2016 Annese
ANNUAL REPORT
Th e Ti p p i n g Point
www.annese.com
WWW.ANNUALREPORT.COM
Introduction
“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” —Malcolm Gladwell
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PRESIDENT’S Message
In 2016, Annese drove substantial changes in the business and continued to invest in the future. Our cloud business development plan evolved from infancy to a company-wide practice, with highly qualified, client-facing resources replicated across all three of our operating regions. The growth in the number of cloud opportunities we are finding in the market as well as the development of those opportunities has been rapid. Furthermore, the amount of recurring managed services revenue being pulled through cloud opportunities is substantial. In fact, currently, our managed services business growth is being driven largely by our new cloud practice. We have no doubt that our investment in cloud will pay dividends soon—the “tipping-point” is fast approaching! The investment in both of our mobility and security teams, coupled with our new (and far more comprehensive) approach to cybersecurity, has resulted in what is quickly becoming the fastest growing technology practice within the business. Next, we expect to align our security offerings with our managed services capabilities. In 2016, we also added technical capacity in our core practices of collaboration and data center; we completed a major business system upgrade with new approaches to business intelligence and reporting; and, we segmented our private sector (commercial) and public sector (SLED) sales teams to drive a balanced focus between those markets.
Throughout the year and throughout all these transitions, we maintained our strong corporate culture and generated profits that we shared with employees, used to support charitable causes, and invested in growth. In 2017, we will maintain stability and build on the changes set in motion from 2016. Company leadership is committed to succeed against our 2017 operating budget, which promises revenue and profit growth. We look forward to 2017 as a year in which we develop comfort and consistency in the use of our rebuilt business automation systems, move from investment to profitability in our emerging technology practices, and continue to develop our recurring revenue streams to benefit our clients’ needs. As always, thank you for your continued trust in Annese and for being part of our valued business network.
Ray Apy
President & CEO Annese & Associates, Inc.
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“Those who don’t jump will never fly.”
—Leena Ahmad Almasat
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Annual Report 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 | Year in Review
Financial Overview
Awards & Recognition
Corporate Giving
02 | Customer Satisfaction
Customer Intimacy Interview
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
In Your Own Words
03 | Employee Satisfaction
Investment in People
Annese Welcomes New EVP of Sales & Marketing
04 | Practices & Partners
Practice Portfolios
Certifications & Specializations
05 | Innovation
SightLine Conference
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“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
—Walt Disney
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SECTION 01 01 | YEAR IN REVIEW
Financial Overview
Awards & Recognition
Corporate Giving
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
Revenue by Region
2016: Right on Track Jeff Fasoldt, Executive Vice President & CFO
After a slight downturn in 2015, we returned to a growth mode with revenue up almost 4.5% year over year. Annese Branded Services (ABS) continued on a strong growth trajectory with a double-digit increase over 2015. Here’s a quick look back at a few key initiatives over the past year: • Annese launched a new CRM system that went live on March 1st. For those of you having embarked on a similar project, you can understand the culmination of time and effort required from the entire company. This endeavor was time and money well spent as we continue to hone our operational efficiencies. • We embarked on a state-wide upgrade of our facilities, relocating the Rochester and Syracuse offices, and moving out of our former headquarters in Herkimer to a new space in Utica, NY. We also built a new Network Operations Center in Clifton Park, and signed a lease for state-of-the-art office space in White Plains which opened May 1, 2017. More on office investments on the facing page. • We continued to make investments in our emerging technology areas of Cloud and Security with new partners, personnel, tools, and certifications to build our expertise. • Annese held our first annual business and technology conference, SightLine 2016, which exemplifies all that we stand for—our commitment to innovation, our focus on thought leadership, and our passion for making connections. With the completion of a series of successful initiatives in 2016, we’re poised for record achievement in 2017 and beyond.
Revenue Year over Year
(in thousands)
$23.2M up 12.51%
White Plains
$23.0M up 13.01%
Albany
$20.0M down 27.05%
Buffalo
$12.4M up 117.06%
Syracuse
$9.2M
down 23.54%
Utica
$2.4M
NEW Region
Revenue by Practice Area Mobility
$31.4M
up 6.27%
3rd Party Products
$19.6M
down 5.61%
Data Center Virtualization
$9.9M
up 2.46%
Professional Services
$9.6M
up 23.88%
Managed Services
$7.1M
down 2.24%
Collaboration
$6.5M
down 38.30%
Security
$4.7M
NEW Practice
Cloud
$0.7M
NEW Practice
Other
$0.6M
up 13.36%
$104,497
$105,468 $86,134
$84,054
Rochester
$90,164
$66,915
2016 Year End Revenue: 2012
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2015
2016
2017 projected
$90,164,483
ANNESE EMBARKS ON 2016 FACILITIES PLAN Network Operations Center
747 Pierce Road, Suite 2, Clifton Park, NY 12065 Annese upgraded its Network Operation Center (NOC) based in the headquarters, Clifton Park office. One of the most notable additions is the wall mounted displays that showcase various dashboards and monitoring tools providing real-time data on the status of customer tickets.
