Vendor Profile: 

Amtelco: Built On Innovation; Backed By Tradition

Amtelco was founded in 1976 to provide modern computer-based telemessaging equipment to the answering service industry.  But Amtelco's history begins much earlier than that.  Founder Bill Curtin's involvement with telecommunications began in the Air Force in the 1940s, where he was assigned to the communications program at Yale University.  Little did he know that this would give him his life's work.

Upon discharge, Bill set out to open his own telephone answering service in Madison, Wisconsin.  In December 1947, Bill and his wife, Eleanor, opened TAS of Madison.  They started with 13 accounts, mostly doctors.  In 1947, 13 accounts meant 13 phones on a desk, with no easy way to identify which phone was ringing.

In the early years, the Curtins each worked 12-hour shifts.  Eleanor worked the day shift, with a babysitter hired to care for their young daughter and son.  Bill worked the night shift, but he also worked many hours during the day, handling office tasks, while Eleanor answered phones for their customers.  As their business grew, they were eventually able to hire additional staff.

The city of Madison also continued to grow, forcing the city to open East side and West side telephone branches.  Virtually overnight, the Curtins faced losing over 40% of their customer base, as they simply could not afford the additional mileage charges to extend telephone lines from the central office to their business.

Being the creative type, Bill began to devise a practical solution that would decrease the number of lines needed between the answering service and the central office, and would also identify which customer's phone was ringing.  The result, with a little help from the University of Wisconsin engineers, was Telesignal, the first concentrator/identifier, invented in 1951.

Telesignal brought many pairs of customer telephone lines to the answering service, without having to extend each individual line, and provided identification to let the operators know which customer's line was ringing.  The first Telesignal was built from a dresser drawer and looked like a homemade radio.  It was the focus of a great deal of attention, and both supporters and skeptics traveled to see it in action.

In 1954, Bill Curtin received a United States patent for Telesignal.  A Canadian patent was awarded in 1956.  These were to become the first of more than 25 patents credited to Bill Curtin and Amtelco.

While trying to market his new equipment to other answering services, Bill ran up against various legal obstacles.  For two decades, he challenged the legality of AT&T's rule that required leasing expensive and unnecessary telephone line couplers as a condition for any customer to connect Amtelco equipment to telephone lines.  In order to prove that this equipment was not injurious to AT&T lines, extensive testing was conducted year after year by the Communication Certification Laboratory.

Amtelco is Founded: In November 1976, the Federal Communications Commission announced its decision to permit Amtelco equipment to hook into AT&T's telephone lines without further courtroom litigation - and without leasing line couplers.  With this decision, Amtelco was formed to provide TAS technology worldwide. 

Amtelco's first location was in a small building on Madison's southeast side.  They soon outgrew this location, growing from ten to eighty employees by 1982, and moved to another location.  When asked about the company's success in just five short years, Bill replied, "It's fantastic, and our growth is due to the quality teamwork of our engineering, manufacturing, and sales staff, our loyalty of customers and associates in the industry, the confidence of our financial backers, and the love of family.  If this sounds sentimental - it is.  They care, really care, for the people they do business with."  Still a growing and thriving business, Amtelco moved to its current location in 1985, just outside Madison in McFarland.

Amtelco Today: "Mr. C.," as he was affectionately known by his employees, viewed his fellow workers as his extended family, and frequently referred to them as his "Amtelco Ducks" - a tradition that started when ducks nested outside the front door of Amtelco in its early days, and became the unofficial company mascot.  To this day, ducks still reside in the pond in front of Amtelco.

The traditions started by Bill Curtin years ago live on today.  Now with over one hundred employees, the "Amtelco family" tradition continues.  Working together closely, and under the leadership of Chairwoman of the Board, Eleanor Curtin, Amtelco employees carry on Bill's tradition by designing, selling, shipping, and servicing innovative Amtelco systems and components.

Amtelco also carries on the tradition of maintaining a close relationship with the answering service industry and with their customers.  Many of the Curtin's seven children, and a number of their grandchildren, are involved in the telecommunications industry.  Some work at Amtelco and others are owners of answering services around the United States.  The National Amtelco Equipment Owners (NAEO) group works closely with Amtelco on the development of new products and features.  Amtelco serves three primary markets, with over three thousand customers worldwide.  The Amtelco Call Center Innovations group serves the TAS/call center industry, the 1Call Division of Amtelco offers call center systems to healthcare and higher education facilities, and the Amtelco XDS group provides computer telephony boards to developers.  Amtelco has systems and components installed in every U.S. state, plus in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, England, France, Germany, Guam, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Spain, Taiwan, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Amtelco continues to deliver customer-driven innovations by listening closely to the needs of these customers.

Amtelco's success can be attributed to a number of things.  For over twenty-five years, Amtelco has been "on call," developing reliable new systems and applications, backed by the company's dedication to customer support.  This dedication is evident in the average length of service by the Amtelco employees.  Thirty-seven percent of the more than one hundred employees have more than fifteen years of experience, and seventeen percent have more than twenty years of experience at Amtelco.  In nine of Amtelco's eleven departments, the average length of service is eleven or more years, and three departments have an average length of service of almost twenty years.

The Future: While no one can predict what tomorrow's new technology will be, constant research and development will continue, allowing Amtelco to offer award-winning solutions that keep modern call centers around the world on top of today's technology, increasing profitability for owners, reducing stress for agents, and helping them offer enhanced and more convenient services to their clients and callers.

