The InterProse Corporation

Infobox company
company_name = The InterProse Corporation
company_CC-BY-SA
company_type = Private
foundation = 1996, incorporated 1997
location_city = Vancouver, Washington
location_country = USA
slogan = People - Knowledge - Technology
key_people = Matthew D. Hill, President/CEO
Scott L. McGrew, SVP & CFO
Casey F. Uhrig, SVP/CIO/CTO
industry = Accounts receivable Management
Software as a Service (SaaS)
debt collection software
Professional Services
IT Services
homepage = http://www.interprose.com

The InterProse Corporation, abbreviated InterProse, is a multinational computer software and technology corporation headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, USA. The company was originally founded as a data integration company but since 2000 has shifted most of its products to a SaaS [cite web | url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service| title=Software as a Service (SaaS)] implementation. InterProse provides software as a service, and consulting services in areas ranging from data conversions to electronic payment services [cite web | url=http://www.nacha.org| title=Electronic Payments] for accounts receivable and debt collection.

InterProse has been known through most of its recent history as designer of web-based applications utilizing open source technology to provide applications focused upon browser capability and not a specific operating system. Capitalizing on open source [cite web | url=http://www.opensource.org| title=Open Source Initiative] technology has also carries the benefit of low cost product implementation. InterProse holds several trademarks and is currently seeking a patent for its ARIA virtual agent [cite web | url=http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci900060,00.html| title=Virtual Agent] technology. This technology merges human and machine elements into an intelligent pseudo-agent. Though a small closely held company, InterProse has grown consistently since its inception in 1996, tripling its employee base and earnings.

History

In the late 1990s, InterProse became the dominant vendor in low cost desktop PC-based data conversion software. This became a catalyst for many small companies to enable them to compete with must larger companies because the cost barriers for data interface had been erased. The resultant influx of new business opportunities for InterProse's clients created a need for more sophisticated and complex interface work. This drove the expansion of InterProses's Professional Services group.

In 1999 InterProse decided to merge with the then Mt. Hood Media, a company that specialized in website development and web-based applications, to expand its offering into the newly emerging eCommerce [cite web | url=http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ecommerce.htm| title=E-Commerce] space. By 2001 InterProse had developed version 1.0 of WebAR a web-based SaaS application to provide client access to companies assigning accounts to collection agencies for the purpose of account tracking and performance audits.

In 2003 InterProse released version 2.0 of WebAR with addition support for the processing of electronic payments, A/R management, and debt collection [cite web | url=http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm| title=Fair Debt Collection] .

In 2007 InterProse released its virtual agent product, now known as ARIA, which combined a non threatening avatar and advanced expert system decisioning engine to allow a customer/patient/subscriber/debtor to manage their accounts without the necessity of speaking to a human thus providing benefit to both creditor and customer (see whitepaper) [cite web | url=http://www.interprose.com/White_Papers/Virtual%20Agent%20White%20Paper.pdf|title=Overcoming Human Resource Limitations:Appropriate Use of Virtual Agents in Accounts Receivable and Collections ] .

Current Products

=ARIA Virtual Agent [cite web | url=http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS61443+17-Jul-2008+BW20080717 | title=ARIA Virtual Agent ] =

Aria [cite web | url=http://interprose.com/products/webar/virtual|title=ARIA Virtual Agent Product Spec Sheet ] features

InterProse's patent pending Virtual Agent [cite web | url=http://www.insidearm.com/go/arm-news/online-payment-and-debt-collection-made-easier-with-new-web-based-invention | title=InterProse's patent pending Virtual Agent ] avatar, a friendly face for a sometimes difficult situation. The avatar can be configured by gender, race, attire, and language to provide a pleasant and professional experience. The heart of Aria is a powerful and infinitely configurable decisioning engine or expert system [cite web | url=http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AITopics/ExpertSystems|title=Expert Systems - Artificial Intelligence] to guide the customer/debtor though a carefully tailored path to achieve the best and most profitable result.

WebAR

WebAR [cite web | url=http://interprose.com/products/webar|title=WebAR a multi-function accounts receivable management platform and collection system ] is a SaaS web portal developed by InterProse debt collection professionals. It provides tools create and manage portfolios minimizing the amount of human contact with accounts. Automated jobs to load accounts send letters, work strategies and tools enabling the debtor to self resolve their account via Aria.

PanTerra

PanTerra is the web based CRM platform that is built on the WebAR platform. Create CRM applications to manage accounts, subscribers, tenants, or associations with PanTerra.Rapid application development tools - Create customer applications without programming, an excellent tools for limited resources
SaaS environment eliminates the needs for software or servers to buy or maintainIntegrated functionality does much of the heavy lifting. Some of the components are:
*Worklist for managing activity scheduling
*ACH & Credit Card processing – PCI Compliant
*Ad hoc report designer
*Batch job schedule launcher
*Form Designer
*Virtual Agent for customer interface
*Accounting system
*Mobile access
*Local and outsourced letter printing

InterProse Professional Services

Under some circumstances, customers request assistance in developing a process unique to their specific application of Cartographer® or WebAR®. In such cases, InterProse engineers are available to provide customized programming services. Software engineers are proficient in various programming languages, i.e. Visual Basic, Java [cite web | url=http://java.com/en/download/whatis_java.jsp|title=What is Java? ] , SQL [cite web | url=http://sql.org|title=What is SQL? - Pronounced 'See-quil' ] , HTML, Perl [cite web | url=http://www.perl.org/|title=What is Perl? ] , XML [cite web | url=http://www.xml.org/|title=What is XML? ] , PICK OS, and UNIX [cite web | url=http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix.html|title=What is UNIX ®? ] .

Corporate culture of InterProse

InterProse was founded on two immutable principles. First, a genuine desire to provide service and an understanding of the customer’s business processes create an unmatched value. Second, InterProse employees are empowered to manage their workload based on their own intelligence and discretion and accepting personal responsibility to customer satisfaction and corporate morale. [cite web | url=http://interprose.com/about.html#commitment|title=InterProse Corporate Commitment ]

Open source

InterProse has fully embraced the Open Source Initiative, and began developing applications on Linux in 2001. InterProse has created a commercial grade application with only the tools available in the open source community namely: CentOS [cite web | url=http://apache.org/|title=Apache Software Foundation ] , PostgreSQL [cite web | url=http://centos.org/|title=The Community ENTerprise Operating System ] , Apache [cite web | url=http://apache.org/|title=Apache Software Foundation ] , Tomcat [cite web | url=http://tomcat.apache.org/|title=Apache Tomcat ] , Java Servlets, and Java.

Board of directors

Current members of the board of directors of InterProse are:
*Matthew D. Hill - President/CEO, Sales and Marketing
*Scott L. McGrew - Executive Vice President/CFO, Professional Services
*Casey F. Uhrig - Executive Vice President/CIO/CTO, Technology Solutions
*Kyle J. Nelson - Senior Customer Support Director
*Greg W. Johnson - Senior Software Development Director

References and footnotes

External links

* [http://www.interprose.com/ InterProse official website]
* [http://www.insidearm.com/go/arm-news/online-payment-and-debt-collection-made-easier-with-new-web-based-invention Inside ARM InterProse Press Release]
* [http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS61443+17-Jul-2008+BW20080717 Reuters InterProse Press Release]