Although there are plenty of technology heavyweights that provide
equipment, software, and services, let's face it: Microsoft is pretty
much the alpha dog when it comes to corporate adoption. Its Office suite
is used in over 95 percent of companies, and even with a host of
competitors in the Web arena, Internet Explorer still boasts a majority
of the marketshare.
In creating a professional services business, Maryland-based
Internosis realized that catering to enterprises that want to employ
Microsoft technologies could be a boon to clients and firm alike.
Internosis provides business-driven IT services for Microsoft
technologies in the enterprise, focusing on IT strategy, application
development, IT infrastructure, and productivity service.
The focus has been paying off nicely. Besides its headquarters in
metropolitan Washington D.C., the company has offices in Boston,
Colorado Springs, and New York, and boasts clients like the U.S. Army,
the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Sunoco. Internosis
CEO Robert Stalick talks about how the company found its purpose, and
what tomorrow might bring.
Besides the fact that Microsoft is in so many corporate
environments, is there another reason that you built your services
business around the company's technologies?
We made it a primary focus because Microsoft creates a rate of
change for users that's unparalleled. We do consult on other products
and services, but we lean toward Microsoft because they're such a market
maker.
Internosis was started in January 2000, just when the boom started
to go bust. How did you deal with it?
It's true, we launched at the height of the frenzy. The company was
the result of a technology services division purchase, and the owners
decided it was a good opportunity to make the division into a company.
When the industry started to sour, I can say it was one of the worst
periods that I can remember in my career. All we could do is what other
companies did, and that was try to stay strategic, and focus on our
clients, and plan for the future. We were different from some dot-coms,
I think, in that we didn't have pool tables and so forth. I was
old-fashioned, I guess, because I believe that if you need to decompress
from your work, you should get out of the office.
What kind of effects from the industry shakeup do you see still
having an effect on the scene today, and for the future?
One of the biggest changes over the past few years has been the
reduction of the labor force. We lost a lot of entry-level people, who
were in the early stages of their careers. On one hand, that was
beneficial, because I think there were people who were in the industry
who weren't serious about the work and just saw an opportunity to cash
in. So, we're back down to having the best and brightest in the sector.
On the other hand, we now have fewer people to absorb rising demand.
Over the next three to five years this will become a significant
challenge.
In terms of Internosis, now that the company has survived the past
few years, what has emerged as a result?
We have a balance across governmental and commercial markets. We
also have the belief that every project should have a predictable
outcome. IT suffers from a horrible reputation which is largely
deserved, and that is IT projects fail because they come in overbudget,
overschedule, and with problems. If the construction industry performed
at that level, we'd be living in rubble. But I think it gives us a great
opportunity to show that it doesn't have to be that way, there can be
outcomes set and achieved.
It seems logical that every project should have a goal and a
predictable outcome. Is that really not the case?
No, and it's a marvel to me that it's taken so long to get to this
point, where people are asking for outcomes that can be measured. I
think one change is that CFOs are becoming more involved in IT projects.
These are people that are accustomed to expecting results and getting
them, so when you put them n a decision-making role, you see a movement
toward accountability.
Where does that leave the CIO in the process?
I think CIOs are much more anxious now about understanding the
return on activity. They're having to answer questions about ROI, so I
think they're beginning to be closer to the CFO mindset.
As the industry changes, where will Internosis go from here?
We expect to continue with the strategy that's worked, and across
the next couple years, I expect that our focus will continue to be
predominantly on Microsoft technology. But we'll also bring in experts
on Linux and mainframes, and other areas of interest in the corporate
sector. We see that our clients are challenged by multiple technologies,
and we'll try to anticipate ways to address those challenges by
broadening our process to encompass other technologies.
