Neovation helps clients evolve as Net changes; no dinosaur domains

WESTMINSTER ? When it comes to the Internet, even Darwin would have had difficulty predicting the pace of its evolution.

Just as HTML was gaining acceptance as a common language spoken by most Web sites, Java was spicing things up with a jazzy new lingo. Most businesses were just trying to get a word in.

Neovation, an Internet consulting and design firm, is helping businesses start stories on the Web, and as they grow, add chapters.

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A combination of the left and right brain of the Internet, Neovation was created in April 2000 by the merger of Interactive Papyrus, a Web-design firm based in Colorado Springs, and Waterstone Consulting, a Chicago-based business-consulting and systems-integration firm. Neovation is a subsidiary of Denver-based Ciber, which had majority stakes in Papyrus and Waterstone prior to the merger. Neovation maintained offices in Colorado Springs and Chicago until late August when it combined offices and moved its headquarters to Westmoor Technology Park in Westminster.

Neovation provides a host of evolutionary services, including e-business solutions, customer relationship and supply chain management, and Web development and design. There isn’t a room in the company’s new digs that isn’t wired.

Neovation is all about finding the middle ground of e-business and digital media. It does this by “tying hard-core business process functions with the creative flair and usability of digital media,” says Don Jacobson, senior vice president of operations.

The evolutionary aspect of the firm’s services follows a philosophy that centers around building enduring relationships with clients. Instead of taking a project and building it apart from the client, Neovation gets in the trenches with them, Jacobson says. Designers and consultants team with clients, sometimes spending half their time working on a particular project at the client site. They also train client employees to maintain the project.

The reason for such close and constant collaboration involves the nature of the Net. One year is equal to about seven in the life of a Web site, Jacobson says. To keep their clients in pace with change in the online world and avoid dinosaur domains, Neovation evolves their Web sites. “As businesses grow, the technology grows,” Jacobson says. After an initial discovery process, Neovation matures client sites by “enhancing their current systems and adding additional processes and functionality to meet current market conditions.”

Most of this work is done in the Center for Neovation, one of the area’s most advanced usability labs and the only one in the area that is open to the public, according to Director of Innovation Adam Marx. Usability labs are forums for research addressing user behavior of new technologies. Neovation’s lab is equipped with six cameras strategically placed to observe details as precise as the expression on a user’s face as she surfs a Web site under study. The lab also has soundproof walls, adjustable lighting and a microphone system in the ceiling.

Jacobson says conclusions reached through lab studies ensure that as systems are being developed that they can conform. “Incorporating usability is paramount for Neovation.”

Neovation’s growth rate has been between 25 percent and 30 percent per year, according to Jacobson. Anticipated revenues for 2001 will be in the $20 million range. On average, each consultant produces between $180,000 and $200,000 in revenues per year.

Of Neovation’s new presence in the area, Anne Tengler, head of content strategy services for A Net Presence Inc., a Web-design firm based in Lafayette, says, “There’s room for anybody good. The fallout happens to the ones who don’t turn out the best work.”

Aaron Krause, director of sales at eLinear.com, a Westminster-based developer of content management solutions and provider of resources for businesses building an Internet presence, agrees that there’s enough business to go around, particularly because many firms in this space find a niche market on which to focus.

And despite the market downturn, particularly for Internet companies, Tengler says people still are interested in making their Web sites better. “There’s a shift to deal more effectively with functionality and content,” she says.

Neovation’s client list covers a broad spectrum of companies ranging from Hewlett-Packard to Ford Motor Corp. to Drink.com. Jacobson says the firm targets mid-market companies, but it also works with start-up Internet companies.

One third of Neovation’s clients are in Colorado. At any one time, Jacobson says the firm has between 10 and 15 active clients, or businesses with projects under way.

When Neovation meets with clients, the walls come down, literally. Instead of convening in conference rooms with stiff chairs and hierarchical tables, Neovation brings clients to one of two Liquid Wings, versatile meeting spaces without walls. Curtains line the edges, and white boards and projection screens beg for creativity.

Neovation has approximately 120 employees between its three offices. About 20 work at the Westminster location. The company is at a third of its capacity right now. Jacobson says the Westminster office is the model office for the company. “We look for the entrepreneur, people who want to take leads. That’s part of the culture,” he says.

Neovation employees are young, ranging in age from early 20s to late 30s. Jacobson says company outings and events are part of the draw, but the work environment also plays a strong role in determining the success of the company. “The strength of a service organization is the people,” Jacobson says. “It’s Neovation’s job to ensure that all things are conducive to the success of the company.”

Contact Anjanette Mudd at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail amudd@bcbr.com