Rochester Office
155 Culver Road, Suite 210, Rochester, NY 14620 Nearly 40 years since Annese opened its first office in Rochester, the company relocated to one of the city’s most exciting commercial real estate developments: the Culver Road Armory. The company now occupies a 4,000-square-foot space, nearly double the size of its previous location in Pittsford.
Syracuse Office
5000 Campuswood Drive, Suite 200, East Syracuse, NY 13057 The company relocated to the Pioneer Business Park in East Syracuse. The new office was the first to display Annese’s interior branding scheme and has set the precedent for the remaining offices throughout the state. The facility features collaboration spaces to illustrate the company’s culture of open communication and teamwork.
Utica Office
421 Broad Street, Suite 5, Utica, NY 13501 Annese has strong ties to the Mohawk Valley region which date back to the company’s inception in 1970. Its founding office in Herkimer, hometown to founder Frank J. Annese, relocated to a vibrant, new space in the downtown Utica neighborhood of Bagg’s Square in Spring of 2016.
“Our company is continuing to evolve and innovate in every aspect and this facilities plan will pay dividends for us in terms of employee satisfaction, customer engagement, recruitment, and community outreach,” said Yvonne Annese LoRe, Chairwoman of the Board, who spearheads the property improvement efforts.
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AWARDS & RECOGNITION ANNESE RANKS #243 ON CRN’S 2016 SOLUTION PROVIDER 500 LIST CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, named Annese to its 2016 Solution Provider 500 list, ranking #243. The SP500 list is CRN’s annual ranking of the largest technology integrators, solution providers, and IT consultants in North America by revenue. Annese has made the list multiple years in a row. “The 2016 Solution Provider 500 represent a total, combined revenue of over $334 billion—a testament to their success in keeping pace with the rapidly changing demands of today’s IT market,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. “This prestigious list recognizes those companies with the highest revenue and serves as a valuable industry resource for vendors seeking out top solution providers to partner with. We congratulate each of the Solution Provider 500 companies and look forward to their continued success.”
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“Annese is proud to once again be named to CRN’s SP500 rankings. We have experienced significant growth over the last five years across all practice areas including triple digit gains in managed services, cloud, security, and other recurring revenue streams. Annese continues to expand geographically as well with recent investments in personnel and new facilities in several markets. We celebrated our 45th anniversary in 2015 and expect to be here for many decades to come.” —Jeff Fasoldt EVP & CFO, Annese
#1 Cybersecurity Firm in Albany The Albany Business Review ranked local businesses by revenue in 2016. Annese was named #1 Cybersecurity Firm in the greater Albany area.
“Annese has rapidly evolved as a thought leader in cybersecurity by providing executive level advisory and flawless service delivery to our clients, always emphasizing our core concepts around people, process, and product. We’ve raised service operations competency to high levels, and deliver exceptional security outcomes at speed and scale for clients across all verticals.”
—Joe Vigorito Director of Mobility & Security, Annese
#2 Largest Women-Owned Business in Albany The Albany Business Review ranked local businesses by revenue in 2016. Annese was named #2 Women-Owned Business in the Capital Region.
Michelle Annese, Yvonne Annese LoRe, Andrea Annese Como, and Francine Annese Apy retain exclusive ownership of Annese & Associates, Inc. The company is a certified Women Owned Business Enterprise in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Vermont.
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CORPORATE GIVING At Annese, we understand that it is not about what we have; rather, what we can give. We have a passion for giving back to the communities that have supported us from the beginning through charitable donations and outreach. In 2016, here are just a few of the causes supported by Annese through the gifts of time, talent, or treasure:
StartFast Venture Annese was proud to sponsor StartFast Venture Accelerator’s Demo Day on August 16th. StartFast, based in Syracuse, is the number one startup accelerator in Upstate New York. The Demo Day, which was held at Le Moyne College, allowed rising entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to take the stage and present their ideas for changing the world using the most advanced Internet and mobile technology.
CNY Young & Amazing Annese teamed up with Syracuse Media Group, syracuse.com, and The Post-Standard, to sponsor The Annese & Associates Award & Scholarship for Academics in Technology for the CNY Young & Amazing Awards. The award recognized 12 local area students for their achievements and contributions to the community with categories spanning academics, athletics, the arts, and philanthropy. The award was presented to Alexander Wulff by the company’s Chairwoman of the Board, Yvonne Annese LoRe. At the time of the award, Alexander was a junior at Skaneateles High School and applied his passion for technology in developing and manufacturing an inexpensive electronic aid that helps visually impaired people navigate unfamiliar environments without the use of guide sticks. The device, called HaptoTech, won the grand award at the 2015 Central New York Science and Engineering fair and won fourth place at the Intel International Science and Engineering fair.
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Guiding Eyes for the Blind Annese was proud to sponsor Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s 39th annual charity golf classic, hosted by New York Giant’s quarterback Eli Manning, at Mt. Kisco Country Club on June 13th. Guiding Eyes for the Blind is an internationally accredited nonprofit that provides guide dogs to people with vision loss, as well as service dogs to children with autism.
