 Infosim Announces Broad Expansion
in the Americas
InterComms talks to Neal McCreesh, Infosim Vice President Americas, about how Infosim’s StableNet® has arrived in the Americas and is taking the Telco and Enterprise market by storm
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| Neal McCreesh, VP, Infosim Americas |
Neal McCreesh has over 25 years international business experience. Previously, Neal held executive and board member roles for several enterprise software companies, including driving business growth for Crannog Software as Senior Vice President North America. Under his leadership, Crannog’s revenue grew by over 2000% and Neal initiated the successful sale of Crannog to Fluke Networks. Neal also was Co-Founder and COO of Marrakech, an Irish Technology company subsequently sold to AMT-Sybex of the UK. Under his direction, Marrakech grew from business plan to over 250 employees with global operations in a two-year period. During this time, Marrakech raised over $50 million in venture capital and investment bank funding. Neal holds a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Queens University Belfast, a Master’s in International Business from Trinity College Dublin along with executive training at IMD Lausanne, Switzerland and Babson College Boston.
Q: What decision led to Infosim’s Americas expansion?
A: The decision was based on an ongoing 18-month conversation between myself and Infosim’s CEO Dr. Stefan Koehler. The Americas expansion had been strategically delayed for quite some time to avoid the mistake many fast growing companies make of “too early to market and not ready”. From my past experience, I’ve learned it’s very important to have adequate resources and a fully tested proven product that delivers undisputed value and a fast ROI to customers in the North American Market. We didn’t want to arrive early and suffer from a lack of resources and credentials needed for successful market entry. Since 2003, Infosim has been continuously designing, developing and providing StableNet® a highly scalable single unified Network Management application for asset configuration, performance and fault management. The Americas market has never seen such a comprehensive solution. Most customer “feature requests” to other vendors are standard out-of-the-box features for StableNet®. The Americas expansion also benefits from a very strong global customer base that has been established for over a decade. The Americas expansion is a natural progression of the Infosim global business strategy that has grown from great customer and partner relationships formed throughout Europe and Asia. Companies such as BMW, T-Systems, Lidl, Nucleus Connect, Vodafone, Cable & Wireless, Bank of America have StableNet® deployed.
Q: What was the inflection point for the Americas expansion to go full speed ahead?
A: The growth of strong customer relationships developed in Europe and Asia over the years and the positive reception from testing the Americas market at Cisco Live San Diego in 2012 was a defining moment for Infosim. John Olson, VP of Technical Services and I had been working as consultants to Infosim. Based on our experience working with Fortune 1000 global organizations as well as government and educational institutions we knew the time to go full speed ahead was now. We incorporated Infosim Inc. in Texas and shortly thereafter we were featured in Enterprise Management Associates Radar Report. EMA’s stringent criteria evaluated Infosim as a best-in-class highly scalable solution for functionality, architecture, deployment, vendor strength and cost advantage. We earned EMA’s designation of Value Leader for ENMS solutions within the large deployment group of vendors. We also won special recognition for best virtual networking management. After market analysis, it was decided the Americas expansion would be anchored by establishing headquarters and technical training facilities in Austin, Texas.
Q: Can you give me some examples of why you selected Austin to headquarter Infosim Americas?
A: Austin is a great location for many reasons. High-tech experienced talent, culture, climate, Central Time Zone all help facilitate coast to coast business. Google, Samsung, AMD, Apple, Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Intel, 3M, VMware, Ixia, Solarwinds, Uplogix plus many startups headquarter or place a large portion of operations in Austin so Infosim joins a vibrant ever developing high-tech scene.
Q: What major event accelerated the decision to scale the Americas expansion plans?
A: Infosim has climbed a steep hill to grow name and brand recognition in the Americas. Cisco Live events have been a major annual event that has helped us. The overwhelming positive market response from Cisco Live San Diego 2012 merited a larger presence at Cisco Live Orlando 2013. We had a very large exhibition space this year with many attendees walking up to learn more about us. StableNet® and the unified approach to Network Management that it brings is an industry first and Cisco Live attendees took note. Of particular interest was StableNet®’s Network Configuration and Change Management module, which resonated well with large enterprise customers in need of scalable real-time configuration backup and policy checking among other features. At Cisco Live Orlando we also revisited with prospective customers from Cisco Live San Diego 2012, several have chosen to engage with us on proof of concepts to displace expensive solutions that aren’t getting the job done.
Q: How are you reaching Telco and Enterprise decision makers?
A: The delayed entry strategy into the Americas until we can get an “open ear” to decision makers has paid off well for us. The Infosim team has known all along the best way to get to decision makers is to go to market with strong technical features, comprehensive support, and offer an improved experience for customers from the initial conversation. The decision makers visiting with us at Cisco Live validated our long term growth plans and have even made suggestions that we have listened to so we can continuously improve based on customer feedback and expectations. Our focus is on building long term customer relationships in addition to productive partnerships.
Q: What is Infosim’s approach to partnerships in the Americas?
A: In the Americas, we have - among others - partnerships with Interlink, EMA, Ixia and Network World. Channel partners are very important to us. Our approach is to develop and protect highly valued channel relationships as partners are in many cases the first contact point for our customers. It is important that our partners are fulfilling the expectations of their respective StableNet®’ customers. Infosim very much focuses on quality over quantity in our partner relationships.
Q: What is the next phase for Infosim Americas?
A: The next phase is to increase the dedicated sales teams for the regions, adding to our pre and post engineering support teams, ramping up marketing and examining the location of our global 24/7/365 support operations. New Austin offices for 20+ people in addition to training facilities have already been established so our next phase is planning for additional growth.
Q: What does Infosim offer for technical training?
A: Infosim offers the Infosim Certified Engineer (ICE) and the Infosim Certified Administrator (ICA) training program. ICE trained professionals for example work in medium to very large Enterprise and Telco network environments. ICE Certified Engineers also understand the value of unifying network management duties by leveraging automation using StableNet® as the platform of choice. We are happy to offer this ICE/ICA training now also in the Americas. Infosim is committed to expanding our role of facilitating Network Management knowledge based on proven best practices we have learned from StableNet® global deployments.
Q: What technical requirements and type of projects is Infosim Americas engaged in?
A: Infosim StableNet® is taking the Americas by storm. We are exceeding technical requirements in very large projects. As you see by the before mentioned references, we are active in large Enterprise and Telco environments. But also large government networks are coming more and more into our focus. For example, school districts which need to enhance their network monitoring due to a large increase in wireless connectivity in their schools. StableNet® will do device and interface up/down monitoring as well as utilization, capacity planning and trending, Netflow analysis, VoIP monitoring and more. Large Telco’s often need an advanced element manager for thousands of deployed devices where the manufacturer doesn’t supply an umbrella ENMS solution. StableNet® can perform network discovery, asset management, network configuration and change management, performance and fault analysis – all in a single unified view for ease of use and deployment. Global companies need that view into a variety of different manufacturer switch/routers to ensure compliance standards. StableNet® provides a high volume Netflow analysis, performance and fault management, as well as configuration management - all customizable from a single unified view. We have Federal and DoD customers knocking at our door with projects that demand massive scalability. Some projects are already active in highly sensitive facilities where we are exceeding the most demanding technical requirements.
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For more information visit:
www.infosim.net
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