BlueWater Builds On Unified Communications

When Bob Cagnazzi left Dimension Data North America a little more than a year ago, he took with him an enviable track record. In his position as CEO, he led a turnaround that increased profitability more than $24 million. So when he left, it might have seemed logical for him to take some time off to rest, relax, or go do something completely different. Like many entrepreneurs, however, after a few months off, he got bored. So he got together with other Dimension Data alumni and founded BlueWater Communications Group, a Hauppauge, N.Y.-based solution provider that helps clients build unified communications strategies.

"There was a real need in the marketplace to deliver solutions that unified communications," Cagnazzi says. "To date, there had been technical migrations but not business migrations. CIOs, COOs, CFOs said they had not seen business benefits, no total cost of ownership benefits."

At the root of BlueWater is its commitment to be involved with a unified solution for its entire life cycle; from the moment the problem is identified to the point further down the road when their return on investment is proven.

"We focus on life-cycle applications," says Lou McElwain, executive vice president of sales. "We come at it from a business-continuity perspective. How do you help customers gain market share? We help them determine ROI we show them what they can do with this technology."

The benefits to unified communications can extend throughout customers' organizations. For example, BlueWater implemented a solution at a race track, which included installing a network that would support use of tablet PCs. Because management was concerned about tablets leaving the premises, they employed RFID technology. In addition, the new solution aided in inventory control of food and alcohol. Overall, the system controlled costs and saved the client money. The project was a success, Cagnazzi and McElwain agree, because BlueWater was involved in it from the inception.

"We are in at the beginning, because we want to understand everything to tune the solution and make it that much better. We've found when everyone communicates their plans, we come up with the solution that gets used," says Cagnazzi. "Too many solutions only get used 50 percent."

The company also focuses on one vendor: Cisco Systems. That's not to say that if a complementary technology from a cool new vendor comes along they won't use it in a solution, but, by and large, BlueWater is a Cisco shop. In fact, it was one of the fastest solution providers to earn the vendor's Gold certification level—a prestigious distinction that has taken plenty of others years to attain.

"BlueWater achieved Gold in five months from inception. That is the fastest—ever—in Cisco's history," says McElwain.

Despite the solution provider's fast growth—it has gone from zero to 60 employees in roughly 18 months, and has earned $40 million in 2007 revenue—Cagnazzi and McElwain know there is a long way to go before unified communications solutions are commonplace.

"When we got started, it felt like where the Internet was in the mid-90s," Cagnazzi notes. "No one had put [unified communications] together to show the real benefits, just like with the Internet. No one saw the business case. This is part of Web 2.0."

But isn't Web 2.0 just another buzzword? Something marketing types say when they want to get some attention? No, says Cagnazzi, not when a Web 2.0 solution is truly transformative in the way unified communications is. Explains McElwain: "Web 2.0 and unified communications is the ability to be more productive in one's professional life. The foundation of unified communications is that I can give back about 45 minutes to an employee's day. A truly unified environment gives back productivity."

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