Company: Strategic Solutions, Inc.
Owner: Peter Briggs
Employees: 9
Type of business: Midrange computer specialists
Location: Wakefield
Year founded: 1993
Annual revenues: $12 million
AT HIS DESK is Peter Briggs.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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A couple of years ago, Strategic Solutions, Inc.’s billing for services ran about $200,000. Next year, it should hit $3 million.
Peter Briggs is definitely on to something.
Strategic Solutions is a single source specialist serving commercial and industrial computer systems, including IBM AS/400 systems. The service side of the business is growing — rapidly.
”We want to be a $50 or $60 million service provider within 18 months,” said Briggs, the company’s owner.
If Briggs sounds confident, he should. His company is developing new ideas and expertise in areas that are growing in demand. At the same time, IBM has cut back on the services it provides, preferring instead to allow others -like Strategic Solutions – to capture that business. Briggs has seized the opportunity.
“Two years ago I made a conscious decision to develop the services element,” said Briggs. “We’re getting away from being focused on hardware. It was becoming tougher to make it as a hardware distributor. There is an overwhelming demand for AS/400 technical skills.”
Briggs’ master plan calls for the company to concentrate its efforts on four distinct areas.
They include Lotus Domino application development; “business intelligence” programs; “high availability” programs; and “commercialware,” an e-commerce application.
The company has also established a subsidiary, Technology Funding Solutions, that is basically a finance company for high-tech products.
The Lotus Domino application enjoys strong penetration throughout a wide range of industries. And “business intelligence” programs, like one that track data by virtually any criteria requested, are making life easier for manufacturers throughout the area, he said.
For example, Briggs said, a jewelry manufacturer can use a “business intelligence” program to get a quick handle on sales of specific products – where are they selling best, and at what price?
”He or she wants to know which widgets are being shipped to which customer and who is paying well,” said Briggs. “It’s like a drill-down tool for raw data.”
Even New England’s older manufacturers, said Briggs, are getting used to the idea that high technology can help them to operate more efficiently. Even if some are doing so reluctantly.
“A lot of times, the older manufacturers do not embrace technology,” Briggs said. “But the technological needs are becoming clearly defined. Everyone is going to have to put their products on the Internet.”
”High availability” computer programs are enormously popular because of the need for industries to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Strategic Solutions helps companies by installing and servicing programs that allow a company to mirror information stored on one computer, onto another.
GATHERING OF STRATEGISTS, from left: Peter Briggs,Mike Ryan, senior account manager and Chris maciel, director of marketing.
In part, it provides a safe haven for information should Mother Nature — or some other catastrophe — strike.
It makes a lot of sense for a company like Bacou USA in Smithfield, makers of protective eyewear and other products.
Barry Kadets, Bacou USA’s chief information officer, signed on to a “High Availability” program in part to send a message to shareholders that all was in good hands – at all times.
“We could probably be down for 48 to 72 hours and be all right,” said Kadets. “But we are a public company and this shows that we will not be negligent. We’ll have a box on each coast, here and in Orange County, California. We’ll mirror data back and forth.”
Kadets credits Briggs and his staff for helping Bacou understand new IBM products.
”Peter Briggs and company have been very responsive and they have given us good advice,” Kadets said.
Strategic Solutions’ “Commercial-ware” products and services tap into the growing e-commerce market. It is a market that Briggs sees as just now beginning its take off.
Briggs is especially excited about the creation of Technology Funding Solutions, less than a year ago. The subsidiary, under the direction of Chris Maciel, Strategic Solutions’ director of marketing, has $4 million in leases signed to date.
”It is a big dilemma for companies,” Briggs said. “IBM keeps changing its equipment. You buy something and within 18 months there is something else, faster and less expensive out there.”
To illustrate his point, Briggs points to a shelf in his office. Sitting there is a $6,000 laptop computer, replaced on his desk by a more efficient $3,000 model.
”This is about protecting yourself from technological obsolescence,” Briggs said. “Most companies today lease equipment. It has less to do with their ability to pay and more a concern of budgeting.”
Maciel said leasing equipment is often the best way for a company to conserve capital. Protecting credit lines and eliminating the risk of technological obsolescence are just the beginning, Maciel said.
“Leasing payments are frequently treated as an expense deduction for tax purposes,” he said.
It is because of the concentration on the four distinct areas and potential of the leasing subsidiary that Briggs is so confident in the continued success of Strategic Solutions. He is looking at the big picture – and liking what he sees.
Briggs’ own roots – and that of his company — are in New York. He was raised on Long Island. His early clients were typically found on Wall Street. Many of those customers – Bank of Brazil, for example – remain.
But others have emerged now that Strategic Solutions is located roughly at a center point between New York City and Boston. Rhode Island, said Briggs, provides easy access. It has also provided a wonderful place for he and his wife, Susan, to raise two daughters and one son.
Spend just a couple of hours with Peter Briggs at his South County office and you get the feeling that he knows how this is going to play out.
You also get the feeling that his employees have confidence in him. The atmosphere is casual – but driven.
”Peter’s foresight as to the direction of the industry is what differentiates him from the rest of the pack,” Maciel said. “He is able to sell the total solution concept.”
Briggs is 42, but looks 10 years younger. Still, he knows he isn’t a kid anymore. He is becoming more reflective. Thinking back, the early days were as hectic, but in a way, simpler. He was an entrepreneur with time and energy to burn. The money flowed. He didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about that big picture.
Now, it’s all about the big picture. The stakes are higher. It’s not about him – it’s about a company. But his confidence hasn’t waned. It, like his company, has grown.
Briggs knows that the venture capitalists in Boston, New York and Chicago watch companies like his closely. He knows that when the time is right, one may dig deep into a pocket – ready to invest. Ready, perhaps, to bring the company to heights yet to be imagined.
”We’re not there, yet,” he said.
It is said with that same confidence. With a knowing smile. That confidence that allows him to predict that Strategic Solutions will be a $50 or $60 million service provider within 18 months.
It’s bold — brash even. But the numbers suggest that Peter Briggs is definitely on to something.
