iXL Enterprises Closes $50M Deal With Virgin

iXL Enterprises announced Monday that it has closed what it believes is one of the largest e-business deals to date, a $50 million agreement to build a world-class information and communications portal for Virgin Group, the maverick U.K.-based diversified group of companies run by billionaire Richard Branson.

iXL Inc. was named Monday to be the exclusive global services partner for Virgin.com--a new, integrated portal for all Virgin-branded goods and services.

iXL's mission will be to transform Virgin's well-known, offline brand into a successful online business, first in the United Kingdom and then throughout Europe and the United States.

Among other things, iXL will be responsible for scoping, developing and building Virgin.com. In an exclusive interview with VARBusiness, iXL Enterprises chairman and CEO Bert Ellis details why his company is the perfect fit for Virgin, and how his shoot from-the-hip business strategy is in synch with today's fast-moving market.

VARBusiness: How did this recent win come about?

Ellis: We've been working with Virgin Atlantic for some time. As the company and, more importantly, Richard Branson, started rethinking what Virgin.com was going to be, we got involved in additional discussions, pitches and final pitches and then the award.

VB: What's the impact to your company from both a financial and competitive standpoint?

Ellis: From a financial standpoint, the estimate on both sides is that this is going to be a $50 million value to iXL over the course of this calendar year. It's a huge contract.

VB: You're getting big, but this is still a massive chunk of change.

Ellis: It is big. We did $217 million in revenue last year, so $50 million for the next year is fairly significant. As best we can tell, it's the biggest, single contract anybody has executed in this space. The two prior biggest were deals we did with either GE or Delta.

VB: From a competitive standpoint, does this distinguish you?

Ellis: Absolutely. We see no one else that has the ability to tee up and close these types of deals. In the case of Virgin, this is exemplary of the type of company we built. Virgin.com is intended to be, according to Sir Richard, an e-business portal. He wants it to be one of the 10 most important sites in the industry and on the planet. He has made statements like that with various parts of his business, and he has done it before.

VB: Why is your unusual approach to getting things done resonating today?

Ellis: Once you embrace the new style of the Internet, which is faster, making new decisions on the fly, you get with it. Our rule of the road that I try to convey is there are three things that matter: do something, even if it's wrong; if it's wrong, fail fast; and then get back to rule No. 1. You have to get out there and make decisions on the fly. You have to build things while you're driving down the road. Instead of the ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, fire-type of scenario of old, it's now fire, re-aim, fire, re-aim, fire, re-aim. Get them out the tube, fix 'em in flight and abort the ones that are going in wrong way, and don't worry about failures.

For more on iXL, its business, its approach to e-business and its new deal with Virgin Group, see the March 6, 2000 issue of VARBusiness.