Longtime Sun VAR Diversifies Into Product Development

Innovativ's new Verifichi business unit now offers ITVerify, data warehousing software that can discover enterprise assets and the policies that manage those assets.

Innovativ CEO Tony Mellina said ITVerify grew out of the solution provider's frustration with the quality and costs associated with existing network and systems management tools. In response to customer need, the company developed ITVerify and is now creating its own sales force and channel to market the software, he said.

The new division will be led by Verificihi CEO Ernie Muir.

Verifichi is the third unit that Innovativ Systems Design has launched based on proprietary Java technology. The diversification is the result of a concerted effort to expand Innovativ's base beyond simply reselling hardware, said Ed Partenope, vice president of operations for Innovative, of Edison, N.J.

In the past 18 months, Innovativ has also launched Clique Communications, which markets a telephony applications based on video compression technology developed by Innovativ, and Wild Empire, which helps customers repurpose older media, such as television shows, within interactive, Web-based applications. Those divisions were created to give the solution provider a high-margin source of revenue to balance its reseller portfolio, Mellina said.

"Innovativ is essentially the operating company that supports these divisions," Mellina said. "A good deal of our ability to do this has come from our recruiting over the last two years. Of the 135 employees we have, about 50 are technical development types."

Despite diversifying into multiple product areas, however, the company does not intend to reduce its commitment to reselling IT solutions. On Monday, Innovativ signed on to sell BEA application server software on top of its existing portfolio of Sun, StorageTek and Veritas products, said Partenope.

"Reselling is still very much of the heart of what this company does," Mellina said.