ACS Technologies has been a mainstay in Florence, South Carolina. In 2002, the South Carolina Small Business Association recognized ACS Technologies’ four owners—Hal Campbell, Billy Campbell, Tom Rogers, and Marvin Owen—as Small Business Persons of the Year for the state of South Carolina. This prestigious award has not come easily for them. Through its 27-year history, ACS Technologies has overcome intense challenges, financial hardships, and seen an enormous shift in the computer industry, which eventually help fostered its success. Over the years, they have stuck to their vision that churches and faith-based nonprofit organizations would one day be able to own a computer system and perform many of their daily functions with improved efficiency. Today, this vision is a reality.

The Inception
The original leaders of ACS Technologies have worked extremely hard throughout the years in order to reach their position as the nation’s leading producer of full-service administrative management software for churches and faith-based nonprofit organizations. The original concept to develop church management software was born from Harris Rogers who sold payroll processing services to local companies, including churches, and who saw the computer market emerging. With the help of several local investors, ACS Technologies was officially founded in 1978. This was hard going (aka “visionary”) in the early years. Developing programs for other markets—even selling computer desks—were strategies to keep the company alive. Investors were often called on to keep financing the company’s operating needs, with chairman Billy Campbell eventually contributing more than 40 times his original investment.

“From the beginning, I believed that ACS Technologies would eventually become successful. I loved the idea of helping churches and continued to invest despite the initial struggles,” said Billy Campbell, chairman of the board for ACS Technologies.

The Struggle
Business was slow the first several years due to lack of demand, and the company struggled. In 1979, Hal Campbell joined the company as a programmer. As the son of a minister, Campbell had a special interest in the church market that the company was targeting, and he was instrumental in developing what would become the company’s best-known and most successful product, ACS. Campbell, who would eventually become president of the company, found various ways to generate business. Using the Datapoint computer system, he developed software programs for insurance companies, mobile home manufacturers, restaurant supply stores, office supply stores and construction companies.

With the development of ACS, the company set out to convince churches that they could benefit from a computer system, something most churches were not ready for. By the end of 1979, almost two years after it was founded, ACS had one client: First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Shortly thereafter, Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin came on board. When a California church then also purchased ACS, ACS Technologies proclaimed that ACS was used in churches from coast to coast. “We worked so hard those first few years, putting so much time and effort into the operation and praying that it would fly. We knew that it was a worthy vision and felt a duty to see it to success,” said Hal Campbell, the president and CEO of ACS Technologies. “We did just about anything we had to in order to make sure we would survive.”

The Market
By 1983, ACS Technologies had approximately 80 clients, half using the Datapoint system, and the other half using the CP/M operating system. After sustaining the first six years, the company got a break with the release of the personal computer. The whole technological industry changed when the PC came and business started moving forward for the company.

By 1986, with a well-developed MS-DOS program, ACS sales began increasing and the company was making a profit, for the first time in its then eight-year history. In 1993, ACS had approximately 2,500 clients using its MS-DOS version. During this same time, the Baptist Sunday School Board decided to abandon the software business and invited a number of companies to present their programs. After careful evaluation, they chose ACS Technologies as a partner and in 1994, 1,200 clients were moved from the CIS program to the ACS product. This acquisition marked the beginning of significant growth for the company. ACS Technologies went from adding 30 customers a month to adding about 100 new clients each month. That pace of adding more than 1,000 new customers each year continues to this day.

“ACS Technologies has proved itself to be quite worthy of investment over the past 27 years. The beginning was quite rocky, but I find joy in believing in something and seeing it to success. I’m very proud of our accomplishments,” said Tom Rogers, one of the company’s original investors and current board member.

The Success
When the industry shifted to Windows based applications in the mid-1990’s, many companies couldn’t fund the technology innovations required or meet the customer service expectations. ACS Technologies could, and as a result continued making acquisitions. ACS Technologies now serves over 22,000 churches and related organizations through the ACS product line. The HeadMaster software line for school administration was introduced in 1999. More recently, WebACS, an internet-based application, and OurMinistry.org, an Internet community with website building tools, were introduced. The success of this company can be attributed to the far-reaching vision, hard work and perseverance of its owners, Billy Campbell, Tom Rogers, Hal Campbell and Marvin Owen.

It was tough going for this company and its owners had to make a lot of personal and financial sacrifices to keep the doors open. Although it was eight years before the company became profitable, the company is now financially sound and has a great income and profit trend. The future for ACS Technologies is exceptionally good. Since 1977, ACS Technologies has grown from several employees to almost 300 employees, sales agents and trainers, making them the largest high-technology employers in Florence, and one of the largest in the state of South Carolina.

One of the main reasons for the company’s success is its customer support philosophy. ACS Technologies is a people company, and it is the knowledgeable staff that customers commend the company for the most. The company has remained devoted to providing the best customer support staff in order to fulfill the company’s customer service commitment to clients.

“Our current IT director once spent three months traveling around to 100 unhappy clients in order to unearth networking problems in the early days of Windows 95,” noted Marvin Owen who began with the company as a programmer and is now General Manager.

The Strategy
ACS Technologies is working on a number of future plans in order to continue its success. The company recently launched Access ACS, developed on Microsoft’s .NET platform, a product that enables all ACS records to be viewed and accessed from the Web. The company is also working on integrating data and Web sites as one of the next strategic objectives.

Throughout the company’s history, Billy Campbell, Tom Rogers, Hal Campbell, and Marvin Owen have fostered a “can do” spirit with an emphasis on long-term profit growth through excellent products and exceptional customer service. Whether it’s an East Coast hurricane heading our way, or the telephone company accidentally cutting the 200+ telephone lines coming into the company, or the latest virus running rampant on computers worldwide, ACS Technologies rallies to do what it takes to meet the customer’s needs. It is this attitude that has fostered continual perseverance and led ACS Technologies to the success it experiences today.

Says Hal Campbell, “We are now on the threshold of another major growth and expansion period and will be at the forefront of the changes and improvements in technology.”