Avenir Systems principal Dennis Harward’s business philosophy is simple: build it and they will come. But it has to be good.

Most local governments and public utilities, the two groups the company targets, are using software programs that date back 20 years. But new accounting regulations coupled with governments’ need to be frugal and efficient are prompting them to rethink the way they do business. Harward said his company’s modern software is the ‘end-to-end solution.’

Since July 2002, when Harward Investments, Inc., a technology holding company, acquired controlling interest in Avenir, the company has sold its software to local governments in nine Oregon counties, and to several public utilities in the Northwest. The company designs Web sites as well. The $5 million company (in revenues) is expecting to double in size in 2003, then following a path of more modest growth.

From 1981 to 1999, Harward served as president and CEO of Florida-based Harward Technical Enterprises, or HTE, a government software company that started with $3,000 in capital and grew to $98 million in revenue in 1998.