MTI Technology

A strict focus on the midmarket is the linchpin of the strategy that’s responsible for driving MTI Technology’s stellar sales numbers, which grew 46 percent in the first quarter of its 2005 fiscal year (April to June 2004), compared with the year-earlier quarter, said Tom Raimondi, CEO of the company.

MTI targets companies in the $300 million to $1 billion revenue range that have between $200,000 and $1 million to spend on storage, he said. To serve these accounts, MTI has developed a strong end-user-focused sales force, along with a presales consulting arm that helps customers articulate the business problem they’re trying to solve and define the return on investment they expect to see.

As far as solution disciplines go, the company sees its largest opportunity in SAN, NAS and replication.

Success flows from solution road maps that lead to return on investment within two years, Raimondi said. MTI promises to service and support the implementation for the life of the products, returning to the customer site on a regular basis to confirm that the solution is meeting its needs, he said.

“We have a very high-touch model based around a lot of services and a strong understanding of the businesses we serve,” Raimondi said. “We understand that technology by itself is not the answer.”

He describes MTI as “a hunter organization”—the solution provider’s salespeople make “lots of prospecting calls” to “fill the funnel.”

MTI battled through three down years following the dot-com bust, but Raimondi said he expects business to stay good because of “a coordinated refresh” among companies that is reasserting “normalized buying patterns.”

 Published for the Week Of November 1, 2004