Getting Up To Speed

Installing security solutions was a natural step for Network Management Group (NMGI). Since 1991, the privately held company has delivered a range of solutions for small and midsize businesses, including implementing WANs, selecting CRM software and designing Web sites for a client list that includes national health-care and education organizations.

As companies started to adapt their businesses to the Internet in the late '90s, they asked NMGI about security solutions. Federal regulations mandate that financial institutions and health-care organizations have secure systems, which has propelled NMGI's security business.

"It's a high-growth industry,' says Steve Harper, president and co-founder of NMGI. "You can't be without security.' Security solutions are growing NMGI's business, increasing profit margins per installation from 10 percent to as much as 40 percent.

Education for the six engineers on staff is ongoing, says Kevin Riddles, network and security consultant for NMGI. The most effective strategy, he says, is to have engineers test highly rated security equipment in NMGI's lab.

The company takes advantage of training from its various partners, which include Sonic Wall, Cisco and Computer Associates, but Riddles says in-house training is more cost-efficient and just as effective. "We set up our own test area,' he says. "That's the only way to learn in the computer business.'

NMGI's engineers are capable of buying and configuring all aspects of a network, says Scott Scrogin, NMGI's manager of professional services. That all-around skill earns the company good references from customers. "Our customers are looking to make one call and have all of their technology needs met," Scrogin says.

NMGI's security installations consist of four basic parts: firewalls to shield a business' network, virus-protection software, an intrusion-detection system to monitor traffic, and content filtering. Content filtering, which is usually a subscription service, involves preventing employees from going to irrelevant Web sites.

Some of the companies that want complete security solutions aren't prepared to dedicate a network administrator to an intrusion-detection system, Riddles says. So NMGI will outsource the business or have one of its staff members monitor it.

NMGI is evaluating future developments in security solutions such as biometrics, which involves fingerprint identification and retina scanning. Although those procedures can be useful to organizations such as hospitals, Scrogin says NMGI has held off on selling biometrics because the systems are expensive. Also, adopting a standard for biometrics has been slow.

However, in the next 18 months to two years, Scrogin thinks biometrics will have evolved and become more affordable for the company's customers.

Part 1: Tricks of the Technology Trade

Part 2: Betting on VoIP

Part 3: Surviving the Economic Downturn