The Fastest-Growing VARBusiness 500 Companies

1- National Network Services, No. 499
Revenue: $15.7M Growth: 812%
NNSI made a historic change in 2003, buying back assets of Encompass Network Services West from Encompass Services in Texas to help continue its strong growth rate. The network solution provider also purchased a new, larger headquarters property in Centennial, Colo., last year.

2- FusionStorm, No. 297*
Revenue: $60.0M Growth: 285%
After a landmark 2003, the San Francisco-based FusionStorm merged with managed-services provider StormWatch Services to continue expanding its network-services operations.

3- Madison Research, No. 269
Revenue: $69.5M Growth: 231%
Helmed by NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver John Stallworth, Madison Research, based in Huntsville, Ala., won a major U.S. Navy contract last year and also achieved SEI CMM Level 5 software certification.

4- Bason Computer, No.485
Revenue: $19.0M Growth: 217%
The nearly 20-year-old company started out as a supplier of hard-drive controllers and evolved into a full-blown e-commerce power, offering notebooks, PCs, components and peripherals.

5- PFSweb, No. 124
Revenue: $282.4M Growth: 203%
Despite uncharted growth in 2003, the Plano, Texas-based company was in danger last year of being delisted on the Nasdaq and was struggling with its cost structure. But PFSweb bounced back by broadening its IT outsourcing services and winning several key contracts.

6- Denali Advanced Integration, No. 295
Revenue: $60.0M Growth: 200%
The consulting outfit, based in Redmond, Wash., achieved phenomenal growth last year behind its Customer Care programs, which offer regular on-site technical support and advanced technology solutions for vendors such as Cisco, HP and IBM.

7- Bull Services, No. 88
Revenue: $428.4M Growth: 170%
After celebrated stellar results in 2003, the international IT services company, whose U.S. headquarters is in Billerica, Mass., mourned the sudden death of Bull CEO and chairman Pierre Bonelli, who is credited with turning the company around during his two-year term.

8- Pacific Star Communications, No. 389*
Revenue: $38.4M Growth: 168%
Pacific Star, Portland, Ore., specializes in networking and voice and data solutions, and has grown rapidly since its start in 2000. It has recently seen a boom in wireless solutions for its federal-government business.

9- New Technology Management, No. 481*
Revenue: $20.0M Growth: 150%
NTMI, based in Reston, Va., has expanded in recent years, thanks to a blossoming security practice for the government sector, and was recently highlighted by President George W. Bush as a woman-owned small-business success story.

10- Wipro, No. 76
Revenue: $594.0M Growth: 130%
Wipro has emerged as one of the leaders in the software-development movement in India, which has sparked tremendous revenue increases for the company and has helped turn Wipro into a global-services power. Under chief executive Vivek Paul, Wipro has become one of India's largest IT companies, with more than 50 development centers across the globe.

11- Sequel Data Systems, No. 437*
Revenue: $26.9M Growth: 125%
The Austin, Texas-based solution provider started out as a Compaq reseller and post-merger has been one of the strongest members of the HP partner community, offering the full gamut of HP products to customers in the regional South.

12- GovPlace, No. 442*
Revenue: $26.0M Growth: 117%
The Goleta, Calif.-based certified small business has built up its state, local and federal-government business with storage, security and business-continuity solutions. It recently won a major contract with the city of Santa Barbara.

13- SBI Group, No. 169
Revenue: $150.0M Growth: 100%
A number of VARBusiness 500 companies have been acquired over the years, and Ned Stringham's company has done a lot of the buying. SBI, founded by Stringham in 1997, has acquired the assets of such top integrators as Razorfish, Scient, Lante and MarchFirst, propelling the Salt Lake City solution provider to new heights. SBI's president and CEO, in the meantime, has earned numerous accolades, including being named Ernst and Young's National Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003.

14- Future Tech Enterprise, No. 355
Revenue: $44.0M Growth: 100%
The Holbrook, N.Y.-based solution provider has been one of the fastest-growing IT companies in the New York area during the prolonged economic downturn. Future Tech celebrated its most profitable year in 2003, thanks to a growing wireless business.

15- JDM Infrastructure, No. 381*
Revenue: $40.0M Growth: 100%
After 20 years in the market, JDM Infrastructure, Rosemont, Ill., has pushed forward as a full-service integrator under CEO John Marks, who formerly served at CDW.

16- Helio Solutions, No. 325*
Revenue: $52.9M Growth: 99%
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Helio, an authorized Sun iForce government partner, is a minority-owned business that has quickly become one of the top Sun VARs in North America, bucking the IT spending slump and posting impressive revenue gains.

