Our Story

How We Got Into the Business of Business Improvement

The Integra Group

The Integra Group started in 1999 working on custom software services for a variety of industries. In the early days, The Integra Group, Inc. (before we developed BOSS®) saw many parallels and patterns in our dealings with clients. They were running into the same problems without a “boxed” software solution. As more companies continued asking for similar custom software solutions, we recognized the opportunity to develop a software platform that would serve the needs of not just one company but many, and BOSS® had its start.

Our Story

by Mike Cossins

1999: The Launch
Our first act as a new company was when Eric and I drove to the Sprint store to buy some high-tech (well, high-tech for 1999) mobile phones! At the time, who would have guessed that Integra would outlast Sprint? Now, we just have to outgrow them.

Before launching, we planned our company for about a year. Who knows if we ever would have launched unless we were nearly forced to do it? The small consulting company I was with had financial troubles and handed out a retroactive 20% pay cut right before Thanksgiving vacation. That was the second one in two years, and in my mind, it was enough to confirm that it was time to leave.

We could have just gotten jobs somewhere else, but Eric and I were vital on the nearly completed mission-critical software project for MEMCO Barge Line, and they really wanted us to stay and help finish it. I expected that to be the last software project Integra would ever do in the barge industry. Little did I know how much impact we would have on that industry for years to come.

Accepted into the St. Louis County Business Incubator

Our first office location was in the St. Louis County Enterprise Center designed for startup companies. We presented our business plan to the board and proved to them that Integra would create jobs in St. Louis County. We must have made a good case because they accepted us into the program, and we were grateful. The facility offered ample space for new companies with furnished conference rooms, premium A/V capabilities for presentations, and the flexibility to expand as we grew (if you’ve poked around the site, you already know how important that is to us).
2000: The Silicon Valley Experience
In our second year, we landed some great work at great rates. The only challenge was travel. Most of the work was in Silicon Valley (specifically San Jose and San Francisco), requiring four-plus hour flights and Mondays through Thursdays out of town. The work was rewarding, and we worked late into the night to avoid the traffic jams. It wasn’t exactly the family man’s ideal setup, but it certainly paid the bills. We made the best of it with visits to see Stanford’s campus and a weekend vacation on the beach in Monterey. (That’s my oldest daughter, Olivia, on the beach. She graduated from college in 2020.)

One of my most memorable experiences from 2000 was traveling through airports on crutches after blowing out my Achilles tendon. I used a makeshift backpack before backpacks were considered a cool professional look. A coworker from another company suggested telling my company I couldn’t travel because of the injury—I must have looked pretty ridiculous. I remember explaining it was my livelihood, and I was just happy to have the work. I only regretted that my Achilles would no longer be able to hold up to the rigors of football.

2000: The Silicon Valley Experience
2001: Commerce Bank and ‘Competing’ With My Brother!
In early 2001, we found ourselves as one of the final three companies competing for a large and complex custom student loan software development project. One of the competitors was a large, well-known consultant company in St. Louis with more than 250 employees. The other was my brother’s company, a much more established 75-plus person company in Kansas City that had done previous work for Commerce Bank. Integra had a grand total of about seven or eight employees at the time and zero experience in the student loan industry.

At that point, Commerce did something very unusual. They eliminated my brother’s company from consideration, so it was between the well-known 250+ person company and us. I then got a call from the Senior Vice President at Commerce, and he asked me what kind of relationship I had with my brother. I said, “Well, he was the best man in my wedding, but why do you ask?” He asked, “If you got in trouble on this project, would he help you out?” To that, I said, “I will have to call him and find out.” My brother confirmed he would indeed help us if we ran into trouble, and we won what ended up being a million-dollar project!

On this project, we created our first software tool (the web-based grid control) that helped us develop software much faster later on. This idea eventually grew into the BOSS® framework.
2002: The Daniels Fund
In 2002, we once again found ourselves in a competition in which we really had no business being considered. This time it was a complete custom build for a brand new $1 billion Scholarship Foundation called The Daniels Fund in Denver, Colorado. We were going up against nationally known competition. The only thing that gave us a chance was their process of using a blind reading of the request-for-proposal (RFP) responses judged by a panel of advisors.

We submitted two copies of our proposal—one that had our logo and company information, and one that did not. After their review, they called me and told me, “We have good news and bad news. The good news is that Integra is one of the final two out of all submissions. The bad news is you are in second place by a slim margin.” Their next step was to call our references. Our references pulled us from second place into winning the million-dollar-plus project. Daniels Fund said that our references were like paid advertisements!

Winning this project and the Commerce project allowed The Integra Group to grow through the dot-com financial crisis and hire several fantastic software engineers who are still with us today!

