Paper Cuts Lam Technologies Eliminates College Admissions Paperwork

Len Metheny didn’t want to leave a trail of White Out across his graduate school applications.

A definite challenge, when his five top choices for MBA programs had paper application forms.

The year was 1992. “And even then, computers were on everyone’s desk top,” Metheny said.

The experience was the genesis of LAM Technologies, a company that provides online applications for colleges and software programs for admissions offices.

About 250 colleges and universities are clients of the 8-year-old company, which has offices in Post Falls and Fairfax, Va.

“My idea, back at the time, was to make it easier for students,” said Metheny, the company’s 32-year-old president. However, “If you think it’s chaotic for students, you should see what happens in the admissions office. They process thousands of applications. That’s a lot of data entry.”

Metheny started the company in Fairfax, Va. A year and a half ago, he recruited Mike Kennedy, an old college buddy living in North Idaho, to open a sales and marketing office in Post Falls. The office operates out of the University of Idaho Research Park with five employees.

“It’s a good setup, because we have both coasts covered for time zones,” Kennedy said.

LAM Technologies generated about $1million in revenues last year, a figure Metheny expects to triple this year. The company’s goal is to dominate the field of college admissions in the U.S., the two partners said.

“One of our biggest competitors is the schools’ internal technology departments,” Kennedy said. But often, admissions offices like the idea of bringing in an expert, he said.

“These are admissions people who want to be out talking about their schools. They’re not software developers.”

LAM Technologies’ East Coast clients include Duke University Graduate School in Durham, N.C., and American Unversity in Washington D.C. In the Northwest, the company works with St. Martin’s College near Olympia.

The Internet has become a powerful recruiting tool for college admissions.

“Many students are now finding us through an e-mail address or through our Web site,” said Carleen Jackson, St. Martin’s director of enrollment management and marketing. The private Catholic college receives about 25 e-mails a day from prospective students, a figure that has doubled since last spring.

LAM Technologies’ software helps the college track where students are from and their interests, so it can send them personalized e-mail. Prospective applicants from Eastern Washington, for instance, might get an e-mail about an upcoming college reception in Spokane, Jackson said.

Duke University Graduate School worked with LAM Technologies to put its applications online in 1998. Fifty-one percent of the students applied online last year.

“More and more of our potential students have access to the Web,” said Donna Giles, associate dean for admissions. “You can hardly be a respectable institution and not have an electronic application,” The departments like online applications, because they’re easier to read, she added. “We don’t have to deal with handwriting or weird typewriter styles.”

In addition to online applications and e-mail, LAM Technologies also installs data bases that send information - such as test scores, gradepoint averages and financial need - from the admissions office to other departments.

Metheny and Kennedy are constantly dreaming and planning for the company’s next move. It may include working with colleges and universities in other countries, Kennedy said. LAM Technologies gets inquiries from colleges in Canada and Great Britain, which have similar university systems.

The company has even received an inquiry from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia - “though I don’t think we can help them at this point,” Kennedy said.

The partners have also considered future opportunities for online job applications.

However, “we want to build a strong business in one area first,” Kennedy said.