The Thought

Working at Accenture implementing ERP systems for utilities we learned the latest technology to use the internet to make the systems available from anywhere. The core technologies were complex, expensive and not widely used by companies outside of the Fortune 500.

Back in 1999 companies were forming to offer hosting for SAP and Peoplesoft. This was part of a trend called Business Process Outsourcing. Data centers were being moved to India and companies were leasing their staff from agencies. What if we could offer the advanced technology to smaller companies and do it from America? We were the first and had no competition. We wanted to swim in blue water away from the large firms and developed a business plan for our new company

The Concept

At Accenture you work with the best and brightest people. Accenture has the internal resources for anything needed to get the job done. Going out on our own, we knew that we could not be all things to all people. So, our plan included creating a Network of experts in the technology, software and industry to provide an excellent customer experience.

Turning the Internet into a Competitive Advantage.

• Focusing on small to mid-sized businesses.
• The Internet is our wide area network,
• A network of business professionals deliver the service.

As business people and computer geeks, we could not come up with a creative name, so I-Business Network was founded.

Core Culture

It was the late 90’s and ERP systems were being implemented like crazy before the promised Armageddon of Y2K would hit. Corporate culture was to work long hours and sacrifice for the good of the company. Although our projects were on-time and under budget, the expectation was that we would work weekends. Because we wanted to work to live, and did not want to live to work, we founded a company with work life balance as a core value.

We are technology driven, and know that most business is not. Technology provides great tools and is one of our core competencies, but we know the customer is always the focus of our effort. Around the customer are people, process and technology. Our people are professional and the process drives improvement, using technology as the tool. This culture enables our team to even the playing field for the smaller company to compete with the large enterprise.

The Evolution

Although we planned to be just a “hosting” company, software companies serving our market did not have programs for us. So we began reselling software and created cloud programs with Sage, SAP and Advanced Software! There was no concept of Software as a Service, so we created monthly payment programs and “indefinite financing agreements.” We pioneered the use of virtualization” and were the first to offer multi-tenancy.

With the rise of cyber attacks and the ever increasing cost of cyber security it became evident that our lifestyle company would need to re-invent itself again as a consulting company on our core competencies of Digital Transformation, Cloud, SMB ERP and optimizing them through continuous improvement methodologies..