Spotlight

Growing in all dimensions

The factor that differentiates NaviSite from others in the space is the fact that over the years it has remained true to its mission in helping mid-market companies deploy, manage and enable software applications and infrastructure across the converged enterprise. By Tanu Talwar

NaviSite is a leading provider of IT hosting, outsourcing and professional services known for delivering tailor-made, cost-effective and flexible software solutions to mid-market segments across industry verticals. Established in 1997, the company is committed to offering the best possible software and infrastructure facilities by leveraging a proven set of technologies and extensive subject matter expertise that provide responsive and predictable levels of service for its clients worldwide. Founded as the IT outsourcing arm of Internet development firm CMGI, NaviSite has focused almost exclusively on providing IP-based managed services from its inception.

Headquartered in the United States, the company has established a direct presence in the United Kingdom and India through its fourteen data centres and eight major marketing, delivery and sales offices spread across these countries catering to its wide base of clients. Sumeet Sabharwal, MD, NaviSite India, says, “We believe that our data centres and infrastructure have the capacity necessary to expand our business for the foreseeable future. Our services focus on combining our developed infrastructure with established processes and procedures for delivering hosting and application management services.” The data centres aim at providing high availability infrastructure coupled with enhanced performance monitoring systems, proactive and collaborative problem resolution specifically designed to spot and address potential problems and dangers before they are able to disrupt a client’s operations.

One of the chief factors differentiating NaviSite from others in this space is the fact that over the years it has remained true to the mission it was incorporated with i.e. to help mid-market companies deploy, manage and enable software applications and infrastructure across the converged enterprise. Sabharwal asserts, “For many mid-market businesses, keeping on top of the cost and complexity of applications and technical infrastructure has become increasingly difficult—in some cases it is prohibitive due to various reasons such as complexity, cost and other factors involved. That’s why businesses have turned to using outsourced applications and infrastructure to expand their capabilities.”

With about a decade’s experience, the company is a pioneer in offering a one-vendor solution for the complete spectrum of application and technology services. The company’s vision to radically simplify an organisation’s approach towards technology through a new services architecture designed specifically to reduce the complexity associated with managing multiple applications, IT infrastructure and content delivery has indeed made it a trusted partner for organisations worldwide to have their entire IT infrastructure, application and content delivery needs met. This commitment has not only helped it rope in new customers but has also enabled it to attract and retain a talented workforce that has grown manifold and has gone up to 650 employees worldwide from the mere 100 employees that it started with.

Facing challenges head on

From the time of its inception NaviSite chose to be a company with a difference. The company’s goals have been to differentiate itself from other service providers that offer rigid, proprietary or point solutions, by eliminating the roadblocks that have stifled business performance through the power of one, combining the highest technology competency with its unique level of service accountability. Talking about the initial challenges faced by the company, Sabharwal states, “Meeting these goals had been a challenging task that involved making a significant upfront investment to create best-in-class infrastructure facilities, processes and tools to automate the ongoing monitoring and management of customer systems, and creation of a national sales footprint across the US and UK to enable the front-end.”

Then again, the bursting of the dot-com bubble in early 2002 created additional hurdles around revenue and profitability, causing the mindset of the company to shift from growth to survival during that period. CEO Arthur Becker and Chairman Andy Ruhan saw a tremendous opportunity in rebuilding the core services. With this in mind, they bought out the controlling interest from CMGI and HP, the other major investor, in 2002. Sabharwal adds, “They also brought in the necessary management expertise and capital to propel the company forward, and leverage the downturn in the market to buy and integrate six other businesses between 2002 and 2004.”

In other words it was during 2002 that the company went through a radical transformation that bought it success. During this process, NaviSite was reshaped as a comprehensive provider of IT services for the mid-market, with a strong workforce and customer base. This transformation broadened the company’s focus in terms of services and product offering. Sabharwal explains, “Since 1997, Navisite’s focus was primarily upon offering infrastructure solutions for data centres. However, in 2002 the company started to concentrate on meeting the application, infrastructure and end to end enterprise support needs of the mid-market segment.”

Bagging customers

From starting out with about 15 clients to the point where nearly a thousand organisations around the world have bet their businesses on NaviSite today based on the efficiencies and returns inherent in working with a single-source provider of IT services it has been an interesting journey. With a client list that includes prominent industry names such as America’s Job Bank, Quixote, Hill Holiday, Burton the company has clearly bagged clients from each and every vertical and provide services to a wide range of vertical industries, including financial services, healthcare and pharmaceutical, manufacturing and distribution, publishing, media and communications, business services, public sector and software, through its direct sales force and sales channel relationships.

Furthermore, NaviSite’s dedication and commitment to continuously innovate on its products and expand its list of offerings to customers has not only enabled the company to rope in new customers but has also helped it maintain long term dealings with its early clients. It is this drive to offer the best to its client that has enabled the company to bring in major customers such as the United States Department of Labor. Talking about its association with some key customers, Sabharwal says, “The United States Department of Labor is one of our prominent customers that partnered with us to build and manage America’s Job Bank (AJB), one of the biggest and busiest job markets in cyberspace. Job seekers can post their resume where thousands of employers search every day, search for job openings automatically, and find their dream job fast.” Besides job seekers even the businesses can post job listings in the online job portal, create customised job orders, and search resumes automatically to find the right people.

Going forward

Ever since it started out NaviSite has taken both the organic and the inorganic path to growth. The company has been on an aggressive acquisition mode ever since 2002 and has acquired over eight companies during this period. Talking about certain key acquisitions, Sabharwal says “NaviSite has acquired eight different businesses in the last decade. Though all these acquisitions have been meaningful and beneficial in their own way as they are done with the aim of growing the customer base and broadening the services provided by the company two of the key acquisitions have been of a Surebridge, Inc. and Applied Theory.”

While Surebridge Inc is an, a Lexington, MA-based application outsourcer specialising in offering enhanced competencies in PeopleSoft, Microsoft Business Solutions, and Siebel Systems, Applied Theory has helped the company bag it’s largest customer the United States Department of Labor.

However even though the company has taken the inorganic growth road it aims at growing organically in India. The company launched its Indian operations over two years ago by opening up an office in Gurgaon. The launch was a part of NaviSite’s long term well phased out strategy to build and expand its global delivery capacities. With the Indian centre providing customers direct access to high quality technical skills, improved service levels, and the economic advantages associated with global sourcing the company is aggressively targeting to capitalise on the country’s booming talent to help it strengthen its entire framework of sales, marketing, product development, and back-office operations.

Though presently the company does not have any Indian clients, it surely looks upon India as a potential investment destination and aims to grow in the country over the coming years. Presently, the company’s Indian operation plays a key role in its overall delivery infrastructure. Throwing light upon the company’s

Indian processes, Sabharwal explains, “It’s because of our India operations, we have been able to help our customers realise the benefits of a global model, both by lowering their operational costs, and increasing their overall service levels. We have plans to expand our presence in India aggressively by extending some of our core service offerings like Oracle Consulting, Remote Infrastructure Management and IT outsourcing, across both the US and UK market.”

Besides, the company is also keen at adding new dimensions to its operations in India and aims at going beyond service delivery by creating global product and marketing teams spread across the country that can further enable and support its various global sales teams across US and UK by providing additional services like marketing, lead generation, solution development, and inside sales.