Fortune 500s seek multimedia training: Michael Jackson Software is vying to become the king of CD-ROM.

When Fortune 500 companies are searching for someone to train and entertain their employees, they call on Michael Jackson. But it won't be the king of pop who shows up to do the job. Chicago entrepreneur Michael Jackson's talents lie in the click of a computer mouse, not the click of his heels.

Jackson is the president and CEO of Michael Jackson Software Inc., which develops custom multimedia-based training programs, combining computers, video, sound and even animation, targeted for corporate employees. Since launching the company three years ago, Jackson has landed more than a dozen Fortune 500 clients, including United Airlines, Ameritech and Microsoft. Last year's revenues were just under $1 million; this year's sales will more than double that amount, Jackson predicts.

"Multimedia-based training is quickly becoming a preferred training method of the big corporations," says Jackson, a maverick in this field since the '70s. "It saves money, and people tend to remember more because they are using several senses in the training process."

That's what the top brass at Square D. Co., an electronics manufacturer in Palatine, Ill., discovered last year. Company executives were looking for a portable yet engaging training program; the goal: to help guide 3,500 of their 17,000 employees through a new computerized tracking system. Jackson complied with a clever CD-ROM program, which held the attention of trainees with a fetching storyline and a host of characters, such as Seymour Salesman.

"Software training is traditionally very boring," says Paul Gilliland, Square D's manager of organizational development. "Michael used a clever approach. And because we were able to send the training out, it was less than half the cost [of an in-house program]."

Jackson's creative and computer skills first came to an entrepreneurial head in 1978. At the time, he was a 17-year-old music student at Florida State University, and, like most teenagers, was drawn to computers through video games. But after working with PLATO, a mainframe computer-based training system, Jackson discovered that computers were an attractive way to make money. Jackson landed his first job as a programmer with Simuflight, a Dallas-based firm that did flight simulation training programs for corporate pilots. From there, Jackson went on to work as a program analyst and senior programmer for such companies as Bell Helicopter and United Airlines.

In 1993, the entrepreneurial bug bit, and Jackson decided that his days working for someone else were over. One of Jackson's first clients was United Airlines, which asked him to create a training program for its 19,000 flight attendants who were scattered in 24 locations. Jackson completed the job for less than $150,000, saving the company millions, according to Todd Smyth, a computer specialist with United. The earnings from the United project gave Jackson the seed money to make a full-scale launch of his firm.

"He did a fantastic job,n says Michael Manoski, a former United training supervisor. "He has a promising young company that has great things to offer to the multimedia venue."

Despite Jackson's winning streak, some industry analysts find the multimedia-based training sector to be a slow market. "Business-oriented CD-ROM sales, which make up a small part of the industry, seem to have the most potential but least fruition," says Tom O'Reilly, an editor at SIMBA Information Inc., a market research and publishing firm in Wilton, Conn.

Jackson disagrees. "Last year, we had five full-timers," says Jackson. "By the end of this year, we expect 30. For us, [multimedia-based training] provides more work than we can handle."

Michael Jackson Software Inc.,
455 East Illinois, Suite
480, Chicago, IL 60611; 312-321-8900