Utica and Syracuse Open Houses Our Syracuse and Utica offices hosted Grand Opening celebrations in each newly opened office welcoming employees, customers, partners, members of the media, and local dignitaries. To commemorate the occasion and celebrate Annese’s connection to the local communities, both events featured a silent auction to benefit The Campaign for Pediatric Emergency Department (ED) Expansion and Renovation at Upstate Foundation University Hospital (Syracuse, NY) and the Mohawk Valley Health System (Utica, NY).
Flower City Habitat for Humanity Annese employees rolled up their sleeves to help build homeownership, community, and hope in the city of Rochester with Flower City Habitat for Humanity (FCHH) on April 19th and 26th. Annese made a financial gift to FCHH of $5,000 through a silent auction held at a celebratory event last March, while also welcoming Jeff Fasoldt to the company’s Leadership Team.
ANNESE CHALLENGES EMPLOYEES TO “150 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS”
On November 30th, Annese engaged in our first Random Acts of Kindness Day. Each of our 150 employees across the state were encouraged to take the time to offer others a compliment, a cup of coffee, a phone call, a little bit of their time, donate items to a local charity, or help someone in need. Imagine the impact these simple gestures can have on the world around us. Our journey was documented through social media using #150ActsofKindness. We hope to inspire others to partake in acts of kindness in memory of Frankie LoRe, son of Co-Owner Yvonne Annese LoRe and Board Advisor Joe LoRe, who we remember annually on November 30th, and always.
CYBERSECURITY LOUNGE Girls World Expo | Syracuse, NY
Annese was a proud sponsor of the Girls World Expo held in Syracuse on November 6th. Girls World Expo was a day-long event created by local teen girls for local teen girls as an initiative of the Girls Advisory Board, made up of teens from Syracuse. Annese’s Director of Mobility & Security, Joe Vigorito, and Solutions Architect, Mike Keller, presented “Playing it Safe on the Net” in the Cybersecurity Lounge, which included a dialogue on how to safely navigate and handle privacy online. The duo’s seminar covered current trends and safeguards around cybersecurity, and most importantly, seeking a professional mentor to help shape the girls’ future careers. The Girls World Expo, a national movement of one-day events for teenage girls, was initially created to connect girls with their community, empowering them to discover their potential, find their best path to personal and professional success, meet new people, try new things, and have fun! Syracuse is the newest of six locations around the country where the expos are held. In workshops, seminars, demonstrations, and displays, they explore different college and career choices with the help of mentors and experts in those fields, learn how to create a healthy body image by uncovering the facts about food and nutrition, unlock the secrets to staying safe online and in life, and hear success stories from creative women leaders.
“I am so proud to be a part of an organization that partners with our local communities to educate, lead, and inspire growth and evolution through technology.” —Merry Bhattacharjee Director of HR, Annese
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“Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first base.”
—Frederick Wilcox
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SECTION 02 02 | CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Customer Intimacy Interview
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
In Your Own Words
CUSTOMER INTIMACY INTERVIEW Q&A with Mike Ferrante, Senior Account Manager 1. What is your Customer Intimacy philosophy? My philosophy is, treat the customer as you like to be treated. Be honest and upfront and set expectations from the start. When both sides are on the same page, things start and end in a good place, despite the challenges that may be faced throughout a project and for the duration of the relationship with the customer.
2. How do you create value for your customers? I try to be a trusted advisor. I do what I say I am going to do because it is the right thing to do. I try not to be a “salesman,” but more of a business partner. The message I try to send is that the customer’s success is my success and the customer’s failure is my failure…and I DON’T LIKE to fail.
3. Which Annese Core Value do you most associate your strengths to and why? Integrity. By definition, this means the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. This is what I strive to live my life by and I feel it is very transparent in my professional and personal life. I feel that there is a lack of integrity, especially in business, so I make it an important part of each day.
4. How do you partner with your customers to enable their business success? I provide honest and professional feedback. Also, I make sure that I run all things by the qualified team I have behind me. I have people on my team that have the experience and know how to help educate and direct my customers to make the best decisions possible.
5. What do you consider to be Annese’s strongest asset in meeting customer needs? I feel that Annese’s strongest assets are the men and women that work for the company. This group of people puts customer needs first and, under no circumstance, ever leaves the customer hanging or in a bad place. This trait that we all share is one of the big differentiators that make Annese what it is today.
6. How do you feel our Customer Intimacy model makes Annese different from our competitors? I feel that customers see a difference when they deal with Annese as opposed to dealing with other companies. Businesses need to turn a profit; however, making money is not everything. We genuinely want to help and won’t stop until our customers are in a good place. We are not interested in the one sale, rather, we are in it for the longterm. I think we do a good job of making this crystal clear. We advocate for our customers and once they realize we are their partner, they become our biggest advocates.
Mike Ferrante pictured above with Eric Brosius from Hudson River HealthCare.
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Mike Ferrante is a Senior Account Manager based in White Plains and has been with Annese since 2010. His knowledge, mentorship, and commitment to Annese’s Customer Intimacy model has made him a true advocate for his customers and role model to his peers.
