Ex-Atrion CEO Tim Hebert Launches Software Development Firm To Tackle Business Process Woes

Channel visionary Tim Hebert has launched an application development and systems integration practice that will help SMBs experiencing pain from incomplete systems or broken business processes.

Hebert's 19th business, Trilix, formally opened for business this week with a dozen employees and ambitions to help financial services firms, community banks, and manufacturing companies throughout Southern New England with everything from process analysis to user adoption.

"I always stand in awe of how many companies are willing to settle for systems that are just good enough," said Randy Jackvony, Trilix's technology and client services principal. "They're wasting money by having all of these inefficient systems and processes … There is a better way we can do this."

[Related: Carousel To Buy Atrion To Turbocharge New Cisco Practice]

Hebert's latest act follows a 27-year run at Warwick, R.I.-based Atrion, which Hebert helped grow from a two-person company operating out of a garage to a 250-employee, $150 million channel goliath. The company was No. 196 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500 and sold to Exeter, R.I.-based Carousel Industries, No. 61 on the 2017 CRN SP 500, in October 2016.

In addition to being Trilix's founder and CEO, Hebert will continue serving as Carousel's chief client officer, where's he's responsible for maintaining corporate culture and client experience. All of Trilix's other employees, though, are dedicated to the company full-time, Hebert said.

"For more than 30 years, I had wished there was a company like Trilix that could help me solve problems I was experiencing every day [as a business owner]," said Hebert, who has a 100 percent ownership stake in Warwick, R.I.-based Trilix.

Trilix will primarily go after net new customers rather than companies that already work with Atrion or Carousel. The areas of focus within the client's operation will also be different, Hebert said, with Atrion and Carousel primarily spending time with the customer's IT department while Trilix is more interested in working with C-suite executives or department leaders that have nothing to do with IT, Hebert said.

The company wants to focus its initial efforts on two or three industries that are burdened by heavy workflows, complex processes, and massive systems or spreadsheets, according to Garry Foisy, Trilix's business development principal. Foisy said he's looking for the right subset of clients that really get what Trilix is doing rather than simply onboarding as many customers as possible. The lion's share of Trilix's customer recruitment efforts will take place in the Northeast, Hebert said, with a focus on Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Ninety percent of Trilix's work will be in custom software development, Hebert said, meaning that there won't be any vendors involved in the solution. But some of Trilix's initiative will focus on bridging gaps across multiple process and technologies, Hebert said, such as getting Cisco, Avaya and Microsoft to work together seamlessly, or integrating a Salesforce app with a service delivery platform.

Although Trilix is one of many custom software developers focused on small and mid-sized businesses, Hebert said the company's methodology, which starts by addressing business problems rather than technical ones, will set it apart. The company will attempt to move quickly and go as deep as possible with clients, so those true business problems are prioritized, according to Dana McInnis, business solutions principal.

Hebert said he has connected with 150 potential stakeholders this week to give them a better sense of the challenges Trilix is trying to help clients fix. He has started to set up meetings with potential clients or partners now. "The response has been overwhelming," Hebert said. "It says to me that the timing of what we're doing is right."