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By CATHY JETT
Ellie Nazemoff kept hearing the same complaint from her government and private-sector IT customers.
They were spending thousands of dollars on software and hardware, only to discover that they couldn't integrate the products with their existing programs--or those in other departments.
"They buy things and they end up with something that isn't solving the problem," said Nazemoff, founder and CEO of Acolyst in Westwood Office Park in Fredericksburg.
There had to be an easier way, she thought. So she decided to open a "solution center" where her staff could link products from dozens of vendors and let customers test various configurations before placing their orders.
"I'd talk to people at places like Cisco and ask what they thought, and they'd say, 'Wow, that's an imaginative idea,'" she said.
Acolyst's Solution Center, which opens the third week in September, is the latest innovation for Nazemoff, who started out selling an office management software program she'd developed for doctors in 1989.
She used that as a springboard to go after government contracts, and now she and her staff of 25 are qualified to provide work in a number of fields, including business process engineering, business continuity planning/disaster recovery and computer- and Web-based training.
Nazemoff's entrepreneurship recently landed her on the cover of the alumni magazine for Strayer University, her alma mater, and on VARBusiness magazine's first list of top 50 women in the technology-integration business nationwide.
The industry publication covers the 90,000 Value Added Resellers in the country. They help influence the spending of $476 billion each year in IT products and services for their customers.
VARBusiness didn't rank its choices, but picked its Power 50 Women based on their achievements as executives and the amount of influence they wield over technology purchases. Acolyst, formerly DataTech Enterprises, is eyeing expansion into Japan and Latin America. It has an annual revenue of about $4 million, but the new center is eventually expected to push that figure to $40 million, according to Nazemoff.
"She owns one of the smaller companies, but she's definitely a woman who has built up quite a reputation," said Cristina McEachern, the magazine's associate managing editor. "The Solutions Center is quite impressive. It's sort of a new trend."
The National Institutes of Health, for example, currently buys or rents hardware and software under consideration for various projects and tests them in-house before making purchase recommendations, said Ali M. Ghassemzadeh, who works in NIH's extramural research office.
"It's a big expenditure in terms of hours, products and manpower," he said before a sneak preview of the Solution Center yesterday.
There, at three stations with backdrops simulating New York, Las Vegas and a city of the customer's choice, Acolyst's staff will quickly set up products for testing, and suggest options customers might not have considered. The company also plans to offer training sessions.
"In one of the recent projects we've been working on for the last six months, the savings [in using the Solution Center] would have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Ghassemzadeh. "In another, it might have been in the tens of thousands or the thousands. It correlates with the size of the project, but the savings are obvious."
VARBusiness came up with the idea for the top 50 list because more women are entering the technology-integration business. The list also is the cornerstone for varbusiness.com/woc, a new Web site where women in this field can network about their businesses, careers and life issues.
"As much as women have been in business and are aspiring to higher and higher ranks, it is still really important for women to continue to reach out and help other women in their progression in their career," said Mary Foley of Richmond, a motivational speaker and columnist for the new site. "It's important for successful women to be role models."
Nazemoff, who began her career 24 years ago while studying computers at Southeastern University in Washington, already is a role model for her two children, both of whom work at Acolyst.
Daughter Valeh Nazemoff started accompanying her mother to work when she was 7 and got to run the copier. She's now vice president of business development. Son Kaveh Nazemoff figured out how to repair some of the office's equipment when he was a teenager, and is now helping to set up Acolyst's office in Japan.
"She's always taught me that nothing is impossible," said Valeh Nazemoff, who wrote one of the first articles for varbusi ness.com/woc. "She's always telling me to be positive, have a good attitude and surround yourself with good people. To have goals in life and go after them; that loops around to 'nothing's impossible.'"
To reach CATHY JETT:
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