Mike Ferrante
Senior Account Manager White Plains, NY
CUSTOMER SERVICE POLICY Annese measures our success, in part, by the relationships we have built. This mentality is reflected in our Customer Service Policy:
Respect
Honor
Engage
Guide
We respect our customers’ questions, comments, and concerns. We work to answer and provide explanations on any matter which we feel our customer is unsure of.
We honor and value the customer-partner relationship we have built.
We engage our customer and their employees in situations where the requirements or specifications of a project have changed, adjusted, or realigned.
We guide our customers in all steps, phases, and processes where we believe our customer will benefit from our service experience and product knowledge.
“Our working relationship with the Annese team is very personalized, from our sales manager (Mike Ferrante) to the ARMS desk that knows us on a first name basis; and we know them on a first name basis as well.”
—Stan Tyler, Hudson River HealthCare Annual Report 2016
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Understanding the
Net Promoter Score Metrics Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty indictaor that measures the likelihood of customers to recommend a company, product, or service to a friend or colleague.
How is NPS Calculated?
Subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 to a high of 100. A score of -100 means every respondent is a detractor while a score of 100 means everyone is a promoter.
Likeliness to Recommend to Others
NPS Score = % of PROMOTERS — % of DETRACTORS Extremely Likely
Neutral
Promoters (score 9-10)
9
Promoters are loyal and enthusiastic. This group will renew contracts, are open to upselling, and will tell others to do the same.
8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Not at all Likely
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1 0
Passives (score 7-8) Passives aren’t overly passionate about your brand, and their loyalty can’t be assured. They are susceptible to competitors offers, but will spread neither negative nor positive word of mouth.
Detractors (score 0-6) Detractors are your least satisfied customers. They may not purchase again and could spread negative word of mouth if something isn’t done to improve their experience.
We are proud to announce our most recent NPS Score of
In the words of our valued customers:
“Competency and quick/thorough support to both post-sales and pre-sales questions.”
—School District
“Annese provides a solid relationship based on trust, that is hard to find in a partner.”
—Healthcare Organization
“Very professional and extremely knowledgeable staff make doing business a pleasure.”
—Property Management Company
20% 15% 10%
In this recent round of surveys, the chart to the left shows the top three reasons why our promoters chose their ratings.
5% Customer Service
Talent & Knowledge
Relationship
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IN YOUR OWN WORDS
Recognition of Employees Going Above & Beyond Annese institutes a peer-to-peer employee recognition program that allows customers and external colleagues to notify Management of an employee’s hard work and dedication to customer intimacy.
Jason Henderson, Mike Trapasso, & Lou Conte | Service
I wanted to take a moment to congratulate the team on a very successful install of the VoIP system at Career. It appears that the porting went very smoothly on Thursday and the new phones are working well. Great job everyone! Tom DiBuono Southern Westchester BOCES
I would like to also echo Tom’s sentiments as well. The transition last week was extremely organized and we look forward to our final project with Berkley Drive. Victor Binetro Southern Westchester BOCES
Rob Updyke | Service
Last year, TroyCSD deployed over 200 Cisco MX800s. Over the course of that year we’ve had many issues ranging from bad cameras to bad codes. Since contracting with Annese, Rob has been instrumental in getting our MX800s functioning properly again. With an expensive educational tool like the MX800, downtime is a huge issue for our teachers. We greatly appreciate Rob’s timeliness and knowledge, as well as his excellent people skills! We look forward to continue working with him! Thanks Rob! Geoff Shackelton Troy CSD
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Rus Healy | Service & Jim Bakey | Sales
Rus made my move to AWS completely seamless and painless. He is never too busy to answer questions and his responses are extremely quick. I am glad to have chosen Annese as our technical partner. Jim has been a great Account Manager from day one. He is quick to respond and always available for anything I think of. I’ve worked with a lot of vendors in the past, but the Annese team is the best I’ve ever worked with. Bill Ma Guiding Eyes for the Blind
Mark Amyot | Service
Mark was on-site at IEC helping us with our project to upgrade the network between our NetApp storage and our UCS servers. This process required multiple systems to go down, sometimes repeatedly, without disrupting our users. At several points, challenges came up that jeopardized our ability to complete the project within the maintenance window allotted by management. Throughout the process, Mark was flexible in developing solutions to the issues that came up and his professionalism made him very easy to work with. Mark is an excellent example of the level of superior engineering that keeps Annese a premier vendor with IEC. Charles Bronson IEC Electronics Corp.
David Taurisano | Sales, Matt Kuntz, John Hoefer, & Bryan Spence | Service
I would like to take this opportunity to commend our Annese team who recently installed our Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Everyone worked well with the specific complexities of this particular project. With the clock ticking on our old telephone system, time was of the essence. Since the project was totally unexpected, funds had not been appropriated, and Dave worked tirelessly to get us everything we needed at the best possible price. Matt handled all of our scheduling needs and exchanges and helped keep the project on track. We found John to have expert knowledge of the workings of the system making for a seamless installation and easy troubleshooting. Bryan also contributed with the switching, installation, and training and, for a short time, felt like one of my staff. The entire team was a model of efficiency, very well-rounded, had a great sense of humor, and always conducted themselves in a highly professional manner. Their most difficult task was keeping me calm, which was not always easy, but they managed that very well too. Team members have also continued to check-in post installation. Also, Dave checks in periodically to keep us informed regarding the latest technology and makes sure that we are totally satisfied with the many projects Annese has installed. JoAnn Boyer Herkimer County Information Services
Peer to Peer Recognition
In an effort to recognize the good things we do for each other in our daily interactions, we have come up with a simple, yet powerful mechanism for sharing your experience with Annese. There is a tagline below each employee signature block (shown above) that coworkers, customers, or vendors can use to recognize employees or you can visit www.annese.com/HowAmIDoing.
