hill Ventures, Palo Alto-based investment firm. In a second round of financing in November 1989, Primary Access raised $4.5 million from Sutter Hill; Merrill, Tickard, Anderson & Eyre and the Mayfield Group, all of Palo Alto.