Norman firm helping businesses get the most out of their Web site

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 12, 2008 by David Page

After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1999, Tanner Johnson and Jeremy Green planned to start an e-commerce store selling percussion supplies.

Tanner, a native of Courtland, Kan., and Green, a graduate of Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City, met while both were in the percussion section of the OU marching band. They also were both members of a percussion ensemble at OU.

They had complementing skills for their planned drum supply e- commerce store. Johnson graduated with a music arts degree with a finance minor. Green received a computer engineering degree.

There was just one missing element - financing.

"Fresh out of college, we had trouble getting funding to buy inventory," Johnson said.

So Green and Johnson adjusted their plans, and instead of starting the percussion supply e-commerce store they established webEprint, a creative agency and Web application developer.

"Our initial focus was helping get e-commerce sites up and running," Johnson said.

The Norman-based company mostly provided online and offline advertising services for local customers until last fall when webEprint starting working with CareerBuilder.com. Now the small Norman-based company has provided services for national corporate customers including Sprint, AT&T, Wal-Mart and Dell Inc.

"I had done some work for a lady in Kansas City and she was trying to get a project done quickly," Johnson said. "So she called us."

The lady was Betty Croker, a CareerBuilder.com sales representative, and the project was an e-mail campaign for Sprint.

Croker said webEprint's materials "worked like magic."

"We were also able to get the project turned around pretty quickly," Johnson said. "That is one thing we can do is turn a job around in a timely manner and do quality work."

Based on the performance on the first project, webEprint received additional work for other CareerBuilder.com clients. CareerBuilder.com is an online job site owned by Gannett Co., Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and Microsoft Corp.

From its offices in the eTec, a business incubator operated by the Norman Economic Development Coalition, webEprint provides materials including Web banners, e-mail campaigns and career fair advertisements to CareerBuilder.com sales representatives. The sales representatives then present the campaigns to national clients.

"There are great advertising opportunities online, and both large and small companies are beginning to take advantage of them," Johnson said.

The company has three full-time employees and one part-time employee. Other companies and individuals also provide services for webEprint on a contract basis, Johnson said.

"In addition to our work with CareerBuilder, we work with many local companies to develop an Internet strategy that creates a positive return for their business," he said.

"It's amazing how many businesses have Web sites that don't create a positive return for their organization," Johnson said. "We help companies take advantage of the opportunities currently available on the Internet."

The company also provides Web application development services.

"Instead of writing software programs and putting it in a box and selling it in stores, we put it out on a subscription basis and companies pay a monthly fee," he said. "We are writing a couple of new products we are going to market ourselves."

The company has been operating from the eTec incubator for almost three years.

"Hopefully we will grow out of the incubator some with some of the work with CareerBuilder.com and some of the other projects we have going," Johnson said. "The incubator has been great for us but the idea of an incubator is to get out of them."