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“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”
—Frank Zappa
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SECTION 03 03 | EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
Investment in People
Annese Welcomes New EVP
INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE Meet the New Family Members
Mike Andrews
Kenneth Brooks
Systems Engineer
Paul Centanni
Systems Engineer
Mark Ehman Project Manager
Senior Solutions Architect
Mike McGuire
Systems Engineer
Coreena Fellone Financial Services
Solutions Architect
Jason Graff
Ronnie Grover
Helena Liu
Julio Lorenzo
Gordon Mason
Patty McElroy
Systems Engineer
Account Sales Support
Solutions Architect
Travis DeRusso
Mike Fay
Director - SLED
Jayson Guglietta
Nate Corbine
Account Sales Support
Renewal Specialist
Network Engineer
Payroll & Benefits
Business Development
Account Manager
Jay Nish
Jenifer Parsons
Kevin Pierce
Scott Plamondon
Garrett Raymond
Rodney Santiago
Chasity Schwartz
Chris Sigsbee
Mark Smorol
Solutions Architect
Solutions Architect
Bryan Spence System Engineer
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Financial Services
Pre Sales Coordinator
Phil Spitze
Solutions Architect
Account Manager
Managed Services
Joe Vigorito Practice Director
Solutions Architect
SQL Developer
Phil Yawman
EVP Sales & Marketing
PERSONNEL HIGHLIGHTS As a growing technology solutions integrator, Annese has its sights set on continued evolution and innovation. Working at Annese enters you into a family as positive, thoughtful, and appreciative as your own. You have the opportunity to do what you do best in a promising, engaging environment, which cultivates and encourages personal growth and development.
35
50
Annese employees attained a manufacturer certification in 2016.
Annese employees achieved advanced industry certifications in 2016.
Over 77% of the Annese Service Team has at least one industry certification.
Annese Headcount Growth
9
150
160
122
130 117
Employees advanced their careers at Annese through promotions
Internal awards to recognize employees 2014
2015
2016
Projected 2017
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Annese Welcomes New EVP of Sales & Marketing Phil Yawman Joins the Annese Team Phil Yawman joined the company’s leadership team at the close of 2016, reporting to President & CEO, Ray Apy. Phil is based in Annese’s Rochester office at the Culver Road Armory. Phil is a seasoned senior executive with over 25 years of industry experience, most previously serving as a Senior Vice President at Finger Lakes Technologies Group. As a VP and GM of Frontier Communications Greater Rochester Region, Phil was responsible for all sales and local operations. Prior to Frontier, he served as CEO of Rocket Broadband Networks. Phil cofounded Choice One Communications in 1998 and spent seven
years there while the company grew from a start-up competitive telephone company to over $300 million in annual revenue. He is deeply embedded in the upstate New York community and maintains several board affiliations. Phil is a graduate of Hobart College and The University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business where he obtained his MBA in Marketing and Finance. “I’m extremely excited to be joining Annese,” Phil shares.“The company has a demonstrated competency of integrating products and services that result in customized solutions for its customers. Importantly, Annese has a culture of entrepreneurial approaches to problem solving and greatly values their employees.”
Q&A with Phil 1. What will your top priorities be as the EVP of Sales & Marketing Operations? My top priority will be to build on Annese’s great reputation in the market and further expand our customer intimacy model to accelerate our growth and market penetration to even greater heights. This will be done through tighter alignment of sales and marketing efforts, and taking full advantage of the realignment of the sales organization around the SLED and Commercial markets. Annese has a great portfolio of products and services that we can package uniquely to customers to provide solutions. Designing, selling, and implementing customized solutions is our sustainable advantage. Our focus on emerging technologies and recurring revenue streams will be critical to our growth and success in 2017 and beyond.
2. What are your hobbies outside of work? I enjoy time with my family. I played basketball and golf in college. I’m too old to play basketball anymore so I have coached my daughters travel and AAU teams for years. I play as much golf as my schedule will allow. I also enjoy music and play the drums for fun.
3. What intrigues you most about working in the technology industry? With change comes constant learning, and that continuous education is paramount for us at Annese in order to be the trusted experts for our customers. When delivering technology services and solutions to our clients, we are truly creating value for them and making a positive impact on their business.
4. What are you most looking forward to about working at Annese? I’m really looking forward to working with the Annese team and immersing myself in this great culture. I’m a team oriented and results focused leader and there is nothing greater in business than exceeding aggressive goals as a team–and then celebrating those successes!