2002: The Daniels Fund
2003: BOSS® Is Born
The Daniels Fund was so new that their main requirement was flexibility because they knew they were going to change tremendously in the coming years. The flexible building block design, including flexible user security, that we created to solve this eventually became what we know today as the BOSS® framework.

In 2003, we were introduced to another barge company, Crounse Corporation. We leveraged our industry immersion and developed some new software utility tools to create a full solution for Crounse. We had a tradition of naming every system we built. We named this project the “Barge Operations Services System,” and the BOSS® acronym was born!

Soon after, we decided to change the meaning of BOSS® to “Business Operations Services System,” and we used it in dozens of custom solutions across many industries.

A Healthy Custom Client List

Integra’s list of custom clients was a mixture of well-known Fortune 500 companies, such as Federal Express, CitiMortgage, A.G. Edwards (now Wells Fargo Advisors), and many lesser-known unique middle-market businesses. We were doing great work and enjoying all we were learning about business and the systems that drove it.

The Strategic Change in Business Plan

At this point, we recognized two critical challenges for our business. First, our projects were large, and just as we were completing the most challenging part of the job (converting our client over to their new system), we had to have another project lined up. It felt like a roller coaster. Secondly, custom software is the last place businesses look to solve their problems because of the expense and the length of time required. Who wants to build their business in the last place people look for a solution? We decided to make a change in our business plan and sought to create unique software products offered to targeted industries.
2008: BOSS® Helps Us Weather the Great Recession
In 2008 and 2009, we had several long-time custom clients let us know the recession had hit them hard, and they had to stop their software investments. This was when our change in strategic direction became necessary. As our custom clients reduced their investments to save money, our BOSS® products provided value to clients far beyond their cost. As a result, the number of product clients continued to multiply, making the impact of the recession on Integra much smaller and shorter-lived than on many businesses.

We ultimately grew our way through the Great Recession, and our transition from an exclusively custom software development firm to a software product company was complete.

2008: BOSS® Helps Us Weather the Great Recession
2011: A Recognized Leader in the Barge Transportation Industry
By 2011, over 60% of the barge industry focused on dry bulk commodities used some form of software from The Integra Group.
2012: A Recognized Leader in the Landscape Industry
By 2012, our BOSS® LM product was the recognized leader in the industry. According to Mike Rorie, all the industry consultants he asked pointed him to BOSS® as the best operational software in the industry. That’s when he approached us with interest to buy, which gave rise to the most challenging event in our company history.

At this point, we had invested about $1 million and 10-plus years creating the BOSS® landscape management software platform, and it was just taking off. We were all about to begin winning together. However, our partner informed us he wanted his own business, and he wanted to base it on BOSS®. After about two years of struggling to make two opposing directions work for everyone, we eventually bought out our ex-partner for the asking price of his shares in the whole business and all corporate assets.

As we expected, our BOSS® business unit has grown every year since. We are thankful to continue serving clients throughout the country and around the world with BOSS®.

2012: A Recognized Leader in the Landscape Industry
2014: The Integra Charitable Foundation Established
At the end of 2014, Integra made a bold move to start a charitable giving foundation for the less fortunate. This had been a dream since we started Integra. However, in the world of business (as in life), it can seem like there are always other things that need investment (because there are).
That’s why we established a financial model that puts giving first. Since committing to a giving-first financial model, it’s been enthusiastically supported by our team. We all run into challenges, but we believe our involvement in charitable efforts helps us keep those challenges in perspective.

As we expected, our BOSS® business unit has grown every year since. We are thankful to continue serving clients throughout the country and around the world with BOSS®.
2019: Our 20th Anniversary
In January of 2019, Integra celebrated our 20-year anniversary. We were incredibly proud of this mark of longevity. Here’s to another 20 on the way!

2019: Our 20th Anniversary
2020: The COVID-19 Pandemic
In 2020, The Integra Group grew through its third economic disaster in our company’s history, and we’re welcoming 2021 as a year of continued growth!

The Integra Group

Business Improvement Software Integrated With the Integrity of a Business Partner

Our Story

The Integra Group

Our Story

1999: The Launch

Accepted into the St. Louis County Business Incubator

2000: The Silicon Valley Experience

2000: The Silicon Valley Experience

2001: Commerce Bank and ‘Competing’ With My Brother!

2002: The Daniels Fund

2002: The Daniels Fund

2003: BOSS® Is Born

A Healthy Custom Client List

The Strategic Change in Business Plan

2008: BOSS® Helps Us Weather the Great Recession

2008: BOSS® Helps Us Weather the Great Recession

2011: A Recognized Leader in the Barge Transportation Industry

2012: A Recognized Leader in the Landscape Industry

2012: A Recognized Leader in the Landscape Industry

2014: The Integra Charitable Foundation Established

2019: Our 20th Anniversary

2019: Our 20th Anniversary

2020: The COVID-19 Pandemic

The Integra Group

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