Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007
Prathiba Ramadoss’ first office as founder and CEO of Business Integra was Spartan. A telephone, fax machine and computer sat on a table in her garage. Her only information technology consultant at the time was Selva Jay, her husband and business partner.
Within six years, the IT staffing and services company moved from its birthplace in Minneapolis to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, and secured a spot at No. 118 among the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the country, according to Inc. magazine’s rankings, which are base on revenue growth. It ranked fourth fastest in Maryland.
Business Integra revenues have jumped 1,450 percent in the past three years, from $300,000 in 2003 to $4.7 million in 2006. Inc. also ranked the company at No. 13 among top companies in IT services, and No. 20 among top companies intending to go public.
Ramadoss worked at her father’s engineering firm in India for less than a year before marrying Jay in 1999 and moving to the United States, where he had settled three years earlier. Although the couple started a family soon after the move, Ramadoss also had a budding vision of starting a business.
When her son was just a few months old, she started Business Integra in 2001.
Ramadoss didn’t have to look far for a mentor or outside support system for this entrepreneurial endeavor. With more than a decade of IT experience, Jay is a critical part of the company’s success.
‘‘He’s the one who provided me the guidance and inspiration,” Ramadoss said. ‘‘They normally say behind every successful man there is a woman. So in my case I will say it’s a man.”
Juggling a newborn and a new business ‘‘was tough ... and very demanding, as I take mothering very seriously,” Ramadoss said. ‘‘A new business is also like a baby and needs a lot of attention and handholding.”
The couple made a strategic move to Maryland in 2002 to be close to the federal market and procurement opportunities in the capital region. They found Prince George’s County ‘‘reasonably priced and pleasant to live and work,” Ramadoss said.
After a stint in Hyattsville, they established a permanent headquarters in Greenbelt.
The company has grown to 60 employees, and added an office in Dallas. Clients include Wal-Mart, Verizon and the U.S. Department of Labor.
‘‘We started from a garage and [have] grown into a multimillion-dollar company by providing the low-cost, high-quality and timely services to our customers,” Jay said.
‘‘We are very keen on having good quality people on ... board.”
Technology consultants, project management and direct staff placement are some of the services Business Integra provides.
‘‘Good people are hard to find, that’s for sure,” said A.G.W. ‘‘Jack” Biddle III, co-founder of Novak Biddle Venture Partners in Bethesda. It’s a challenge companies in the IT industry face, he said.
‘‘Smart people are in greater demand than they’ve ever been, and it’s very competitive to get the best of the best,” Biddle said.
According to a 2006 study by the Society for Information Management, the top skills desired of IT workers involved managerial proficiencies in planning, budgeting and scheduling; project leadership; and project risk management. Only two of the top 10 skills — systems analysis and systems design — entail technical know-how.
The company works with the federal government as a subcontractor, but Ramadoss and Jay are seeking opportunities that may move Business Integra into a prime position by pursuing 8(a) certification with the U.S. Small Business Administration, he said. Other goals include opening additional offices and taking the company public at the appropriate time, Jay said.
Business Integra is cashing in on a big chunk of the IT industry.
Outsourcing, whether domestically or globally, is a major trend because many companies want to focus on their core business, said Alberto Espinosa, assistant professor of information technology at American University. There have always been businesses that have provided IT support, but outsourcing involves a longer relationship, he said.
The United States is the world leader in information and communications technology products and services, representing almost 40 percent of global spending, according to a report from the Information Technology Association of America, a trade group. U.S. spending in the industry has increased nearly 21 percent since 2000, to almost $1.13 trillion in 2005.
About 50 percent of that spending goes to communications, followed by computer services at 26 percent.