e-velocity News

12/9/07 - Cincinnati Enquirer Article

Joe Edwards and Tim O'Brien saw a business opportunity emerging about five years ago.

The two men worked at networking equipment giant Cisco Systems at the time, Edwards, 37, as a manager and O'Brien, 38, as an engineer. But they realized there was huge demand from Cisco resellers who needed help installing and managing the latest Cisco phone and communications system equipment.

That demand led to the creation of their own company, e-velocity, which specializes in expert integration services for Cisco Systems. E-velocity works in partnership with Cisco to configure and service Cisco's networking communication systems for small and medium-sized companies throughout the region, said Edwards.

"We were working nights and weekends doing this stuff, and we decided we could do this and make a living at it," said Edwards.

With 12 employees today, Edwards said business is brisk as changing technology is bringing about a wave of turnover in the type of phone and communications equipment that businesses use.

Essentially, companies from large to small are casting off what is known in the industry as "legacy" or traditional communications systems and purchasing newer Internet protocol (IP) phone systems, which make use of the Internet as a conduit for the calls, said Edwards.

The new technology allows companies to link even distant offices together through their computer system and make phone calls to these outlying locations without going through the phone company.

E-velocity charges its clients flat-rate maintenance fees to service and monitor their networks, said Edwards, which he said clients appreciate because of the ease of budgeting.

With only 20 percent of the available market already using the new technology, Edwards said there is plenty of opportunity for growth in his business, but he wants to keep a tight reign on expansion.

"I believe in slow, steady growth to make it manageable," he said.

E-velocity is listed by Inc. magazine as number 563 on its list of the 5,000 fastest-growing independent companies in the U.S. The company's revenue has grown significantly each year for the past three years: $1.9 million in 2005; $3.9 million in 2006; and $5 million projected for 2007, he said.

While changes in the marketplace account for some of the growth, Edwards said his staff's experience and expert knowledge are a factor in the increasing business.

Edwards said four of his technicians have varying Cisco certifications, which means they have least four to six years of experience and training in Cisco equipment and implementation.

E-velocity is a certified Gold Partner with Cisco, a designation that is given only to a select few companies who meet Cisco's standards for technological expertise and customer service.

Another distinguishing factor for e-velocity is the sheer volume of work it handles, said Edwards. E-velocity has been hired for more than 150 call center installations, he said, that have included thousands of phones and related equipment. That adds up to hundreds of hours of experience for his staff members.

Mike Baker, divisional vice president of application and product development for IVANS, based in Stamford, Conn., said e-velocity's knowledgeable staff was a factor in their decision to hire the company to increase the level of security for their communications system at the Cincinnati office location in Newtown.

"To me, the key differentiator between e-velocity and the others in the market is the caliber of their staff," said Baker. "There are a lot of technology companies around, and like many other markets, some do a better job than others. E-velocity has assembled a staff of engineers that allows them to provide services and technology solutions superior to their competition."

Matt Disher, chief information officer for Seapine Software of Mason, said e-velocity has helped Seapine, which also has offices in several overseas cities, to sort through the complex and ever-changing network communications marketplace to find the best equipment for their needs.

"The Cisco stuff is so complicated, and it's constantly changing," said Disher. "We could not keep up with it. One of the things I enjoy about e-velocity is they don't just sell you what you ask for. They make sure you have the right solution. They keep me from shooting my foot off."

8/31/07 - e-velocity reaches Cisco Gold certification

e-velocity is excited to now be Cisco Gold Certified. We are giving our partners even more reasons to partner with e-velocity and utilized world-class professional services and support. We continue to advance our skills and certifications to prove that we are "Certified Experts"

Why go from Silver to Gold?

Through our re-certification of Cisco Silver, we discovered we had the certified individuals and just needed to complete the Cisco Advanced Wireless Specialization to achieve the Gold designation. We completed our tests for Advanced Wireless and scheduled, then passed, our Cisco Gold Audit. e-velocity uses the Cisco partner specializations, to prove to our partners which sell Cisco solutions, that we are "Certified Experts" in specific technology areas.

Now that we are Gold certified, we can offer a stronger solution as a team when the partner and e-velocity are working together on winning an opportunity. We can prove to our partners that we are capable of providing the very top-level of support and not have their customers question "Why shouldn't I go to a larger DVAR who is Gold?" When partnered with e-velocity the pairing of the partner's local presence and business expertise makes our team unbeatable.

8/27/07 - Inc. 5000 Achievement!

e-velocity has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the "2007 Fastest Growing Private Companies" in America. With explosive growth over the past 3 years, we are proud to be ranked #563 on the Inc. 5000 list.

We attribute our growth to a focused business model, real world experience and dedicated employees that help our customers, who are a partner community, provide expert solutions based on the Cisco System's portfolio of end-to-end products.

We extend a sincere "thank you" to our partners who have helped us grow and continue to work toward solutions that offer win-win opportunities as we continue to build a reputation for success together.

8/20/07 - e-velocity goes for Gold

e-velocity is pleased to announce that we have applied for Cisco Gold Partner status.

To date, e-velocity has obtained the following certification levels:

• Advanced Unified Communications
• Advanced Routing & Switching
• Advanced Security
• Advanced Wireless LAN

With these specializations, we are able to implement virtually any Cisco solution. The advanced specializations ensure our partners are backed with expert Cisco engineers.

We have completed the Gold audit and are waiting for the confirmation. We are looking forward to the official announcement in the coming weeks.