17- Focus Technology Solutions, No. 488*
Revenue: $18.1M Growth: 89%
Located in Portsmouth, N.H., Focus has served New England area businesses for more than 10 years and has fueled its recent growth with professional services and security and network solutions.

18- Computer Software Innovations, No. 386*
Revenue: $38.6M Growth: 83%
CSI, Easley, S.C., was one of South Carolina's fastest-growing companies in 2003. CSI began as an accounting-solutions company in 1989, then branched out into other IT practices and expanded the business.

19- Niteo Partners, No. 492*
Revenue: $18.0M Growth: 80%
Niteo, Boston, was launched by NEC in 2001 as a consulting and systems-integration firm. The fast-growing company last year was reacquired by NEC Solutions America and is now a wholly owned subsidiary.

20- Manhattan Associates, No. 148
Revenue: $196.8M Growth: 79%
Founded in 1990, the Atlanta-based solution provider didn't take long before rising to prominence as a national software integrator. Manhattan Associates became a public company in 1998 after exhibiting remarkable growth. Since then, the company has expanded overseas and has embraced RFID solutions.

21- Epiq Systems, No. 274
Revenue: $67.9M Growth: 79%
The highly specialized Epiq Systems offers IT solutions for bankruptcy and fiduciary-management needs. After experiencing massive growth in 2003, the solution provider recently sold off its infrastructure-software business.

22- Surebridge, No. 364
Revenue: $42.3M Growth: 76%
Surebridge, founded in 1997 in Lexington, Mass., has grown into a market-leading application outsourcer for the midmarket, especially for Microsoft solutions. The company increased profitability in 2003 and launched a Microsoft CRM-hosted solution as well.

23- RDR, No. 329
Revenue: $52.2M Growth: 76%
RDR was founded in 1986 as a government-focused IT services firm, but it wasn't until the late 1990s that the company achieved remarkable growth. The Centreville, Va.-based company continued to extend itself in 2003 with a major U.S. Air Force contract.

24- CWPS, No. 456*
Revenue: $24.5M Growth: 75%
CWPS, known as Connected Work Place Solutions, is based in Chantilly, Va., and specializes in network management, security, wireless and VoIP solutions for government and corporate clients.

25- Sanz, No. 315
Revenue: $55.0M Growth: 72%
SANZ rode the storage wave to record results last year, expanding its customer base in both the commercial and federal-government markets. The Castle Rock, Colo.-based company also introduced its StorTrust storage assessment services in 2003.

26- InterNetwork Experts, No. 340
Revenue: $50.0M Growth: 67%
Founded in 1997, Addison, Texas-based InterNetwork Experts began as an SMB and enterprise-networking solution provider, but morphed into a top Cisco partner, serving government and commercial customers with emerging technologies, such as IP telephony.

27- Booz Allen Hamilton, No. 33
Revenue: $2,200.0M Growth: 67%
Booz Allen Hamilton, McClean, Va., continued to expand as an international consulting firm in 2003, driven by a growing enterprise business and major government contracts.

28- Paaridian Technologies, No. 425*
Revenue: $30.5M Growth: 65%
Based in Alpharetta, Ga., Paaridian does most of its business around IBM as a Premier Business Partner and focuses on verticals such as health care, telecom, manufacturing and financial services.

29- MicroSystem Enterprises, No. 206*
Revenue: $104.0M Growth: 63%
The solution provider, headquartered in Houston, was founded in 1986 and has achieved 16 years of positive growth with strong practices in the government, education and health-care verticals.

30- Cognizant Technology, No. 102
Revenue: $368.0M Growth: 61%
Cognizant has been one of the most successful U.S. solution providers in the offshore outsourcing market, using its overseas development centers in India and Ireland to propel the company to remarkable growth. Recently, the company, based in Teaneck, N.J., upped the ante by acquiring an India-based consulting operation that specializes in SAP software services.

31- ePlus, No. 130
Revenue: $249.1M Growth: 60%
The Herndon, Va.-based software company watched its enterprise cost-management solutions business return in 2003 to levels seen prior to the recession. The company has also acquired assets of Digital Paper.

32- Multimax, No. 320*
Revenue: $54.5M Growth: 60%
Founded in Maryland in 1988, the solution provider has expanded to numerous locations across the country behind a strong state, local and federal-government practice, with network services and a strong systems-builder business.