5. What inspires you? Working as part of a team and making an impact on people’s lives–at work, in the community, and at home. This is why I coach, am involved in the community on several boards, and it’s what motivates me to do the best job I can possibly do for Annese’s employees and customers.
“We’re fortunate to add Phil’s sales and marketing experience, leadership skills, and business acumen to the already impressive skill-set of the Annese Management Team.”
—Ray Apy President & CEO
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Frank J. Annese Award Rus Healy, 2016 Winner
Rus Healy, Chief Technology Architect, is the proud recipient of the 2016 Frank J. Annese (FJA) Award for Customer Excellence. He has been with Annese for 10 years. Rus holds a number of technical certifications, including the prestigious Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) #15025 in Routing and Switching. Notably, Rus was a publishing author of CCIE Routing and Switching Certification Guide (4th Edition). As Chief Technology Architect with Annese, Rus is responsible for mentoring and coaching technical staff, performing high-business-value customer work, and supporting all technical operations related to the development of Annese’s Cloud Practice. “It’s a huge honor to be recognized by my peers at Annese with this award,” said Rus. “To me, our most important core value at Annese is teamwork; to have true and effective teamwork, we need to treat each other—our customers, our partners, and each other—with respect and follow the Golden Rule. I do my best to follow and model that philosophy and I’m so glad that it makes a positive difference in other peoples’ lives and work, as Frank Annese has modeled for us all.” About Rus: Rus enjoys woodworking, skiing, boating, camping, and classical music. A resident of Canadice, NY, Rus likes to spend as much time with his family as possible and is an active contributor to his community through volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity and his church.
Excerpts From Rus’ Multiple Nominations Read: “Customers love him and trust him, and he is always eager to share what he has learned. It is people like Rus that make this a great, interesting, and fun place to work. Most of all, he makes Annese a company to be admired and trusted, with a total focus on Customer Intimacy.” “I believe we have no greater resource than Rus Healy for demonstrating the core spirit of Annese’s Customer Intimacy model. As I have worked with Rus at many client sites, I have witnessed first-hand his approach to making the customers’ world a better place.” “Rus is eager to share and mentor those that need it. He maintains the ‘Big Picture’, and keeps the overall success of Annese in focus, even at great personal sacrifice. The success, profits, and the great reputation that Annese continues to enjoy, especially in new technology areas can very often be traced back to Rus, or someone that Rus has trained.” “Rus embodies everything we strive to be as Annese employees. He is always willing to go out of his way for our customer, no matter the size. He is willing to drive down to any region if it meant making the customer comfortable around a solution. He has helped us drive the new Cloud Practice and has done so with a commitment to Customer Intimacy that I know would make Frank Annese proud.” “As a seasoned engineer, I find myself coming away from each day with Rus having learned something new about something I thought I already knew pretty well. Witnessing his bedside manner with customers has also served as a roadmap for engineers who shadow him. Customers benefit from a job well done and having gained a friend for life.”
Company Accolades Best and Brightest in Wellness Annese was included on the nation’s Best and Brightest in Wellness list compiled by The National Association for Business Resources (NABR). This program honors companies and organizations that recognize and celebrate quality and excellence in employee and worksite health. This is Annese’s second consecutive year making the list.
Best Companies to Work for in NYS Annese has placed #4 according to the New York State Society for Human Resource Management’s (NYS-SHRM) annual Best Companies to Work for in New York State awards program. This is Annese’s fourth time participating and also making the list; ranking 7th place in 2008, 2nd place in 2009, and 3rd place in 2013.
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“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but advancing towards what will be.”
—Khalil Gibran
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SECTION 04 04 | PRACTICES & PARTNERS
Practice Portfolios
Certifications & Specializations
PRACTICE PORTFOLIOS
An Update on Annese Core Practices in 2016
Professional Services
Managed Services
Annese Professional Services enjoyed a solid year in 2016 as it related to growth and expanded service offerings. The total revenue delivered by Professional Services grew from $7.8M to $8.9M year over year. This included a record breaking month in September, 2016, of over $1M in Professional Services invoiced. The Annese Project Management Office (PMO), managed by Chris Tully, balanced an average of 123 open projects throughout the year with a total number of 370 initiated in 2016. To provide high quality project management services to meet the continued growth outlined above, three additional project management resources were brought on-board in 2016.
Annese Managed Services, under the direction of Mark Coffey and management of Mike Decker, added three notable new offerings to its portfolio in 2016. ARMS Silver Coverage Option Annese Remote Managed Services (ARMS) provides monitoring and maintenance of a clients’ network to ensure it is always working optimally. We now have a new option for customers to choose through our Silver Coverage Plan. This plan offers support between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and includes configuration and change management, as well as remediation of customer-initiated issues related to systems and/or the IPT network. Networking-as-a-Service (NaaS) Backed by the strength of Cisco Meraki, Annese’s cloud managed architecture provides centralized visibility and control across any number of distributed locations to simplify enterprise-class networks. Through this solution, wireless, switching, security, and mobile devices are centrally managed from the cloud, without the cost and complexity of traditional architectures. Residence Hall Network Wireless (ResNet) Annese has a long history working with higher education institutions and we have seen colleges and universities struggle to build and maintain enterprise wireless solutions in the resdience halls that parallel the on-campus experience. Our ResNet solution combines television and WiFi services with cloud networking and management to help institutions offer a residential mobile experience to students that is as similar to them being in their own homes.
