IceWEB™, Inc., an award-winning Unified Data Storage appliance provider for cloud and virtual environments, as well as highly secure, scalable IceBOX BYOD* Private Digital Cloud Solution, today released the following statement from CEO, Rob Howe.
Dear Shareholders:
Here is a brief update on the progress of our previously announced plan to acquire Computers and Tele-Comm, Inc. and KC NAP, LLC. We have completed our due diligence phase, and we are now awaiting the completion of the final audit. We now estimate that we will have the acquisition completed by early June.
Since we began delivering our IceBOX™ product line, the first iteration of our Cloud Services Strategy, we have been successful in selling these products into a wide variety of market segments including government, education, medical and commercial enterprises. We have sold IceBOX through resellers (providing them with excellent margins), and we have sold IceBOX direct to the customer. We have sold on-premise versions and we have sold hosted versions. Just as importantly, IceBOX has pulled along with its adoption new sales of our Unified Storage Appliances, which utilize our award-winning IceSTORM™ operating system. In short, our new Cloud Services strategy that I announced late last year is working.
What’s most interesting about the change in our strategy is that our new products and services generate revenue at the point of sale, as well as recurring revenue in the form of renewals of annual licenses. Every time we sell our IceBOX products, we generate recurring revenue. Every time. Think about that—every year, we’ll be collecting renewals from IceBOX customers that build not only our revenue line, but also our profitability line. This is the right strategy, and we are just at the beginning of it.
We build outstanding hardware platforms that perform brilliantly for our customers. We have developed and delivered our world-class unified storage software, IceSTORM, which rivals any in the industry for its robustness and applicability, but NOW WE ALSO PROVIDE a key solution with enormous capability, scalability and security for companies who MUST deal with the BYOD phenomenon. This includes maintaining security of their corporate data assets and compliance with ever-increasing regulatory requirements.
Our evolution into a Cloud Services company is by no means complete. Our acquisition of Computers and Tele-Comm, Inc. and KC NAP, LLC is a great stride forward in that strategy, but we will not be done. We’ll launch packaged and SKU’ed Cloud Services to be sold through the IT VAR and Reseller channel. They’ll take our products and services into the heartland of American business—the Small and Medium Enterprises that are the robust engine of commerce. We will provide those resellers with a simple, easy, way to sell these mission critical collaborative services to the customers they already support, and who rely on them for advice and execution of their IT strategy and implementation. I started in this business as a reseller almost 30 years ago, and I understand at a visceral level what resellers need to keep their businesses flourishing—easy to sell, easy to administer products with high margins. That’s what we’ll provide to them, and if our early successes are any indicator, this approach will work and it will work in a big way.
Industry expert, Nasumi, in its The State of Cloud Storage 2013 Industry Report, stated, “While offering cloud storage is relatively easy, delivering high performing, reliable and scalable solutions requires significant focus, advanced technology and continuous investment.” This was our thinking when pursuing acquisition candidates like Computers and Tele-Comm, Inc. and KC NAP, LLC. We know that only through this type of willingness to make significant investments with significant focus, would we achieve our goal of leadership in this burgeoning sector.
Finally, I get a number of emails every week from you asking me ‘how is it going’. As you know, I am not able to comment on that other than in broad generalities, but suffice it to say, we are about where I expect us to be in this critical strategic transition. I would only ask that you keep focused on the value of the changes we have been making. We’re doing the right things. We have excellent people, excellent products and excellent services that customers need and want, and a clear, highly-focused vision. I’m excited about the future of our company; I believe you should be excited as well.
Best personal regards,
Rob
Rob Howe, CEO
* | BYOD is the acronym for “Bring Your Own Device.” BYOD refers to use of their own computing devices–smartphones, tablets, notebooks –by employees, business partners, consultants and others to store files and collaborate with one another in a public or private cloud. It’s a central part of a bigger trend known as “the consumerization of IT” and it’s here to stay. |
For more information please call 800-465-4637 or visit www.IceWEB.com. To become part of the Company's e-mail list for industry updates and press releases, please send an e-mail to ir@iceweb.com.
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