CHARLESTON, June 17, 1997

HGO Technology, Inc. founders James O’Malley and Elizabeth Gates have been named "West Virginia 1997 Technology Entrepreneur of the Year" in recognition of outstanding business development success.

West Virginia area’s Entrepreneur Of The Year is one of 46 regional programs, sponsored by Ernst & Young, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute, The Nasdaq
Stock Market and USA Today, and locally by Bell Atlantic-West Virginia, Inc. and One Valley Bancorp, Inc.

All of the award recipients will be inducted into the Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute, which was created to celebrate and promote entrepreneurship, at the
Institute’s International Conference, which will be held in Palm Springs, Florida in November.

In the fall, the national Entrepreneur Of The Year in each category will be chosen from among the regional award recipients by an independent, blue ribbon national judging panel.

"This is a milestone and an honor for all HGO employees around the state and region. It is a tribute to their dedication to a corporate-wide team approach, applying their technology capabilities and individual expertise. It’s testament to a decade-old challenge of seeding and growing a technology company in West Virginia," O’Malley, HGO president, said.

Gates said, "The honor is gratifying and a compliment to the mix of clients HGO has been serving. Diverse client challenges and their trust in HGO solutions has been the key to growth."

The company’s strong working relationships with firms like the Centers for Disease Control, NGK Spark Plug Mfg. (U.S.A.), Inc., Bayer Corp., WesBanco Corp., and their employees’ commitment to quality are sighted as reasons for HGO’s success.

WV Gov. Cecil Underwood, a long time supporter of HGO, called the firm an outstanding example of West Virginia ingenuity and a leader in the "Effort of
Technological Growth" in the state.

HGO’s capabilities include network engineering, software development, computerization consulting, biostatistics, and multimedia systems among others. The
firm also operates HGO.Net, a full service Internet provider, providing access, secure web site development and database transaction processing for home and business users.

James O’Malley and Elizabeth Gates founded HGO Technology in Wheeling in 1986.

HGO has evolved through what the owners call "tech-sweat equity."

An initial investment of $25,000 and a $20,000 loan from the state capitalized the company’s launch.

Initially, the founders saw only lean months. They have a philosophy that says they won’t deliver a computer system without first performing a requirements analysis.

This is unusual and it took some time to educate potential customers about why it is important. However, eventually their strategy of selling solutions, not products, began to pay off. HGO established relationships with a growing list of local businesses and
manufacturers.

Before starting HGO, O’Malley was controller for Reichart Furniture of Wheeling. While he was there, he took charge of the company’s computer operations. He computerized the firm’s manual accounting, managed a conversion to a new hardware and software system and moved the computer operations from Ohio to West Virginia with less than a day of down time.

Later, O’Malley served as financial manager of a troubled business machines retailer and successfully restored the company’s management and finances. Eventually, O’Malley began a private computerization consultancy, which soon grew through referrals.

Gates, a former Belmont Technical College instructor, began her private sector career as a system analyst for Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel, troubleshooting complex internal corporate computing systems and advising on external computing services.

Gates used an application approach to problem solving. Her first entrepreneurial experience was as an independent consultant, with referral clients and major
corporate accounts.

O’Malley and Gates periodically met because they were both serving many of the same clients. Then in 1986, they formed HGO Technology. Their strategy was to emphasize and initial requirements analysis for clients in networking, software development, computerization consulting and business process re-engineering. Only after the requirements were published would HGO recommend a solution.

After two years, HGO expanded into federal government contracting. Compared with its commercial business, federal contracting requires much larger up-front investments in contract preparation and travel, but provides much longer-term work, if awarded.

In 1988, HGO won a Boeing Aerospace subcontract on the NASA Space Station, the first of a chain bidding successes. Partnerships with Science Applications International for the U.S. Coast Guard and Mitchell Systems for the U.S. Treasury followed.

In 1990, HGO won a prime contract with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC); in 1995, won two new CDC five-year support subcontracts in Morgantown and
Cincinnati and in late 1996, won the rebid of their five-year prime CDC contract in Morgantown and a new five-year prime CDC contract in Cincinnati. This gives the firm over $17 million in federal government contracted work over the next five years.

The firm has implemented programs such as CWIP, an interactive multimedia wellness database system for CDC/Wheeling Hospital.

At CDC, programs have covered touchscreen questionnaire systems, certification of respirators, artificial intelligence coding systems, real time data collection systems and engineering the integration of laboratory equipment with computers.

HGO has become expert in supporting research and the implementation of improvements to the safety and health of the nation’s workforce.

In late 1994, HGO started an ongoing computerization support relationship with NGK Spark Plug Mfg. (U.S.A.), Inc. at their new plant in Pocatalico. Since then, HGO has implemented a fiber optic plant network for the company along with EDI paperless
communication with Ford and Chrysler and an integrated accounting/inventory control system.

HGO is currently implementing bar-coding, shop floor control and inventory management for NGK’s Pocatalico, Detroit and Chicago facilities.

In 1995, HGO began providing mentoring services to Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corp. in the development of object oriented programming and client/server database design techniques.

In May 1996, the firm secured a $100,000 loan to purchase advanced technology equipment in order to begin a state-of-the-art Internet Service Provider (ISP)
division, known as HGO.Net.

So far, HGO.Net has contracted over 80 businesses and 300 personal accounts and has done major Web site developments for conducting secure business transactions
on the Internet. HGO has also converted CDC alerts and other documents to HTML code for posting on the World Wide Web.

Since its beginning, the firm has grown from 4 to 80 people, operating from Wheeling, Morgantown, Charleston and Cincinnati. Sales are projected to exceed $4 million in 1997.

One of the innovations in place at HGO is that the company seeks customer satisfaction through employee empowerment. HGO employees are involved in regular
project status and quality meetings. They participate in client prospecting and in interviewing and assessing new staff candidates.

The firm offers tuition assistance for employees, a 401(k) plan, profit sharing and performance bonuses. Life and medical insurance and dental and vision coverage is
provided at a normal cost.

Another innovation is HGO promotes technology transfer among its clients. Government research and development and commercial applications provide a rich storehouse of technological "best practices" that can be widely disseminated.

HGO’s future is rooted in the firm’s business plan, which emphasizes an expanded "teaming" approach as the company’s next phase of growth.

West Virginia technology firms like HGO have an opportunity to become suppliers to major national computerization contractors. Teaming make HGO and its allies competitive on contracts currently beyond the reach of state firms.