NeoNova Network Services Rings Up Business With Rural Telecoms
Editor's note: RTP Beat is a regular feature on Thursdays.Primarily focused on bringing back-office ISP services to rural independent operating companies (IOCs), NeoNova Network Services has found a niche for itself and grown its revenue and client base by 50 percent over the last three years.
The company designs, operates and manages networks for its clients and provides an array of ISP and ASP services, such as e-mail, hosting, newsgroups, chat and e-commerce.
Warren Lee, president and COO of Morrisville-based NeoNova, says the company's success has to do with the company's understanding of the kinds of relationship executives of rural telephone companies have with their clients. "The guy running the company, whether it's family-owned or co-op, is probably still fourth generation," he says. "It's a very close-knit community and unlike the other telecom players, they have money and they're not afraid to spend it. It's a good niche for us, and there's still a lot of room to grow."
Lee adds that by offering a large suite of customizable features to the end user, NeoNova enables rural companies to go head-to-head with big players such as AOL and MSN. "We were doing content filtering two and a half years ago," says Lee.
NeoNova also has customers in urban markets, such as a cable company in Southern California and a hosting firm in Philadelphia. The 9-year-old company also designed and built the network for the Guam Telephone Authority.
NeoNova was formed in 1994 as a department within Nortel Networks. Called Nortel Information Network, it focused on providing Internet services to rural Independent Operating Companies. In April 1999, Atlanta-based Digitel Corp., one of Nortel's largest distributors, acquired the group and renamed it NeoNova Network Services.
The company is now profitable ... and has been consistently for almost three years...debt-free and owns all its equipment, says Lee. "We are 90 to 95 percent recurring revenue."
NeoNova has clients in 15 states, and only 10 percent of its clients are based in North Carolina. The firm expects to grow from 18 to 22 employees by the end of the first quarter of 2004.
Reliability, says Lee, is another cornerstone of the company's success.
"We've achieved over the last 18 months a 99.98 percent up-time for all our services," says Lee. "When I say we're focused on the rural market, we offer what we call telco grade services. Everybody laughs but when you think about it, when you pick up the phone the dial tone is always there. The dial tone is like air...it always has to be there. We have crafted an Internet service, to the extent possible, that matches that."
David Ranii says 'bye-bye' to biotech
With the arrival of former Business Journal reporter Sabine Vollmer, veteran pharmaceuticals and biotechnology reporter David Ranii of The News &Observer is switching beats. Vollmer, who started this week, will take over pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, while Ranii will cover the media, a new beat for the News & Observer's Business desk. His beat includes cable and satellite television, local broadcast companies (TV and radio), and advertising and marketing.
Cutting Edge expands, moves offices, looks to grow
Founded last year, Cutting Edge Information is rapidly growing and has moved from makeshift offices into 4,000 square feet of office space in Meridian Parkway in Durham. The business research consulting firm has grown to 11 employees and plans to two to three more analysts by the end of the year.
Cutting Edge specializes in preparing research reports for the pharmaceutical industry, analyzing the best practices of firms in the industry. Topics include blockbuster pharmaceutical launches, early-stage market preparation and sales management. In September it will release a report on pharmaceutical alliances. Reports, on average, run between $5,000 to $6,000.
Cutting Edge says its revenue has already doubled over last year and that its clients include the top 20 pharmaceutical firms.
As part of the company's expansion, it is branching out beyond the pharmaceutical industry to include the financial services industry and general cross-industry reports. It also plans to offer specialized consulting services.
Eighteen-month-old Cutting Edge was founded by Jason Richardson and Adam Bianchi, former employees of Chapel Hill-based Best Practices, LLC, a research and consulting firm that prepares benchmarking reports.
Got news? Contact Cal Chang Yocum at cal@localtechwire.com.
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