Falcon Software was founded in a small bachelor suite apartment by Gary Eisenstein in 1993 with Gary’s original business partner, Paul Doherty, and our first project manager, Heather MacFayden. The company’s roots were developing and delivering electronic catalogs on 3.5” floppy disks for the B2B manufacturing sector. During a phone call that would dramatically pivot our direction, a client in New York asked if Falcon Software could create an online version of its product catalog with similar features and functionality found on the floppy discs. It was the cusp of the Internet’s commercialization era and a perfect opportunity to diversify and capitalize on a revolutionary business tool. Over the next 24 months, our company refocused its efforts on desigining and constructing websites for B2B manufacturers in the United States and Canada who were searching for faster and cost-efficient methods of delivering product content to their customers. Falcon Software achieved its transformation goal by developing its own proprietary content management system (CMS) for clientele to access and control their website content.
As our proprietary CMS’s popularity grew, clients began requesting more advanced features that pushed Falcon Software to reflect on whether to continue as a product-based firm or reorganize to become a service-based firm. Choosing to pursue the latter, Falcon Software partnered with a New Hampshire-based start-up vendor, Ektron, to offer a more robust CMS platform. The collaboration opened up a vast number of opportunities through CMS integration services. Despite the infamous dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, business substantially increased — so much that Ektron awarded Falcon Software Partner of the Year honors for our licensing sales throughout North America.
During the next five years, Falcon Software added two more CMS platforms to its partnership portfolio — Kentico and Sitecore — which helped transform Falcon Software into one of the top mid-market CMS integration firms in North America. The new relationships enabled Falcon Software to expand its services into a wider variety of sectors like financial, healthcare, retail, technology, government, education, and non-profit. Our business evolved from primarily servicing mid-market accounts to supporting enterprise-level projects for global organizations such as ASPCA, Remington, Ingram Micro, and Texas Instruments. Falcon Software was also recognized by Sitecore as a top performer, selling the largest Sitecore license in their history at that time. We also added website hosting services and customer training services for Ektron, Kentico, and Sitecore content users and administrators.
Although the global financial crisis presented significant challenges for organizations worldwide, Falcon Software managed to weather the storm by strengthening operations to focus on cost-effective integration contracts using the more affordable Kentico platform. Our portfolio grew exponentially, and Falcon Software positioned itself as a #2 partner in Canada and a top-5 partner in the United States out of over 1,200 partners listed on Kentico’s website at the time. Recognizing demand for more comprehensive services for our enterprise-level clientele, Falcon Software added digital commerce and portal solution capabilities, strengthening our position in the marketplace as a leader in deploying Ektron, Kentico, and Sitecore projects across North America. In 2011, Falcon Software launched its consultation and media firm, CMS-Connected Media Corp, establishing Falcon Software as a thought leader in the industry.
Falcon Software experienced record growth, signing noteworthy accounts such as Western Union, Seattle Pacific University, Union Gas, Brandt, Louisville Water, Microsoft Bing, and the Gates Notes project — the official blog site of philanthropist Bill Gates. This chapter also marked the end of Falcon Software’s relationship with our original vendor partner, Ektron. The search to find another partner for our CMS service offerings eventually led to a new collaboration with Progress Sitefinity. In the years that followed, Falcon Software experienced unprecedented growth with Progress Sitefinity, achieving elite “Service Integration Partner” status. Moreover, Progress Sitefinity signed Falcon Software as an exclusive business-user training facility for online and onsite customer training across North America.
With the rise of digital experience platform (DXP) technology as the new standard for helping organizations solve their digital transformation challenges, Falcon Software has signed partnerships with several new platform vendors for a more holistic end-to-end customer solution. The augmentation includes hybrid headless and agile CMS solutions, enabling Falcon Software to deliver the richest digital experiences possible. New affiliations have been developed with leading CMS platform solutions for a best-of-breed approach to our digital services, as well as exciting new partnerships to expand our Salesforce CRM and portal capabilities. In the summer of 2021, Falcon Software’s head office moved into a newly built location (District 56’s Terminus Building), which now acts as a central support hub to manage Falcon Software’s remote workforce. This permanent at-home model allows greater access to talent across North America, increased productivity, more individual flexibility, and improved employee experiences. Although the COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges for Falcon Software and its clientele, we adapted quite quickly and remained on target with project timelines and expected sales growth.