Profitable Partnering

Stuart C. Johnson is the chairman & CEO of Iconixx Corp., a leading end-to-end e-business solution provider headquartered in Vienna, Va.

A few years ago, the landscape of Internet consultants and solution providers was populated with specialists in management consulting, Web design, branding, software applications, and network architecture. Every company had its particular niche, its area of expertise. At the time, such specialization worked and made sense because the demand for truly integrated e-commerce solutions was still in its infancy. The Internet and the Web had yet to be embraced as the vitally important channels of communication and commerce that they have since become. But their rapid development has created a demand for more sophisticated Web sites, featuring integral e-commerce, rich media and even wireless connectivity. High-transaction sites are processing millions of hits each day while delivering multimedia content, connecting with third-party applications and drawing upon legacy databases.

With the advent of such complex Web sites and network architectures, it's no longer possible for a specialized Internet service company to provide the full-spectrum solution that businesses need. With a view toward addressing these emerging client requirements, I began to explore the opportunity to develop a company that could be a one-stop source of top-quality, end-to-end Internet solutions. Such a company would require substantial creative and technical depth to help a new dot com build a viable online presence, or assist an existing business eager to expand its current Web site. This company would also be aggressively forward-looking, ready to identify important new technologies--like wireless and rich-media applications, and broadband networking technologies--and deploy these in clients' sites and networks.

For the past two years, I've been working with a talented group of management and Internet experts to build that company. We located five successful ISPs,each with the right skills, the right clients, and the innovative cultures that produce the right solutions,and brought them together to create Iconixx. Today, the sum of the parts has become the company that was envisioned several years ago, with a balanced suite of e-business services and the ability to address the challenges that arise when working with leading-edge clients and technologies.

Iconixx specializes in providing single-source, end-to-end e-business services for our Global 1000 and dot-com clients. More importantly, we perform these services quickly, with project management and rapid prototyping that respond to our clients' evolving business challenges. Our expertise begins with e-business strategy and planning, a necessary precursor for most companies wishing to initiate or refine their Internet business strategy.

A second focus is the Internet user experience, an area of vital importance to our clients as public perception of their brands is increasingly shaped by the messages and experiences delivered online. We assign high priority to delivering an optimal user experience that supports clients' brands and includes an attractive, easy-to-navigate user interface.

To the user experience we add skills in business functionality that allow us to integrate the user interface with a variety of e-commerce tools and databases provided through off-the-shelf, custom and legacy systems. Many of these,such as CRM and sales-force automation packages,we obtain from our technology.

In the end, of course, a satisfactory Web experience relies upon the careful planning and construction of an appropriate network infrastructure. Our engineers have extensive experience in designing and developing broadband infrastructure and wireless applications that are reliable, robust and scalable to meet future demand.

Iconixx specializes in providing service solutions rather than reselling existing solutions. However, to meet the needs of our clients and to align with our vision of providing end-to-end e-business solutions, we evaluate partnerships with established, as well as emerging, technology and service companies. We've established important partnerships to date with a number of well-known technology companies, such as Asera Inc., Moai Technologies Inc. and Trilogy Software Inc.

We consider partnerships carefully, based on client needs and market trends. We rely a great deal on our sales team and technical experts to stay current with the latest applications for a given business solution or technology. When they identify a solution that they believe will be useful to our clients, we dedicate time and effort to determine if it will also be a good fit for Iconixx as a partnership. Once we determine that a potential partner's solution or technology is of interest, our sales and technical teams evaluate the company's software. The sales team provides input on how the solution fits with client needs, while the technical staff evaluate the product's viability, flexibility and scalability to grow along with our clients' needs and anticipated future developments.

Once the technology and market demand for a solution are proven to our satisfaction, we then consider the partner relationship as a whole. We believe strongly that, for any partnership to succeed, both sides must be committed to the relationship, and we want our services to add value to the partner's solution. With that in mind, we research the company's training and mentoring programs, as well as implementation services. We also consider the way a solution or technology is implemented, so our clients understand whether they can host and maintain a solution internally or should outsource it to an ASP or service bureau.

The process that results in a partnership can be a long and delicate one, but it's well worth the effort to add new e-business capabilities that will help us achieve a "win-win" outcome for clients, partners and Iconixx.

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