System iNetwork

January 2010

January 26, 2010 2:55 PM

SkyView Poised for Growth with New CEO

SkyView Partners, Inc., has hired Tom Coccione as its CEO. Current CEO John Vanderwall, cofounder of SkyView along with Carol Woodbury, will immediately assume the role of chairman of the board and chief operating officer. Coccione has 22 years of experience in the software industry and spent 13 of those years at IBM in sales and sales management. I spoke with Coccione recently to learn a little more about his plans for SkyView. Coccione told me that before deciding to join SkyView, he researched the IBM i space and found that "the importance and value of the i is still at the heart of these companies, and within that industry, compliance is rapidly becoming important."

System iNEWS: What motivated you to join SkyView?
Coccione: I was with IBM for 13 years, but I've never really been specifically in the security industry, so when this SkyView opportunity came up, I did my due diligence, and I saw a rapidly emerging market in the compliance area. Four or five years ago, you didn't hear a lot about compliance, but today it's becoming pretty common. As I looked at the compliance industry, I saw it as a significant emerging market. The majority of the market is still manual and very labor intensive. As these companies evaluate an automated software solution, they see an immediate ROI. It's one of those "markets within a market" that's emerging rapidly, and it's sizable. It's also the kind of market that, particularly with government regulations increasing, is going to be a growing market despite the economy. We were up 13 percent over last year, and we'd have done even better with more sales resources.

My skill set fits well with SkyView's vision to rapidly grow the business. From my past business experience in enterprise software sales, I know that raising investment capital and building infrastructure and process will help SkyView in growing the business.

SiN: How do you envision your business growing?
Coccione: SkyView has the opportunity to grow geometrically. The IBM i market is still relatively untapped. With additional sales resources and aggressive marketing, we believe we can increase revenues by 20 percent in 2010. Our cross-platform strategy, which will be announced later in the year, gives SkyView the opportunity to grow exponentially. I think we're very focused with our products—Policy Minder and Risk Assessor—and they solve some major problems for companies, and I like that focus and the design. The products are deep in maturity. So I see SkyView Partners not moving so much to additional product lines but to additional platforms. A number of our customers have shown interest in that. So you will see SkyView taking the strengths that we have in our products to other platforms. We'll focus on our very strong loyal customer base. Our brand has been established within the IBM i world, and we want to leverage and expand upon that. Partners, especially those in the ASP and outsourcing model, will be key in expanding our market share.

SiN: What is your product strategy going forward?
Coccione: Our satisfied customer base is crucial to our future growth and success. We are looking at other products and tools to expand and complement our products. We have a very high maintenance-renewal rate because of high customer satisfaction with our products. Risk Assessor is designed to easily download for customers to have a free trial.

There's a strategy to add on more products, whether our partners' or our own, and that will enhance the current product line. Our strategy for 2010, since we'll be focusing on our customer base, is to gain market share, and we're planning to expand our sales organization as well. In terms of the market, the health care market is going to be a priority market for us.

SkyView Partners is at the right place at the right time in this emerging compliance market. It has established its brand as a quality product that solves a major, labor-intensive problem for a customer. John and Carol have earned a reputation that will give the company a strong value proposition on other platforms. I believe my skill set and experience comes at a perfect time to grow the business.

—Linda Harty, executive editor & availability/security/networking/connectivity editor

Posted by lharty on January 26, 2010 at 2:55 PM | Comments (0)