TUSC Featured in Chicago Sun-Times

Following is an article on TUSC that appeared in the Aug. 23 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times. It was written by technical writer and consultant Michael Krauss.

Lombard Firm Succeeds as Experts on Oracle

Bill Clinton's "My Life" is a best-seller this summer, but for thousands of Oracle software users, there's a hotter publication. This Thursday, copies of "Oracle Database 10g: The Complete Reference," by Kevin Loney, rolls off the presses thanks to Rich Niemiec's Lombard-based firm TUSC. For the legion of Oracle users, it's a must read.

Most Chicagoans never hear of Niemiec, but the attendees at Oracle's International users conferences afford the 42-year-old Niemiec rock-star status. In the past 12 years, his company was named top presenter six times. When Oracle created a Certified Master's program, Niemiec was among six honorary inductees. When Nokia ran into Oracle database headaches, Niemiec flew to Finland. When Oracle needed a users group in Bangladesh, Niemiec helped get it started.

In 1987, Niemiec was a software engineer in Oracle's Chicago office. Along with colleagues Brad Brown and Joe Trezzo, they pushed and prodded the product. They proved it could work in the emerging client-server technical environment.

"We discovered early on Oracle was this complicated animal," says Niemiec. "We tried to simplify it so that everyone could understand it."

That concept transformed Niemiec, Brown and Trezzo into successful entrepreneurs. Today, their firm employs 110 Oracle experts and generates over $20 million in annual revenue from consulting, training and publishing. Niemiec's clients include Northern Trust, Clearing Corp., Archipelago, the Board of Trade, Levy Restaurants, Argonne National Labs, Motorola and United Airlines.

"TUSC is one of Oracle's longest-standing partners and has deep expertise implementing many versions of Oracle's software," says Oracle Senior Vice President Thomas Kurian. It's clear from what Kurian says that when Niemiec speaks, Oracle's product developers in California take note.

"We've always been the mirror for Oracle," says Niemiec. "We show them what people love, what people hate. We try to make the product better."

Niemiec estimates that TUSC has trained over a million Oracle users through articles, speeches, consulting and reference manuals.

Niemiec believes in human potential: "Everybody is a Michael Jordan at something." For Niemiec that's being the ultimate fine-tuner of Oracle's software.