IGS: The Giant Gets Small

Jim Corgel's mission: to drive IGS deep into the midmarket.

Targeting the midmarket with enterprise-class professional services is a major shift for IGS. The division grew fat on big deals, and has been a fixture at the top of the VARBusiness 500 for the past 11 years. No one comes close to rivaling its $47 billion girth--it's twice the size of perennial second-place EDS ($19.8 billion) and could swallow the revenue of the bottom 400 companies on the list and still have room to absorb Lockheed Martin (No. 7) at $9.8 billion.

Even in posting 10-figure gains, year over year, IGS' growth as a percentage of revenue is sluggish compared with others in the VARBusiness 500 billion-dollar club. Accenture (No. 3) posted 13 percent gains, Hewlett-Packard Services (No. 4) 12 percent and BT Global Services (No. 6) rose a whopping 20 percent. IGS, by comparison, only moved up 2.5 percent.

Granted, it's a lot harder to move the needle when you're the biggest service provider on the block. A company the size of IGS has to be innovative and willing to venture into new markets with considerable opportunity. The enterprise market is largely tapped, leaving the relished midmarket--companies with 100 to 1,000 employees--as an attractive target for those who can reach into it.

And it's Corgel's job to drive IGS deep into the midmarket. Under his leadership, IGS is developing smaller, shorter-term contracts, and services that serve the SMB market. This means overseeing a broad strategy to bring component-based services offerings, midmarket-focused packaged consulting engagements, an emerging market drive and a "demystifying of services" to the SMB market.

"A lot of times the SMB customer says, 'I just want a salad; I don't want the whole banquet,'" Corgel says. "We break down the offerings and there's a logical first, second and third step, as well as a 15th step and beyond."

SMB: Not a Smaller Enterprise

Understanding that the midmarket isn't just a smaller version of the enterprise is vital to winning opportunities there. Corgel immediately recognized that IGS couldn't simply dive into the "emerging enterprise" with the same heavy services that it brought to the Fortune 1000 and expect a warm reception. Likewise, he recognized that the budgets and expected levels of service in the midmarket differ greatly from those of the Wall Street titans that underwrite the bulk of IGS' existing revenue stream.

"The market is tough and they want to know we have a lot, but they don't want to buy right off the bat," Corgel says.

For example, IGS is investing heavily in Expressed Managed Services (EMS), a suite of services designed for the midmarket. These offerings include Web security, desktop services, online backup and recovery, and RFID. Bringing these services together in a cohesive package for targeted midmarket customers is what makes EMS valuable to IGS and its clients.

"It's about the complementary aspect of the offerings and how they bolt into each other," says Sam Maatallah, director of channel services for IGS Americas. "Customers really like the modular design and the price points; it gives them options. They can start small and grow."

But presenting these focused services and solutions effectively to the midmarket was still a challenge for Corgel. His group created a menu of options not unlike a retail catalog. "It helps to get clarity around the services that IGS sells," Corgel says. "There's a mystery to the service offerings versus selling a server of a CD full of software."

The catalog approach is proving a successful tool for reaching the midmarket. Corgel says the third version of the IGS catalog for SMBs has been downloaded more than 10,000 times in a 90-day period, and a fourth version will be available in June.

NEXT: Breaking the consulting barrier.