2006 VARs of the Year

Since the husband-and-wife duo of Tom and Lezlie Gallaway founded Technologent in 2002, the IT solution provider has grown by leaps and bounds--bringing in $61 million in revenue in 2005 and landing at No. 307 on the VARBusiness 500 list last year.

The company's areas of expertise include data-center architecture, storage and data-management solutions, enterprise Web services, identity-management software, desktop-mobility technology and infrastructure management.

Now, at a time when many solution providers are just trying to weather the storm, Technologent is wading into new and uncharted waters. The company this summer launched a new division of its business dedicated to providing IT solutions solely for the telecommunications industry. Since its inception three months ago, the new telcom practice has brought in $700,000 in incremental revenue, and Technologent is predicting a $20 million run-rate for the division in the 2007 calendar year. The company also plans to expand its customer base to include five tier-one accounts in the telecom industry in 2007.

The new venture was the brainchild of Andrew Schmoller, director of sales for the telco division, and Chris Ciborowski, director of engineering. Both executives say their past experience in the IT industry gave them the know-how to help telcom companies develop and manage large-scale IT infrastructures.

Schmoller formerly handled large enterprise accounts for Sun Microsystems, while Ciborowski held engineering positions at co-location provider Exodus Communications and later at British telco, Cable & Wireless, which acquired Exodus in 2001.

Technologent is now looking to expand its telcom practice on a nationwide level.

"We don't look at this as a hit-and-run kind of opportunity. We're putting a long-term investment into this industry," Schmoller says.

While Technologent doesn't have a one-size-fits-all solution for the telcom industry, it's drawing on its partnerships with IT vendors such as BEA, Oracle and Sun Microsystems to develop best practices in helping telcom companies architect and manage their IT infrastructures.

"We're working with vendors and partners that understand the crux of the problem regarding the proliferation of information," Ciborowski says.

--Shelley Solheim