The InfoCenter Story

One sunny afternoon in August 1991, a group of Julian business owners gathered to discuss a common problem. Julian is a small town: population 1,500. Our lifeblood are visitors from the surrounding Southern California area who come to see this historic mining town for the day or a weekend.  

Because of our size, the Julian Chamber of Commerce could only employ one part-time employee, who answered all visitor inquiries. We needed a better solution, and we needed it fast.

A local B&B owner asked, "Couldn't we use a voice-mail system to answer the phone?" I investigated many systems, and came to learn the limitations of voice mail systems. Voice mail creates a wall - a barrier - between you and the person or information you are trying to reach. The messages are too long, the menus too confusing. Some systems even make you memorize keys, and nearly everyone has experience "Voice Mail Limbo" and had to call again - in order to finally connect.

As much as I searched, I couldn't find a single system that fit our needs.  But the search sparked my imagination and I offered to invent a different sort of information system for our community: an information bridge. This InfoCenter would be both simple and easy to use. It would answer up to forty-eight lines, twenty-four hours a day. The menus and messages would be brief and to the point. It would prompt you again I missed a selection. You would never hear information you didn't request. But most important, when you found the information you wanted, the system would transfer your call directly to a REAL HUMAN BEING!

We completed the InfoCenter by January; it was an instant success. We followed this up with systems in many diverse communities, including: Las Vegas, San Francisco, Hollywood, San Antonio, Monterey, Reno, and Santa Cruz. We have continued to improve the InfoCenter, adding random rotation, message forwarding and many other unique features. But our development program maintains one primary goal: TO OFFER INFORMATION...WITH A HUMAN TOUCH.

We hope you like it!

Paul Zirwes, CEO