The bottom line, as presented by Thomas M. Nies, is quite impressive.The president and CEO of Cincinnati-based Cincom Systems, Inc. is authoring an exceptional story in the software industry that speaks for itself.It features growth between 500 percent and 600 percent in areas such as hosting services and the outsourcing of call centers.

Kathleen Kelly, president/CEO of privately held TeleDirect International, Inc., has much to celebrate this year with a 35 to 40 percent increase over last year in total revenue. Helping to drive the growth is a boost in transaction size due to additional solutions the company is delivering.

FrontRange Solutions' growth rate over a sustained period of time clearly speaks for itself. "Frontrange has grown every single quarter for the last seven quarters [in terms of] revenue and profits," CEO Michael McCloskey said. "It's by far the most exciting time in the company's history.

"My guess is we will grow in the 40 to 50 percent range this year over last year. We have a lot of new products coming to the market [and] we have a very sustainable product line."

Davacord president/CEO Jon McNaught recently told the story of his company's start.The voice and data logging firm incorporated in 2001 and went to market with a voice logging system.

Quite a turnaround story is being authored at Castel.

"Our projections for 2006 over 2005 are for a little better than 100 percent growth, and for 2005 over 2004 not quite that, but close to it," said president/CEO Nick Kimball, who took on the CEO role in April after becoming the firm's COO in November 2003. "I'd love to see 150 percent next year over this year or more.

Opus Group CEO Michael P. Callaghan's proportional guarantee says much about what his company offers its customers.

"To the extent that, if we only deliver 70 percent of the solution, or 70 percent of the savings, we only charge you 70 percent of the fee," he said. "We've never invoked that, I'm happy to say. If we don't deliver, you don't pay."

Don't let the lowest person in your call center make or break your customer relationship. As someone who started working in the industry more than 25 years ago, Bill Hunt has plenty of ideas regarding its future. Hunt's look to the future includes more than just his thoughts regarding VoIP. He believes there will be a continuing recognition that the call center is not simply an expense, but a manifestation of a company's brand.

VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik can cite two facts that speak to the success of his company. Just about every one of its customers is on a subscription plan. And during each of the past three years, since the first year the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based firm generated revenue, the total amount of revenue has doubled or more.