1983

• In 1983, Jim Palic and Andy Williamson founded Online Consulting. The two met while they were working as programmers for the Dupont Company, and they envisioned a growing market for personal computer services fueled by the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981. Andy convinced his mother to take a second mortgage on her house to provide $15,000 in start-up money and Online Consulting was born.

• Jim and Andy purchased a Kaycomp computer (later to be renamed Kaypro) for $1,800 and began offering computer programming services.

• Andy had contacts within the University of Delaware and was asked to teach some of the University’s continuing education computer courses. VisiCalc was the first course he ever taught. Later the company began offering computer training directly to clients, setting up classrooms at the client’s sites.

1984

• In 1984, Andy and Jim were able to start taking a salary.   One of the first things they did was to hire other computer professionals.   Mike Ward, now Online's Vice President for Technology Services, was hired.

• They also realized the marketing was important, so, they hired Andy's sister, Cindy Williamson, to design marketing publications.

1985  

• In late 1984, they learned that the first and only computer training company in the area was going out of business.  Because competition fell away but the market was still there, they decided to open their own training center.  They had developed many courses from working with the University of Delaware and decided to use these in their own classes.

• So, in March 1985, Online announced our grand opening as Wilmington's only large-scale, independent training facility.  We had one classroom and had four people working for the company: Andy, Jim, Cindy, and Mike.