Parature has announced today the formation of its 2007-08 Advisory Board, described by company officials as "executives who will contribute to the company's continuous growth and success by sharing their invaluable and diverse industry knowledge," as well as their vision of the on-demand software industry.

 

The board includes Michael Chasen, CEO and President of Blackboard, a vendor of e-Education enterprise software applications and services; Joe Payne, CEO of Eloqua; Randy Wootton, General Manager, Client Service Operations at Microsoft (News - Alert) Digital Advertising Solutions; Tien Wong, CEO and Founder of Opus8, a private investment firm specializing in middle market buyouts, private equity and venture capital investment and Mark Angel, SVP Corporate Strategy of Kana, provider of customer service products.

 

Duke Chung, Parature CEO and President, called the group "innovators within their individual industries," and said he felt "fortunate to have professionals with such extensive experience join our advisory board."

 

Parature is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) vendor selling a suite of modules integrated into one product for support.

 

In August Parature was ranked No. 670 on Inc.'s 5,000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. The Inc. 5,000, an extension of Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 500 list, catches many businesses that are too big to grow at the pace required to make the Inc. 500, as well as a host of smaller firms.

 

The 2007 Inc. 5,000, as revealed online at www.inc.com reported median revenue of $9.4 million and median three-year growth of 140 percent. Complete information on this year’s Inc. 5,000, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

 

The list features a profile for each company, almost all of them written as a result of Inc. interviews with management. In addition, the list is searchable according to numerous criteria, including industry, city, state, region, and year founded.

 

Leading the list of the fastest-growing companies in the nation is the Midwest region with 1,046 of the fastest-growing companies, followed by the West with 884 companies. The Southeast comes in a close third, with 872 companies, followed by the Northeast with 782 companies, and the Mid-Atlantic region with 606 companies.

 

The largest business category is Construction, with 561 of the fastest-growing companies in this category, followed by Manufacturing with 515 companies, IT services in third with 466 companies, Business Services with 377 companies and Advertising & Marketing with 349 companies round out the top five industries ranked on the 2007 Inc. 5,000.