Moscom founder takes swing on Net

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The founder of Moscom Corp. is taking another swing at the tech industry.
This time, Albert Montevecchio has teed up his entrepreneurial aspirations along with his golfing avocation to create an Internet-based reservation service for the golf industry.
Montevecchio serves as president and CEO of Paragon System Innovations. Begun in February 1998, less than a year after his stormy exit from Moscom (now Veramark Technologies Inc.), Paragon operates teetimelinks.com, an Internet-based reservation service for the golf industry.
The company has 14 employees, and projects conducting an initial public offering in 2001. The privately held corporation is backed by shareholder investments and founder assets of more than $20 million.
Paragon offers customized services for daily fee, resort, semi-private and private golf facilities, including tee-time reservations, lesson scheduling and online marketing.
The company this week added its seventh course, Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte, N.C., an Arnold Palmer-designed course in the Myrtle Beach area. The company expects four additional courses to sign on by year’s end.
Other affiliated courses are in Michigan, Ohio and New York, including ParkView Fairways in Victor and Lake Shore Country Club here.
“Adding a Myrtle Beach facility to our service is an important step toward our goal of making teetimelinks.com a resource for golfers nationwide,” Montevecchio said.
Company officials said they hope to reach 30 member courses by the end of next year. Paragon, with its corporate offices and computer center in Fairport, has five salespeople across the country. The firm is targeting areas east of the Mississippi, but it also has a strategic partner selling to courses in Asia.
Paragon is banking on the growth of the Internet and golfers’ willingness to purchase online.
David Damaske, a partner at ParkView Fairways, the first course to use the service, said he evaluated a few companies that offer Internet-type reservation services and chose Paragon’s teetimelinks.com.
He found other services were designed more for resorts than public courses such as ParkView.
“It is a lot more convenient and gives our customers the ability to make reservations at any time,” he said.
Allison O’Malley, corporate communications manager, said Paragon’s service begins with sending the member course an implementation package. Course officials fill out their rules for reservations, such as number of days in advance, number of golfers, intervals between groups and so on.
Once the course returns those answers, Paragon staffers program the software to operate according to those rules. Paragon then installs the software on a computer and places the computer at the course. It also trains the staff to use the system for both online and traditional reservations. The computer ties in via the Internet to a server at Paragon.
Paragon also is building a network that connects golf courses to third-party sales agents such as travel agents, hotels and golf retailers. Courses also can hire Paragon to develop Web pages, provide Web hosting and coordinate marketing programs.
The system allows courses to collect all or a percentage of payment at the time of reservation. It uses secure e-commerce technology for credit-card payments.
Montevecchio, who retired from Moscom in June 1997, remains a major shareholder in Veramark. Before founding Moscom in 1983, he was executive vice president at Sykes Datatronics.
O’Malley said the sales staff currently is promoting the service at golf industry trade shows. They are targeting southern courses through the end of 1999, and then will renew efforts in the north.

12/3/99