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Collaboration The Collaboration team, under Phil Birmingham as Practice Director, grew by three additional engineers in 2016, and now totals six pre-sales Solutions Architects and12 post sales Systems Engineers. In 2016-2017, Annese developed new offerings and achieved technical capabilities around: • Hosted Call Manager Voice Services • Physical Access Control and Video Surveillance • Connected Transportation/Connected Bus • Video Surveillance and Telematics/Bus Diagnostics with GPS Tracking and bus routing. We have also added to our expertise in Customer Care/Contact Center, and related technologies, and continue to further develop those core competencies.
Our core offerings around VoIP, Video Conferencing, and Messaging continue to evolve with additional features and functionalities, and to that solution set we have added Meraki and Spark phone system offerings. One of the more exciting announcements this past year was the release of the revolutionary “Sparkboard” which combines a Spark Room (virtual project space) with a shared-access Whiteboard (Local/Remote) and Video Conferencing capability.
Infrastructure Evolves into Mobility & Security
Annese dissolved our Infrastructure practice and formed two new practice areas, Mobility & Security, to continue to provide our customers with industry-leading technology solutions and services.
Mobility
Security
The Mobility Practice was formally developed in 2016, under the direction of Joe Vigorito, to integrate enterprise networking and advanced wireless solutions with Annese’s core infrastructure services. Joe is a thirty-year, highly credentialed industry veteran who came to Annese from Oracle Corporation and prior to that, industrial gases giant, Praxair. Annese excelled in both SLED and commercial accounts, performing dozens of large-scale implementations across New York State in Ethernet switching, routing, and wireless, and made significant strides in the newer, cloud-managed Cisco Meraki line of products.
Joe’s expertise has positioned him to effectively lead and grow Annese’s Security practice which also took a dramatic shift in 2016. Partnering with some of the most successful names in the security industry such as Alert Logic and Wombat, Annese adopted an integrated security approach, aligning people, process, and technology to policy, and emphasizing that no sector or vertical is immune to attack. Using a three-phased approach predicated on Breach Prevention, Breach Incident Management, and Breach Resolution, Annese assessed and secured the networks of many existing customers and several new clients, including a healthcare account in New York City that was a combined Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud and Alert Logic Security-as-a-Service agreement. The year culminated with three exciting and dynamic presentations at SightLine 2016. 2017 emerges as even a bigger year in Security as the regulatory climate continues to foster adherence to strict guidelines, well within Annese’s Security Practice expertise.
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Data Center While remaining a profitable business and contributing some 15% of total gross profit (GP) to the company, total Data Center Virtualization (DCV) Practice revenue remained flat year over year at $11.2M for fiscal year (FY) ’16, yet practice GP fell by more than $500K. Meanwhile, the number of opportunities closed also declined year-over-year with the average deal size remaining relatively consistent since FY ’13. A deeper analysis of FY ’16 transactions shows that 66% of 3rd party DCV revenue came via Cisco UCS (Compute) and Nexus (Switching) sales at an average GP over 24%. Another 12% of 3rd party revenue arrived via NetApp sales at an average GP just shy of 18%, a number which tends to trend higher as opportunity volume and bookings increase with that partner. Going into FY ’17, we have several improvements to leverage toward a return to growth. Primary among these will be a solutions-driven focus now adopted throughout Sales and aligned with company strategy and practice area purpose, with shared contribution to plan the business, and perform against that plan. This will help ensure that solution development becomes focused within a well vetted portfolio to create opportunities across that portfolio. Furthermore, as the hybrid cloud market continues to take shape, we are seeing on-premises solutions begin to employ cloud-like performance tailoring features and cloud-like consumption models, the two key drivers of cloud-only adoption. Finally, we have identified an ARMS support framework for DCV customers and the ARMS team has begun to on-board and staff-up to support additional contracts throughout the year. Together, these internal and external improvements should result in a growth trend later in 2017 that will manifest more strongly going into FY ’18.
“I am consistently amazed at Annese’s ability to evolve as an organization and our commitment to innovation. We have made significant progress in the areas of Cybersecurity and Cloud in 2016; with service offerings designed to ease clients through the full lifecycle of their project. Annese continues to adapt to changes in the market, developing a services-led culture that stems from our primary focus on customer intimacy.”
