VARBusiness 500 Honor Top Solution Providers

The VARBusiness 500 awards honor the top solution providers on the annual VARBusiness 500 listing. From revenue generation to technological expertise and Executive of the Year, these highly anticipated awards were presented in front of a packed ballroom at the Manhattan Marriott Marquis. The award winners experienced tremendous growth and revenue increases in 2006.

Agilysys chairman, president and CEO Arthur Rhein earned this year's VARBusiness 500 Executive of the Year award. Under his leadership, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based VAR grew 11 percent last year on revenue of more than $513.6 million. Rhein has been a member of the company's management team for more than 25 years and has more than 40 years of industry experience.

Rhein accepted the award, he said, for all of his employees. Agilysys, No. 86 on the VARBusiness 500, recently became a solution-provider-only company after recognizing it needed to get "closer to the customer," Rhein said. "Today we are positioned very well in the industry. We are pleased to be in this industry, and very pleased to be solely in this industry--one that is fraught with opportunity that we're all taking advantage of."

Special recognition was also given to Javed Khan, president of Jeskell, this year's recipient of the VARBusiness 500 Lifetime Achievement award. For nearly 30 years, Khan has been a pillar of the IT and channel communities. After emigrating from Pakistan in the late 1970s, he worked for IBM as a sales rep before striking out on his own in 1991. In fact, Khan said he owed all of his success to IBM. A valued IBM partner his entire solution provider career, Khan has earned several Beacon awards for sales and technical excellence. Jeskell (No. 199), is a $130.1 million solution provider that grew 13 percent last year. "I was very fortunate that I started this business with no money and never borrowed a dime until I sold the company [to FusionStorm]," he said.

The VARBusiness 500 Company of the Year award recognized IT and storage management solution provider Incentra, which boasted 75.7 percent sales growth last year with revenue of $66.6 million. President Shawn O'Grady accepted the award for his company. Incentra (No. 291) offers professional services, hardware and software products with first-call support, IT outsourcing solutions and financing options.

VARBusiness recognized other solution providers for their revenue growth and profitability, beginning with the Top Revenue Generators. In the less than $100 million range, B2B Computer Products (No. 424) vice president of sales Chris Kurpeikis accepted the award for his company, which saw more than 161 percent growth in 2006. For companies in the $100 million to $500 million range, the award for revenue growth went to FusionStorm, which grew 93 percent in 2006 to $256 million, landing on this year's list at No. 138, up from 183 last year.

Next: Top Revenue Generator

​Moving up to the more than $500 million range, this year's Top Revenue Generator was awarded to Presidio Networked Solutions (No. 72), a company that saw its revenue climb 221.8 percent in 2006 to $695 million, jumping a whopping 78 ranks on this year's list. Merger activity played a large role in the company's growth, edging it toward the $1 billion mark.

One of the leading indicators of success is a company's ability to partner either in a prime or subcontracting role. The winner of the VARBusiness 500 Best Partnership award, SoftwareONE (No. 146), clearly demonstrated excellence in this area: The company earns 70 to 75 percent of its revenue through partnerships. Last year, its business grew nearly 35 percent to more than $235 million annually. President Michael Quinn accepted the award for the company, which was recognized as a model of how partnerships add value to solution provider relationships and strengthen the overall channel.

The Top Technology Practices category recognizes three areas of specialization: security, storage and business intelligence. The Top Technology Practices award for Excellence in security practices went to Reston, Va.-based Carahsoft. With focus on the government sector, Carahsoft's solutions deliver best-of-breed hardware, software and support solutions to federal, state and local government agencies. Carahsoft (No. 242) posted impressive revenue of $91.1 million in 2006, up 150.3 percent from $36.4 million in 2005.

In storage, Regan Technologies took the top prize with Christopher Regan accepting the award. Regan (No. 365), supplies data center services, infrastructure, storage applications and virtualization. The $47 million solution provider saw 93.8 percent growth last year, building and designing cost-effective and high-performance solutions.

The third award in technology was for business intelligence software. EPAM Systems (No. 281), delivers software product development, testing, maintenance and support services, as well as complex industry solutions, to clients in more than 30 countries worldwide. Regina Braz accepted the award. EPAM architects systems that cover multiple channels from Web sites to POS to call centers and sales forces, and develops industry-specific CRM solutions.

New companies are critical to the health and success of the VARBusiness 500. Therefore, each year, we take the opportunity to recognize three growing companies that are new to the list--growing from too-small-to-be-listed last year to making the cut this year. Newcomer Awards went to $139 million FishNet Security (No. 186); $36.6 million BEAR Data Systems (No. 406); and $27.3 million Column Technologies (No. 477). Accepting the awards were CEO Gary Fish, CEO Don James and owner Rob Yario, respectively.

The coveted Editor's Choice award, presented to a standout company during the past year, went to MICROS Systems, a company that exclusively serves the hospitality and specialty retail industries. MICROS (No. 73) saw impressive growth--revenue climbed from $597 million in 2005 to $679 in 2006. Its commitment to finding new ways to provide effective, quality and leading-edge solutions to its customers earned it the 2006 Editor's Choice.