Alternetics
Optimizing Business Applications

Starting his career in the days when mainframes ruled the corporation, Kip Smith, founder and CEO of Alternetics, quickly realized that the presence of technology was not what fostered or supported business growth. It was actually the right technology deployed in the right manner that really made the difference. Smith feels the majority of business software deployed today have so much more capability than what the business actually understands or utilizes. With the arrival of PCs came the plug-and-play mentality. But in reality, business platforms require a deeper level of understanding to utilize this full potential of the product’s features. Smith founded Alternetics to offer consultancy services geared toward helping companies maximize their investment in software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology. The offering and philosophy fits well in a company with deep CRM technology roots.

“With expertise in both Microsoft CRM and Salesforce.com, we understand the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and are able to make recommendations to our clients without the sales pressure generally associated with the traditional value added reseller,” says Smith.

What makes Alternetics different is their talented pool of senior-level consultants. Unlike other consultancies, Alternetics only hires senior-level experts with specific industry and CRM experience. This expertise allows the Alternetics’ team to transfer the exact know-how and map with the client’s unique business processes to achieve whatever the software project may require. “We have a specific methodology called the OnePoint Advantage, grown out of our many years of listening to our clients. This methodology allows the client to work one-on-one with one person from our organization who serves as chief architect and project manager and they, in turn, communicate with the team. We find it strengthens our understanding of the clients’ needs, reduces confusion and ultimately reduces cost,” explains Smith.

The knowledge transfer is done through the combination of onsite or through web meetings to ensure projects are rolled out on time and budget.

The consultants from Alternetics offer CRM consulting services in a variety of industries such as manufacturing, telecom, finance and insurance to systematically improve the whole process.

“We find that understanding the industry standards and nomenclature greatly increase our effectiveness from the first day,” Smith says.

With the number of data integration projects growing every day, Alternetics’ advantage lies in the reliance on third party products such as Scribe to reduce the need to code every project. “I never thought it made sense to reinvent a solution that may already exist for the client,” Smith explains.

One of Alternetics’ success stories was the integration of Microsoft CRM with the telephone, quoting and policy systems for a large national company. Double entry was a big problem because of the time it took and data entry errors. Data integration by Alternetics ensured a single source for all types of information, allowing reduction in work time by virtue of eliminating the rekeying of all potential errors. Alternetics’ integration of Microsoft CRM and the Genesys phone system displayed the caller’s details—their policy standards and coding standards—to create significant efficiency in the whole process.

“At Alternetics, it is all about maximizing the technology investment,” says Smith. Explaining further on Alternetics’ USP, he says, “A consulting organization should be tuned to the latest software trends and be in sync with the customers’ needs. Our emphasis is on understanding the value and business effectiveness of technology regardless of how cool or innovative it may seem. There must always be a positive ROI or it just does not make sense.”

Smith applauds the fact that Microsoft has embraced the cloud-delivery platform over the software-sales platform. On the software industry’s move toward the cloud environment, Smith emphasizes that Alternetics’ focus will remain on service, usability, functionality, and getting ROI.

“Signing up for cloud delivered software is very easy. The real work is maximizing your investment after the sign-up is done,” says Smith.

On its onward journey, Alternetics will continue to expand offerings into the Business Intelligence and SharePoint side of Microsoft products and other product categories. The drive is to position Alternetics as one of the largest consulting companies nationwide and thereby make a positive impact on organizations.