Global Reach Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Global Reach celebrated its 10th anniversary in December. The company specializes in web application development and hosting.

“We’ve grown so much over the past ten years,” commented Iacovos Zachariades, Global Reach’s President and one of the original founders. “Our growth has taken off much as Internet usage growth has surged.

Along the way, Global Reach has expanded its array of services. “We create custom solutions as well as offer a variety of established products and services,” commented Dale Bentlage, Vice President of Business Development. “Our primary business is to create customized web site solutions tailored to the specific needs of our clients. In addition, we have also created a portfolio of other products.” Creating pre-packaged products allows Global Reach clients to have the benefit of increased functionality at a lesser cost. The company also provides web hosting and operates one of the most advanced hosting facilities in the state.

“When we create a custom solution, we listen to understand our client’s objectives and then develop a list of customized functionality that will be used on their web site to achieve those objectives,” added Bentlage. “Every organization is different and they have different objectives for their web site.” This approach has enabled a diverse group of clients including Emco Doors, Whitfield & Eddy, Next Generation Realty and Community Business Lenders to have web sites that meet their unique, specific needs.

The suite of pre-packaged products includes a content management solution, e-commerce platform, real estate web site management application, and an advanced online survey application.

SiteViz, the content management solution, allows companies to manage all of their web site content. Currently, it is being used by organizations including Blank Park Zoo, Reiman Gardens, the Soil & Water Conservation Society and the United States Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol to manage their web site content.

EGlobalStores is an e-commerce solution that allows companies to manage their web site presence. Storeowners have complete autonomy to manage their online store just like they manage their brick and mortar business. They can manage their list of products, offer promotional discounts, identify various customer segments, and process transactions in real-time. The application can even integrate with various accounting platforms, such as Solomon and MAS 90, preventing the need of any double data entry.

PropertyFusion allows real estate companies and real estate agents to create and manage their own web site presence. In less than one year, Property Fusion has established Global Reach as the top real estate web site provider in Iowa. “The fact that we’ve attained the lead in market share in such a short amount of time tells you about the quality and care that we take in building our products,” noted Bentlage.

Inviewsion is an online survey tool that allows organizations to survey their members. Organizations can create a survey online using any of 23 different question formats and send surveys to a list of respondents. Survey results can be viewed online and a variety of real-time reports can be generated to observe survey data trends.

Global Reach developed each of those solutions from scratch. “It was important that we develop those applications from the ground up,” noted Zachariades. “That gives us the ability to control all of the applications’ functionality and build in the flexibility to add future enhancements.”

“It’s been exciting to experience the growth of the company and to have been involved in the variety of projects that we have completed,” commented Zachariades. “Our company mission has always been to create compelling web applications and web sites for our clients. We’re doing that. We can’t wait to get started on the next ten years.


Here’s a snapshot of significant milestones over the past ten years.

§ The company has expanded within Iowa and across the world. Founded with an original office in Ames, it has grown to add a second office in Des Moines and overseas offices in Cyprus and South Korea.

§ Web sites created by Global Reach receive more than 25 million hits each month.

§ A web site Global Reach created for the Iowa Treasurer’s office, The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt, has been an engine for State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald to return millions of dollars in unclaimed property to Iowans.

§ Named Iowa Technology Company of the Year by the Software and Information Technology of Iowa in 2003.

§ Top real estate web site provider in Iowa.

§ Received Silver Addy Award for web site design in 2004.

§ Partnered with the Iowa Finance Authority to provide housing information to displaced evacuees of the hurricane Katrina disaster.

§ Completed three mergers and acquisitions.

§ Was a pioneer in distance learning technology, creating one of the first distance-learning applications for William Penn University.

§ Selected by the country of Cyprus and the European Union (EU) to develop a multi-national job listings board.

§ Stats and Go, created by Global Reach, becomes the leading amateur athletics statistical reporting web application. Numerous state high school athletic associations including Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois and Texas endorse it as their standard.

§ The Software and Information Technology Association of Iowa named eGlobalStores, Global Reach’s e-commerce solution, the Business Product of the Year in 2004.