33- iGov, No. 207
Revenue: $103.1M Growth: 58%
Despite its stature as a small business, this national government integrator has risen high in the ranks of the top GSA Schedule money-makers, thanks to multiple federal contract vehicles and storage, networking and security solutions.

34- Megapath Networks, No. 270*
Revenue: $68.5M Growth: 55%
Located in Pleasanton, Calif., this networking VAR has emerged as one of the fastest-growing solution providers in its market, with strong sales and the acquisition last year of Tmanage, a managed-network services company.

35- World Wide Technology, No. 51
Revenue: $1,100.0M Growth: 54%
One of the largest companies on the Fast 50, WWT celebrated a historic 2003 by crossing the $1 billion-a-year mark in sales and expanding into three new regional markets.

36- Spectrum Systems, No. 444*
Revenue: $25.8M Growth: 54%
The Fairfax, Va.-based solution provider built out its enterprise application-development and management services in 2003 for both government and commercial clients.

37- Emtec, No. 204
Revenue: $105.8M Growth: 52%
A longtime VARBusiness 500 member, Trenton, N.J.-based Emtec last year enlarged its managed-services practice and has won several state government contracts for network, security and infrastructure solutions.

38- Global Technology Resources, No. 493*
Revenue: $17.7M Growth: 51%
Specializing in IP telephony, enterprise storage and security solutions, Denver-based GTRI grew its client base in 2003 and added new government, education and commercial clients in the Western United States.

39- GHA Technologies, No. 321*
Revenue: $54.0M Growth: 50%
GHA emerged as one of the fastest-growing resellers in Arizona during the economic downturn and continued its expansion in 2003, more than doubling its number of employees.

40- NetIQ, No. 205
Revenue: $104.5M Growth: 48%
The ISV, which develops security and systems-management software, boosted its services revenue during its fiscal 2003 period and achieved stronger market-share positions in Web analytics and Windows Server management while also expanding further into Linux and Unix markets.

41- Smart Solutions, No. 439*
Revenue: $26.6M Growth: 45%
Headquartered in Canton, Ohio, Smart Solutions president and CEO Anand Julka last year was named a regional finalist for Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

42- iAnywhere, No. 403*
Revenue: $35.9M Growth: 44%
iAnywhere spun off from Sybase in 2000 as a mobile database software player and has ridden the wireless wave to increase sales. The ISV continues to grow this year, making two strategic software acquisitions.

43- Networked Information Systems, No. 222
Revenue: $91.9M Growth: 43%
NIS, based in Woburn, Mass., was recently recognized by Cisco as one of the vendor's top-performing partners in 2003 for the competitive Northeast quadrant. It also has enjoyed a growing storage and security business.

44- Siwel Consulting, No. 228
Revenue: $88.3M Growth: 42%
The New York-based solution provider has become one of IBM's strongest business partners in recent years, propelling its eServer xSeries and pSeries sales to new heights. Under chief executive Lewis Johnson, the company is now aiming to grow sales another 20 percent this year with a stronger SMB market practice as it approaches the $100 million-a-year revenue mark.

45- Info X Technology Solutions, No. 314*
Revenue: $55.0M Growth: 41%
The storage reseller, based in Whippany, N.J., has evolved into one of the largest providers of enterprise storage equipment, offering high-end storage systems from top vendors, such as EMC.

46- Rose International, No. 377*
Revenue: $40.9M Growth: 41%
Founded in 1993, the Chesterfield, Mo.-based IT consultancy earned a CMM Level-3 software-development certification last year for its offshore-development operations while its CEO, Himanshu "Sue" Bhatia, was honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

47- ManTech Solutions and Technology, No. 67
Revenue: $701.6M Growth: 40%
With a focus on the national security market, ManTech has become an elite government integrator and continued its 2003 success with 24 percent organic growth in this year's first quarter.

48- RDA, No. 400
Revenue: $36.3M Growth: 40%
Since its founding in 1988, RDA has grown from one employee to more than 200 today. The solution provider, headquartered in Timonium, Md., leveraged its software-development and security-integration services to advance its enterprise business last year.

49- Unisys services, No. 13
Revenue: $5,911.2M Growth: 39%
The largest VARBusiness 500 company on the Fast 50 had a superior 2003 compared with its rivals. The Blue Bell, Pa.-based national integrator recently stepped up its presence in India with a new offshore development center.

50- Liquidity Services, No. 293
Revenue: $60.7M Growth: 36.4%
A niche solution provider, Liquidity focuses on asset-recovery solutions for various vertical markets. The company, based in Washington, D.C., serves both government and commercial customers.

(* New to the VARBusiness 500.)