Wireless Windfall: Fast Friends Join Forces In Denver

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The two Denver-based companies have known each other for years, seen each other at vendor conferences and client RFP meetings, and long joked about merging forces to attack the market together, said Glenn Smith, executive vice president of operations and co-founder of solution provider GTRI.

GTRI wanted to expand its wireless practice, so about four months ago the joking turned to more serious conversation and before they knew it, the deal was closed, he said. "and#91;Ourand#93; wireless practice has been sound but not the size we wanted it to be. We found ourselves almost with more projects presented to us than we could handle because we cover all these market segments," Smith said.

Anyware is the first acquisition for GTRI, which increased sales organically to $140 million last year from $92 million in 2006. This year, the company is on pace for $170 million to $180 million in revenue, before the acquisition. GTRI and Anyware executives would not reveal the purchase price or Anyware's revenue expectations for the year.

"We really looked at it as an opportunity to scale more than anything. Historically, we're very growth-oriented. Every business until now that we've done has been in an organic, slow fashion. This was an opportunity to buy more market share. This one of the first times that we felt this was financially viable," Smith said.

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The two companies are now integrating the final operational details such as time-keeping applications and how to turn in deliverables on a project, Smith said. Charlie Franco, vice president of sales at Anyware, said his company still sees tremendous revenue opportunity for wireless solutions because wireless applications are just beginning to catch up with the infrastructure technology.

"That's usually the case," Franco said, adding that Anyware views the health-care and federal markets as especially ripe for wireless projects.

"Where we're seeing huge growth is with more patient monitoring and pharmaceutical applications. We've been fortunate to ride some of that growth with medical device manufacturer partnerships. We also see a big increase in the federal space, again driven by applications," Franco said. "and#91;The Department ofand#93; Homeland Security is mandating backup communications for railroads. We can capitalize on those opportunities."

Technology can still be a driver, too, he said, as 802.11n is a "dominant request from customers," said Franco, who will lead GTRI's wireless business after the merger.