DEMAND GENERATOR: Gregg Goldstone, Nexco

Based in Los Angeles, Nexco is an amalgamation of former Hollywood veterans and IT experts who help clients create integrated marketing messages that span multiple mediums.

In addition to helping shape those messages, Nexco supplies the IT expertise to orchestrate the programs by reselling hosting services provided by Atlanta-based Interland to assist customers in setting up their Web sites. And the preferred solution of choice for Nexco is to have its customers up and running on top of the Linux software distribution from Red Hat, Raleigh, N.C.

"Just about everything we have done is with Linux," Goldstone said. "Linux is the choice for the next generation."

One customer about to follow Nexco's lead to open source is PhaseOne, a marketing consulting and research company in Los Angeles that hired Nexco to help craft its online marketing strategy and run its Web sites. "We're not a technology company," said Craig Denton, vice president of sales and marketing at PhaseOne. "The sooner we can get that stuff out of here, the better."

Denton said he doesn't expect to reduce his costs by moving the company's Web site operations--which today are based on Windows servers run by PhaseOne--to data centers run by Nexco, which PhaseOne intends to do in the next few months.

"What we want from Nexco is to have somebody who is responsible for that and taking care of it," he said.

Although Nexco won't force customers down a particular path, Goldstone admits to having a bias toward Linux servers, Macintosh development tools, Java on the server and ColdFusion application servers.

"Our history comes out of Linux and open source," he said. "I also have ties to Apple and am a big supporter of all the Apple technologies. We're also a big proponent of JSP and ColdFusion solutions when necessary."

If required, Nexco will work with Windows, but for the most part, Goldstone finds it easy to sell against Windows server platforms. "When a customer has Windows already, that's actually good for us," he said. "We can actually show from a total cost of ownership to the customer right from the beginning that it's less costly to operate off of Linux."

As part of its overall solution, Nexco relies on Interland to host Web sites it manages for its customers. "I have not been able to beat Interland prices anywhere. And for midsize companies, they offer exactly the right kind of services," he said. "Everybody knows to build a data center and put that in your own shop is just foolhardy."

Given the general lack of marketing sophistication among the midmarket companies that Nexco serves, Goldstone said he expects business to continue to be robust as the young upstart expands beyond its base of 13 customers.

"When you put Hollywood and Silicon Valley together, you get a very unique approach. We bring a storyteller's perspective to an area that has been devoid of that. And out of that comes the recommendations and executions that we ultimately do," he said. "Midmarket companies understand they need to do this; they just can't afford to pay Madison Avenue prices. But when people call us, they already know that they are losing money from lost revenue that could have come through more sales or they are hemorrhaging costs."

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