How the Mobile Ambitions of Large Enterprises Are Rooted in Middle-Market Smarts

When it comes to the burgeoning mobile applications market, there’s little doubt that development efforts under way inside large enterprise companies such as Barclays, Verizon, Samsung, and ESPN help to energize the market-at-large while certifying the reputation of each of these firms as a mobile innovator.

Yet it may surprise some to learn that each of these giant enterprises frequently turns to the same middle-market company to garner the mobile expertise that they require to produce innovative custom applications.

This company — InfoVision, of Richardson, Texas — is representative of a unique class of middle-market firms that has diligently grown their IT expertise and offerings to match the quickly evolving technology ambitions of large enterprises. However, InfoVision is by all accounts a standout not only because of its portfolio of 25 or more Fortune 1000 clients, but also by virtue of its ability to quickly adapt and pursue a variety of high-calorie IT opportunities that have propelled the firm’s revenues to $70 million.

“We looked at mobile a few years back and saw the opportunity coming forward, so over 2 years, we have grown our mobile workforce from zero to 140 billable consultants,” explains SeanYalamanchi, InfoVision co-founder and chairman, who says that the firm employs about 600 total consultants in five North American offices, with another 100 in Begalaru, India.

Yalamanchi first established InfoVision in1995, with Raman Kovelamudi, a classmate from India’s Bharathiar University, where the two men studied engineering and computer science before continuing their studies in the United States. Originally, the two conceived of InfoVision as an IT staffing firm, but they quickly began pursuing fixed-price custom software engagements that required InfoVision to adopt a separate business model that would accommodate talent both onshore and offshore.

“Systems integration and enterprise software development pretty much go hand-in-hand in every one of our large Fortune accounts. Basically, we develop the software and then help them to integrate multiple systems,” explains Yalamanchi, who says that the complexity behind the firm’s integration work often reflects the size of the company.

“One of our major telecom customers has about 16 different variations of their billing systems. We’re now working on reducing this to three or four systems, so this has required us to have teams working on multiple projects,” he adds.

Over time, InfoVision has routinely refreshed and retrained its consulting talent as it pursued new waves of opportunities involving data analytics, visualization, collaboration, and, of course, mobile computing.

Central to InfoVision’s pursuit of the next wave of opportunities is the role of subject matter experts, or what InfoVision calls “SMEs” — which the firm currently uses as “nonbillable” strategy advisors inside key industry verticals such as telecom, retail, banking, and manufacturing.

“Our SMEs stay in front of the curve. They are here to help clients see strategic shifts that will impact their businesses,” says Yalamanchi, noting that as mobile data volumes have expanded, InfoVision’s telecom customers have responded by ramping up their capital expenditures on equipment upgrades, overhauls, and capability increases.

“Today, we work with the carriers such Verizon, as well as the companies that manufacture the networks, such as Ericsson and Alcatel. Our SMEs, for instance, are speaking with vice president–level executives in both types of organizations. They have a very strong understanding of how data capabilities are evolving, and this has allowed them to participate in the strategic initiatives of our clients,” observes Yalamanchi, who adds that InfoVision’s mobile practice is also garnering strategic insights from the users.

“Our clients are really looking for a ‘wow factor’ when it comes to the user experience, so we have a team of professionals focused on what users want. This involves participating in different focus groups and user forums,” he explains.

After 17 years, InfoVision has an appetite for growth that remains solely organic, an unusual trait inside an IT consulting sector known for its robust M&A activity.

“We believe in keeping things simple, and in the past when we have done some due diligence on a buyout candidate, we always seem to be a little disappointed by what we learn about their business,” he adds.