Sailing Through The Storm: The 2009 Fast Growth Award Winners

The 2009 Fast Growth Awards, presented in San Francisco at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel Wednesday night, recognize solution providers who showed outstanding revenue growth between 2006 and 2008, and who are leaders in their respective market segments. Here we present those solution providers that beat the odds during a recession and saw huge sales growth while helping their customers gain productivity and efficiencies.

Senior Vice President and Editorial Director Robert C. DeMarzo congratulated the winners and noted that the average company on CRN's Fast Growth list had revenue of $192 million, and the average rate of increase was 93 percent. In addition, he announced that the CRN Fast Growth 100 has been expanded to recognize an additional Fast 50 Up And Comers. These are technology integrators, VARs, resellers and consultants -- every one of which has reported above-average revenue increases.

CRN Editor/News Steven Burke explained that the 50 additional Fast Growth companies grew revenue between 20 percent and 55 percent. "Especially in this day and age, that's something to write home about -- and these are certainly VARs to keep an eye on."

DeMarzo praised FedStore's vice president of Sales, Andrew Cayouette, for his company's outrageous 680 percent growth rate. Not only does this company work closely with civilian, defense and intelligence agencies in the government sector, it also services the commercial sector. It partners with industry leaders across multiple disciplines to provide hardware and software solutions, as well as full lifecycle network support services and security.

As a top-ranked GSA Schedule Contract holder, Carahsoft is the government's largest VAR partner. It serves as the master government aggregator for many best-of-breed vendors, and experienced two-year revenue growth of 281 percent. Burke presents Julie Denworth, vice president of Carahsoft marketing, with the company's award.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a hot topic these days -- and Genpact is at the top of that market segment. Despite a declining economy, this billion-dollar BPO firm has seen increased demand for its solutions, such as providing supply-chain services to companies that have recently laid off significant portions of their workforces. DeMarzo congratulates Perry Santia, senior vice president and global ITO business development leader at Genpact, on the company's two-year revenue growth rate of almost 71 percent.

Burke offers congratulations to Luke Johnson, Netelligent director, on the company's tremendous growth rate of 171 percent. The MSP offers various services, including training, maintenance, desktop unification, virtualization and data center solutions.

Since its launch in 2004, $39 million Microtech has exhibited extraordinary growth -- nearly 700 percent between 2006 and 2008 -- both in business expansion, as well as in hiring talented professionals. Recently, it has enjoyed particular strength in its Audio-Visual Telecommunications solutions.



Here, DeMarzo presents the CRN Fast Growth Unified Communications Solutions Specialist award to Microtech President, Tony Jimenez.

Nexum's solutions have saved hundreds of clients time and money, whether through initial architectural solutions or post-install training. Those high-ROI solutions have resulted in a growth rate of nearly 98 percent between 2006 and 2008. DeMarzo (left) and Burke offer a hearty "job well done" to Nexum President David Lesser.

Customers chose this $1.24 billion solution provider -- Softchoice -- for its ability to reduce costs and create efficiencies by matching data with the appropriate storage device that fits within their budgets. DeMarzo noted that by minimizing risk -- while ensuring the greatest return on investment -- Softchoice has earned high levels of customer satisfaction, contributing to its phenomenal sales growth of 77 percent. Here, Softchoice's Brian Kelley accepts the award for his company.

Not only does ePlus help customers build and maintain their IT infrastructures, but it also helps them with financing and efficiency. This $850 million VAR is an expert in coming up with business process solutions and supply-chain software solutions. As a member of the 50 Up and Comers list, it grew sales 31 percent between 2006 and 2008. Accepting for ePlus here is Vice President, Andy Shulman.

Bluewater Communications ranks No. 1 on CRN's 2009 Fast Growth list, posting astronomical growth of 3,605 percent between 2006 and 2008.



CEO Bob Cagnazzi told Everything Channel that the key to its success has hinged on focusing sharply on its team, its solutions and its target markets. Since day one, this solution provider knew the importance of having the right people in senior positions -- those who understood the culture and were prepared to scale the business. DeMarzo (left) and Burke (right) congratulate Cagnazzi on this extraordinary achievement.

Congratulations to a group of dedicated executives (from left to right): Julie Denworth, Carahsoft; David Lesser, Nexum; Brian Kelley, Softchoice; Andy Shulman, ePlus; Bob Cagnazzi, Bluewater Communications; Tony Jimenez, MicroTech; Andrew Cayouette, FedStore; Luke Johnson, Netelligent; and Perry Santia, Genpact.