By Allan Maurer
RESTON, VA—Apptix, which sells hosted email, voice, and collaboration services, says it wanted to get the word out about its inexpensive business class products at Thursday night’s Fusion Fest event at the Reston Town Center Pavilion. Apptix sponsored the event. “We feel we’re one of the best-kept secrets in the area and a ton of influential people attend the event, says Jackie Funk, Apptix director of marketing.
Funk says about 450 people attended the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s annual networking event.
Apptix, spunout of Norway-based TeleComputing ASA in 2002 to become an independent company based in Herndon, VA. Traded on the Norway stock exchange (OSE:APP), the company has placed on numerous lists of the fastest growing companies, posting a 272 percent two-year growth rate and with more than $20 million in 2006 revenue.
The company initially focused on selling its products through channel partners including IBM, Bell Canada, Hewlett Packard and Savvis. But when Amir Hudda took over as CEO, he steered the company toward more direct selling, says Funk.
“That gives us more control of our own destiny,” she adds.
The company’s Service Management Platform offers standardization, automation and self-administration of applications, shielding customers from the complexity while allowing them to reap the benefits and maintain control. Apptix also sells on-demand services for messaging and collaboration based on Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint, sold through both direct and indirect channels.
Its core business remains its Hosted Exchange for business class email, which provides 85 percent of its revenue, says Funk.
The service, which offers 99.99 percent reliability, promises no more than four minutes down time in a month, compared to most competitors who offer 99.9 percent reliability. That can lead to downtimes of more than 40 minutes a month. “That doesn’t sound like much unless it happens in the middle of the day when you’re working on an important project,” Funk says.
The company’s products are aimed at small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that need business class email services they can afford. It charges $9 to $12 a month per subscriber. Its service management platform makes adding subscribers or features easy and non-technical.
Because it targets SMBs, Funk notes, Apptix also focuses on mobile services. “A lot of our customers work from their homes, cars, or a Starbucks, so they need that,” she says.
Apptix has 267 employees, 60 percent in Herndon. It recently acquired an LA office when it bought Web Messenger, and has a sales office in New Jersey, data centers in Texas and Chicago, and developers in India and Bulgaria.
“The biggest challenge for us is making sure that SMBs who want affordable, reliable email services know about us,” says Funk. That’s why they’re sponsoring tonight’s Fusion Fest event. “It’s beneficial for us to get the word out,” she says.
On the Web: www.apptix.com
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