Five Questions With Ernie Muir, Innovativ Systems Design//Verifichi

Ernie Muir, CEO of Innovativ Systems Design (No. 173 on the 2004 VARBusiness 500) started his solution-provider company in 1999 and in six years has grown it into a $140 million business. On Valentine's Day, Innovativ officially announced details of a restructuring that call for the company to act as an incubator, spinning off new companies. That same month, Muir became CEO of Verifichi, while Anthony Mellina took over the top slot at Innovativ.

•What's behind the new game plan? We have developed our own proprietary technologies. The company has managed to acquire 41 patents. The idea is to get to the next level of revenue growth by attracting investors and getting these technologies their own sets of value-added partners.

•What's the lineup? There's Innovativ Systems Design, an integrator that is Sun Microsystems' top consulting partner. Clique Communications, which we started last July, offers video and Web-collaboration tools. We have Verifichi, which offers data-warehouse solutions. And Wild Empire manages the production and distribution of [visual content].

•What will the new structure be like? In the case of Verifichi, we set up its own indirect sales force to make sure it obtains its own set of solution providers. In the case of Wild Empire, the company has its own sales force because of its content--which is a different type of product than the others. We've made five new hires. Otherwise, the sales force is virtually the same. Oh, yes, we had another change. Before, we had a universal help desk for all the companies [under our umbrella]. Now, we decided to spin them off. Each company has its own support structure.

•Why not keep the company as it was? If we maintained the company as it was, then there's a good chance the other resellers might stay away because they would view us as competition. This way, they can partner with a distinct technology company.

•What near-term goals have you and your managers established for these newly established portfolio of companies? We have plans to sign up as many as 10 resellers per each of our companies per quarter. And we expect the combined sales of all four companies to reach $250 million in the next year or so.