A Brief Amtelco Timeline

1976: Amtelco is founded.

1977: The first Amtelco Video III systems are installed in Madison, Wisconsin; Oak Park, Illinois; Northbrook, Illinois; Dormont, Pennsylvania; Denver, Colorado; and St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

1978: The first Video III system with Information Retrieval is installed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Little Guy system, which offers automatic ring count, automatic answer/hold, and remote hold features for 100 secretarial lines, is introduced.  The first systems are located in Monticello, New York; New York City; and Concord, North Carolina.

1979: The first VCF, a Little Guy system modified to accept up to four DID trunks, is purchased by a customer in Omaha, Nebraska.

1980: The Leprechaun, a mini-concentrator/identifier for 15 secretarial lines that provides the agent with voice identification prior to call connect, is introduced.  Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania receives the first Leprechaun.  Amtelco receives a patent in 1982, and two more in 1985.

The Mitey-Mite, the first single trunk DID unit, which provides the ability to handle call forwarded calls through a 557B switchboard, is introduced.  Amtelco receives a patent in 1983.  Other Mitey-Mite products include the Mitey-Mite II (1981), the Multi-Mite (1985), the Video Mite (1987), and the Alpha Mite (1989).

1982: The MCF system is introduced.

1983: EVE, Amtelco's first paperless system, and the first messaging system to feature its own digital switch, is installed in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

1987: EVE adds the InfoExpress directory feature.

1988: PC-MX (Personal Computer Message Exchange) is introduced at the ATSI Convention in Orlando.  This new PC-based system included paperless messaging and built-in voice mail, eliminating the need for a separate voice mail system.  The first patent is awarded in 1990, and three additional patents are awarded in 1992, 1993, and 1994.

EVE 317, with the Amtelco digital switch, is introduced.  This is the first digital switch designed and manufactured by a TAS vendor.

Amtelco buys the assets of Candela.  Amtelco continues to provide support for Candela systems, produce Candela concentrators (which work with EVE, PC-MX, and other systems), and compact desktop printers.

1990: EVE adds 10,000-account capacity, order entry, enhanced alphanumeric paging, and a new EVE PC attendant station that gives operators access to other programs, such as word processing.

PC-MX grows to seven operator stations, twenty ports, and 2,000 accounts.  New PC-MX features include auto attendant, cascading autodial, a new Mitel interface, and remote diagnostics.

AVMS (Amtelco Voice Mail System), a stand-alone voice mail system based on PC-MX, is introduced.

1991: Bill Curtin is inducted into the ATSI National Hall of Fame at their convention in San Antonio, Texas.

1993: The Infinity system is introduced.  Infinity evolved from the EVE system, and combined the paperless messaging and integral voice processing features of PC-MX in an open architecture system.

1994: Amtelco receives patents for XDS boards in 1994, 1995, and 1996.

1996: Infinity receives "Product of the Year" Award from Call Center Magazine.

Amtelco XDS receives "Product of the Year" Award from Computer Telephony Magazine.

1997: Infinity adds new features, including One Number Follow-Me, Orbit Park, Touch Screen Registry, Automated On-Call Scheduling, Reader Board, and Perfect Answer.

1998: Infinity introduces Windows Operator, Billing Link, and Capture Link print capture software.

Infinity receives "Product of the Year" award from C@ll Center Solutions magazine.

Amtelco receives "Top 250 Telecommunications Company" award from Telecom Business magazine.

Amtelco XDS receives "Product of the Year" awards from Computer Telephony magazine and CTI (now called Communication Solutions) magazine.  Amtelco XDS also receives two "Best of Show" awards at the Spring and Fall CT Expo shows.

1999: Infinity receives "Product of the Year" award from C@ll Center CRM Solutions magazine.

Infinity Version 5 is introduced.  This new version allows Infinity systems to use a single chassis, or expand to as many as five chassis, with over one hundred operator workstations, one thousand telephony ports, and a hundred thousand accounts.

Amtelco opens new customer support center for support staff, installers, and trainers.

Amtelco receives "Top 500 Telecommunications Company" award from Telecom Business magazine.

Amtelco XDS receives "Product of the Year" award from Communications Solutions magazine.  

Amtelco XDS also receives two "Best of Show" awards from CTI and CT Expo shows.

2000: The eCreator enhanced messaging system is introduced.  Using a palette, eCreator allows users to quickly set up complex scripts - without programming.

eCreator receives "Best of Show" award for Communications Solutions Expo show.

Infinity introduces Software Version 5.1, with a host of new features, and adds Voice Logger, and Wireless Web/PDA applications.

Amtelco introduces NetLink Web-based seminars, allowing people to learn more about systems and features from the comfort of their office through an Internet connection and a conference call.

Amtelco XDS receives two "Best of Show" awards from CT Expo and Communications Solutions Expo.

2001: Amtelco XDS receives "Product of the Year" award from Communications Solutions magazine.

Amtelco XDS also receives "Best of Show" award from CT Expo.

Amtelco offers Hosted Services, which allow users to lease full-featured programs from Amtelco.  This reduces up-front costs, while giving users the chance to test-drive new applications.

2002: eCreator Software Version 2.0 introduced.

Infinity adds more features to 5.1

Amtelco can be reached at 800-356-9148.

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