—Jamie Aiello VP of Services
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Cloud As 2016 came to a close, Annese’s Cloud Practice completed its second full year under the leadership of Rus Healy. It was a year of significant growth in Cloud—growth that’s on track with Annese’s business plan. In April, Annese hired its first Cloud Solutions Architect (SA) and Cloud Business Development Specialist. By September, two more SAs joined the team, bringing significant large-scale cloud deployment and management experience. Annese’s key Cloud Partners remain Amazon Web Services (AWS), CloudEndure for disaster recovery (DR) and migration software, and CloudCheckr for reporting and managed services. We are on track to reach the AWS Advanced Consulting Partner level in 2017, made possible in part by the achievement of a number of AWS technical certifications by our Cloud staff in 2016. We also began the development of a software platform that will allow us to monitor and manage multiple cloud DR customers from a single interface; this will deliver role-based access so our customers can also take advantage of that platform as part of our managed services offerings. What excites us most about the Cloud Practice is its relevance across not only our current customer base, but all vertical markets and geographies. We are able to deliver cloud professional and managed services to a much larger geographic footprint because of the decreased dependency on hardware. We see the readiness for adoption across all the customers we meet, including small and large, commercial and public sector, nonprofit, enterprise, government, and education. The reason is simple—the public cloud provides organizations with ways to solve problems and meet business needs much more quickly and cost-effectively than other approaches. But, all new Cloud customers need guidance. Annese’s real value-add lies in our consulting capabilities, as we lead our clients through every step of their cloud migrations.
We’re excited to report that we broke the $1M bookings barrier in 2016. By the numbers: Cloud customer growth in 2016:
466%
Recurring revenue growth in 2016:
7200%
Staff growth:
500%
Customer servers protected for disaster recovery and business continuity, and managed by Annese Managed Services:
300+
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CERTIFICATIONS & SPECIALIZATIONS AWS Public Sector Program
Annese is proud to announce that it was selected for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Partner Program, which launched at AWS re:Invent 2016 on November 29th. The AWS Public Sector Partner Program recognizes companies with a strong overall AWS practice, and demonstrates their experience and readiness to support government, education, and/or non-profit customer missions. Annese’s membership in the program builds on an existing relationship with AWS to provide a complete cloud services and cloud management portfolio that will give customers fast, flexible access to the cloud. “Given our focus on AWS-based solutions in our Cloud practice, and our strong public sector and non-profit customer relationships and capabilities, we are glad to be chosen by AWS for inclusion in this program,” notes Rus Healy, Chief Technology Architect at Annese. “We feel that this recognition will make it easier for organizations to connect with us and to understand the value we bring to the public sector market.”
100% of the technical resources on the Annese Cloud Team hold one or more AWS certifications.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT Annese welcomed a new partner to support our emerging technology practices of cloud and security.
In 2016, Annese expanded its security portfolio by partnering with Alert Logic. Alert Logic provide Security-as-a-Service for onpremises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, and delivers deep security insight and 24x7 continuous protection against attacks such as ransomware for customers at a lower cost than traditional security solutions. Combining their expert staff with a proprietary Big Data and Advanced Analytics engine, Alert Logic allows Annese to offer a range of cybersecurity imperatives including vulnerability assessments, intrusion detection, threat management, log management, web application security, and regulatory compliance, within the context of a managed security service offering.
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TRUSTED PARTNERS
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“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.”
—William Pollard
SECTION 05 05 | INNOVATION
SightLine Conference
SIGHTLINE CONFERENCE
2016 Recap
Innovators see the world differently. Where others see chaos and clutter, innovators see context and clarity. Hundreds of IT professionals, business executives, and futurists attended the inaugural SightLine conference, connecting business through technology. SightLine 2016 took place in November at SKY Armory in downtown Syracuse, NY. This annual conference exemplifies what Annese stands for—our commitment to innovation, our focus on thought leadership, and our passion for making connections.
Hands-On Workshops
With a half-day dedicated to hands-on experiences, SightLine provides workshops highlighting technology use-cases with some of today’s leading manufacturers. With 10 different topics to choose from, these workshops covered technology strategy, design, implementation, and even monitoring best practices.
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Breakout Sessions
With over 15 breakouts offered at SightLine 2016, sessions were designed to provide the tools you can use to take your business to the next level. Spanning various technology levels and formats, these sessions delivered context and clarity into emerging technologies, manufacturer products and applications, and business strategy.
Entertainment
Whiskey & Wisdom, the 2016 conference kick-off party was an event not to be missed. Attendees experienced specialty whiskey and scotch tastings, a top-notch cigar bar with Cuban cigar rolling, craft beer tastings provided by the area’s finest breweries, and upscale comfort food with a twist. Live music and exciting performances kept party-goers entertained as they networked with fellow conference attendees.
Save the Date!
SightLine 2017 will take place October 17th and 18th and— reflective of the event’s focus on innovation and technological advances—will be held at the recently opened Albany Capital Center in Albany, NY. Registration for SightLine 2017 will open June 1st: SightLine2017.com
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ice
MAKING CONNECTIONS
chnical Coverage FOR THE FUTURE
ap outlines Annese Service Personnel located across New York State data center virtualization area of expertise. Annese & Associates, Inc., is a technology solutions integrator backed by four decades of expertise and relationships, with a continual focus on innovation. We have built our business on making connections and our reputation on customer excellence.
Guided by our services methodology, we provide an end-to-end IT experience, implementing the tools of today and designing for the emerging technologies of tomorrow. At Annese, our connections extend beyond devices and networks; we connect people to people, and bring ideas to action.
STAY CONNECTED marketing@annese.com | (585) 286-2986 www.annese.com | blog.annese.com | sightlineconference.com