Ames-based Engineering Animation, Inc. announced record fourth quarter revenues this week.

EAI, 2321 N. Loop Drive, is a leading producer of enterprise-wide visual process management, collaboration and communication solutions.

Barry French, EAI executive of corporate communications, said EAI’s success is due to hard work and innovation.

“We are tapping an untapped market,” he said. “We are relentless toward the satisfaction of our customers and moving to meet their needs as soon as we can. The word is out about our company, and instead of us calling around for business, companies are now calling us.”

The company was founded in 1988 by two Iowa State professors, Martin Vanderploeg and James Bernard, and two ISU graduate students, Jeff Trom and Jay Shannan.

EAI reported fourth quarter revenues totaling $31,734,000, a 47 percent increase over 1997 fourth quarter revenues of $21,550,000.

Before acquisition-related and non-recurring charges, the company’s fourth quarter net income increased 115 percent to $4,167,000, or 32 cents per share, compared to net income of $1,935,000, or 16 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 1997.

Total revenues for 1998 reached $106,976,000, an increase of 47 percent over 1997 revenues of $72,814,000. Before charges, EAI’s 1998 net income increased 141 percent to $12,491,000, or 98 cents per share, compared to net income of $5,178,000, or 44 cents per share, in 1997, according to a press release.

Some companies with EAI contracts include General Motors, Toyota, Hyundai, Allied Signal, Lockheed Martin, Disney Interactive, Conoco, Hasbro Interactive, SouthPeak Interactive, Sierra Online, Pfizer and McGraw-Hill.

French said EAI works closely with companies and helps them utilize the software to the best of its ability.

“We want to make sure that they get everything that they want out of the software,” he said. “We don’t just send them a box of software. We work very closely with the company throughout the process.”

French said EAI shows the companies exactly how software works before it is used.

“We are helping them, in a nutshell, manage better, faster and cheaper,” he said.

Not only has the company succeeded financially, but it also has received numerous honors and awards in 1998.

EAI was named for the second straight year to the Deloitte and Touche LLP’s Technology Fast 500, a list of the fastest-growing technology companies in the United States. EAI’s VisFactory, suite of factory layout and design solutions, was named a recipient of the 1998 Computer Graphics World Innovation Award and the CADALYST 1998 All-Star Product Award, both prestigious industry awards, French said.

“We develop a lot of interactive software,” he said. “When you go into a computer game store, pick up a couple of boxes and look at the back side of them — odds are a couple of them will have the EAI logo on it.”

EAI has worked with some well-known companies to develop interactive software.

“We write and do the development work of games for some powerful companies such as Disney,” French said. “Some of our most recent games are ‘Trophy Buck,’ which has received great reviews, the classic board game ‘Clue,’ ‘Toy Story’ and ‘A Bug’s Life.'”