Help Desk Help

Help Desk Help

Tampa's Numara Software made products to help IT professionals run their help desks, kept improving those products and has reaped the benefits.

COMPANY by Dave Szymanski | Tampa Bay Editor

David Weiss, chief executive of Numara Software Inc. in Tampa, likes to run in the morning, about four to six miles a day, longer on Sundays.

"I do it more for the mental," he says. "I'm not a hard-core marathoner. But I'm religious on frequency. I do it five to six days a week. It gives me a lot of think time."

Thinking clearly helps Weiss, 47, manage and lead 210 people in Tampa, New Jersey and the United Kingdom in the production, service and sale of Numara's software that helps information technology professionals more efficiently run their help desks and answer customer requests.

For example, if a PC or printer breaks, you call the IT department or IT firm or email them, and they are responsible for fixing that problem. The Numara software helps the IT staff log the call. It has an issue-tracking system, can assign it to a specialist and sets up a service ticket, among other things.

IT service firms, law firms, dairy farms, hospitals, any company that has an IT department, from a single-person shop to a large enterprise, uses the software.

Numara has been consistently successful, posting $95 million in revenue (up 15%) and more than $37 million in profit (up 11%) in the 2008 fiscal year ended July 31.

That's in large part because it has established, 17-year-old products that are in demand. The company has focused on the same area and developed what Weiss calls, "domain expertise." In other words, it really understands how customers use the system. And it has followed up and built the right functions into the product.

"Track-It! (a Numara product) is a well-established brand and has been in the marketplace for quite a while," says Patrick Clements, co-founder and CEO of bigWebApps, a competitor.

Also, unlike computer hardware and other industries, the profit margin for this kind of software is double-digits, sometimes 40%. The main expenses are people, not physical products.

"There's no physical goods, which is true for most software companies," Weiss says. "We are all in the same situation. The costs are people and sales and marketing expense. We provide a high-level of service. There are sales demos, different configurations, features added on and we are trying to understand their needs. We are on the phone, making sure they are getting it right."

Numara has been so successful financially that, unlike other tech firms, it sees no need to outsource. This could be different if it were struggling, Weiss admits.

But ironically, the biggest lesson Weiss has learned at Numara is that it takes a lot more than good products to make a successful business. It also takes good marketing, sales and a healthy corporate culture. Numara stresses a good work-life balance. There are no corporate jets.

"Our success is in realizing we run a business, not just a technology firm," Weiss says. "We're investing in people."

That's why he tries to get to know employees outside of work and why on a recent Wednesday, the company held an employee talent show. There were singers, even sumo wrestlers.

"Professionally, I've gotten to the point in my career and financially, that it's not the technology, it's people," Weiss says. "I love interacting with the folks. I get a lot of enjoyment in seeing others happy.

"We provide a good living to 210 people and their families," he adds. "They are the ones speaking to customers. We're not curing cancer. But for people that use our product, it makes their lives easier."

Roots in technology

Weiss came from the product side of the business, having worked as vice president at Citrix, a 50-person tech company in Fort Lauderdale. He has always been a lover of technology. He admits he still is.

Numara, which has considered going public, has been in the IT help desk software business for 17 years, but not always under the same name.

The company has only been known as Numara the past 2½ years.

It was named Blue Ocean Software until 2002 when it was sold to Intuit, which makes the popular Quicken and Turbotax software. Intuit let Blue Ocean run as a separate division for three years.

The flagship product line never changed.

"Other than the name change, life went on," Weiss says. "The ownerhip change, for most people, didn't mean a lot. We've always been positive in sales. We never lost focus."

Intuit eventually divested Blue Ocean in 2005.

It is now a privately held company again, in large part owned by TA Associates, the Boston-based private equity firm that invested $200 million in December 2005 in the buyout of Blue Ocean from Intuit.

As a result, Numara will likely have a public offering or be sold to another company for investors to get their return.

"They go out, this firm looks for businesses with solid growth, they invest and help them, establishing growth rates," Weiss says. "We are a highly profitable business. It's an easy investment for them to make. We've generated enough profits. We're running on house money right now. For them, this was an easy investment."

Weiss joined the company as president in early 2002 when it was Blue Ocean, and helped facilitate the sale to Intuit. He then served as general manager of the Blue Ocean division of Intuit. The founder left. Weiss ran the company. Intuit divested it. He then became CEO of Numara in December 2005.

Weiss created the name Numara by reflecting on its former name, Blue Ocean. He found the Latin root word for ocean, "mar," and combined it with the prefix "nu," meaning new.

"We wanted to pay tribute to our past and look forward," he says.

Setting Numara apart

What specifically sets Numara apart from competitors, Weiss says, is easy-to-use products developed and priced for mid- and lower-market companies. Customers get an access code and download them off the Web.

"It's not something like an ERP system with consultants on site for three months," Weiss says. The products also comply with the ITIL industry standards.

Numara's post-sales support is also important, he says.

"Our folks are top notch, all based here," Weiss says. "There's no issues about re-routed calls or response time. We answer. Ratings are extremely high. It helps us significantly."

But it wasn't always this way.

"Years ago, we didn't invest in the post-sales support," Weiss admits. "I got emails, nasty grams. Now, we have customers buying our staff pizzas, sending fruit baskets. It's not a love fest, but these guys are really dedicated. It shows. It's been very refreshing. You can really tell the difference."

In the IT help desk sub-market, valued at more than $860 million, are large companies such as BMC Software, Symantec and Landesk. There are also dozens of small players. It is a market with constant growth, but not hyper growth, around 6% to10% a year. There is consolidation going on constantly. It is dynamic but doesn't generate as many headlines as the security or Internet software markets.

Numara's products have always been geared more toward smaller companies, although it has been invited to serve some Fortune 500 firms.

But it found its product wasn't designed for that segment. So it decided to enhance its skill sets and in August 2006 acquired Unipress Software in New Jersey, adding its product line. Unipress, with about 50 employees, had a similar product line to Numara, but it was more designed for the mid-market.

"It worked out extremely well," Weiss says. "We compete well."

In the future, Weiss wants Numara to continue growth in its core business and also look at ways to license its products to third-party tech firms.

"We're in a fairly mature market space," he says.

Weiss would also like to continue to expand its international business, which now makes up 22% of revenues. He wants to get it to 40%.

"We're going to diversify, but are not going to be a conglomerate," Weiss says. "We're not going from software to furniture."

Even though it shares a class A office building in Westshore with OSI, parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Numara has kept a low profile.

"The thing is, most people don't know we're here," Weiss says.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Company: Numara Software Inc.

Industry: IT software

Key: Get IT professionals to manage help desk calls efficiently.