Looking For A Growth Role Model?
By Gennifer Biggs, security, storage, and managed services editor
A month or so ago, I had the chance to chat with Jeffrey Freeland, cofounder and CEO of Astreya, an IT solutions provider that has paired a technically proficient personnel resource offering with its network expertise to create an international presence. The provider has built a stable of technologists —systems administrators, network engineers, and system and network architects — and then offers those resources for assignments with organizations — mostly Fortune 500 corporations — that are in need of IT support. Astreya started as a typical VAR, working mainly with hardware, but in 2006, it embarked on its services path, and today, employs 200 people working in 22 countries around the world.
How did Freeland accomplish this? "We focused on one particular kind of client with one particular need — network engineering — and we became very good at what we focused on," he explains. Astreya mainly works with large IT corporations, and has evolved into two companies under the same roof — a hardware group (Astreya Solutions) and an infrastructure services group (Astreya). The infrastructure group falls somewhere between managed services and outsourced IT, and Freeland feels it is the perfect solution for today's economy. "We can help any company can help ratchet up its workforce as needed without full time employees."
That focus on supporting organizations with top line network specialists led to an overseas expansion when a customer pushed Astreya to tackle Europe. Today, about 30% of the solution provider's workforce is outside the U.S., working with stateside-based clients but doing work overseas. "Our specialists work for Astreya, but show up at the client's side when and where needed," explains Freeland.
For now, Astreya is striving to more deeply penetrate its existing corporate customer base, but, Freeland says with startups popping up in the wake of recession, the company is finding more and more smaller companies are looking for the kind of value Astreya offers.
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