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Welcome to the September Edition of Endeavoring!
This month's featured item is a special Q & A piece with Justin McLain, Endeavor's CEO, who gave the staff an opportunity to submit questions regarding Endeavor's goals, the telecommunications industry, and anything else they would like to ask him. His responses are included in this edition and provide some interesting insight into the company and its Chief Executive Officer.
Also, the Endeavor team recently participated in two of the industry's biggest trade shows - VON Conference & Expo and Channel Partners Conference & Expo - both of which took place during the same week in Miami, FL. Needless to say, that was a busy week, as Endeavor had a booth at each show and was able to catch up with many old friends and had the opportunity to make new acquaintances and forge new partnerships. The trade shows were smashing successes, and there are more on the way - Comptel in Orlando, FL October 11-14 and Supercomm in Chicago October 21-23. See the Upcoming Events section for more details.
Enjoy this month's edition! If you're able to make it to one of the upcoming trade shows, we hope to see you there!
Your Team at Endeavor Telecom
editor@endeavortelecom.com
This month, Endeavor staff members were given the opportunity to email any questions they wanted to ask of the CEO's office. There were many questions related to various aspects of Endeavor. Justin McLain, Endeavor's CEO, personally provided answers to each question. Five questions that are of most interest to the world outside of Endeavor compose this month's Spotlight.
Did you ever imagine Endeavor to be as big as it has become?
No, I actually imagined it would be larger. In 2003, we acquired and integrated ARC Services, Inc.'s operations into our organization. While the acquisition was in our best long-term interest, it was not per plan and, in the short term, very disruptive. Ultimately, the process of integrating that business cost us nearly eighteen months in our business plan. We have done well, and our growth rate is enviable. We are sixteen times the size we were after that integration, but I thought we would be where we are now a year and a half ago. We have a model and business plan poised for success. The simple truth is that many segments of the market are ripe for our services, and our operation is 100% scalable. We just have to execute from a prospecting and sales perspective.
What are Endeavor’s plans to be more environmentally friendly?
In our case, what is good for the environment is good for our financials. From an internal operation standpoint, we are near paperless and inherently try to reduce drive time between locations. Other than that, our interest in America's new found green initiatives is a business opportunity. There are a number of pilots that we have underway which would be both environmentally friendly and opportunistically profitable. Those pilots range from the installation of energy monitors in homes and businesses to programs which allow for us to make a profit by reconditioning and recycling deinstalled equipment.
With the down economy, are additional “cosmetic” services such as Digital Signage going to be declining, or will we see a change in how companies are providing that service (i.e. cheaper pricing or smaller televisions in the stores)?
I wouldn't necessarily classify digital signage as purely a cosmetic service. There is a specific return-on-investment (ROI) model for digital signage which, like any prudent financial model, anticipates a profitable return on an initial investment after a certain period of time. The basic idea on digital signage from an end-user stand point is "after x period of time, a digital signage solution will not only pay for itself but will also increase profits by increasing sell of products and services at more profitable competitive price points by allowing for dynamic market-driven content and reducing print costs." Recently, there has been a slow-down in the conversion to digital signage for much the same reason there has been a slow down in the purchase of any capital asset: limited capital and access to quality financing. The initial up-front expense of digital media is relatively high. Companies concerned with maximizing internal cash balances or who are unable to obtain favorable lease or financing terms elect to "hold off" on major purchases. Right now, our digital media customers report that their funnels are at their fullest, but "no one is pulling the trigger." The bottom line is that digital signage is a more effective and efficient means of customer acquisition than traditional print. One major good thing from this past recession is an overall increase in business efficiency. Companies are having to adopt new technologies in order to improve how they operate. Once the capital and debt markets turn around and those improvements trickle into the day-to-day financial decisions on main street, you'll see an expedient move to technologies, like digital signage and telepresence, which produce a return through leveraging a more efficient manner of operating. This is good for us as we are positioned to install and service it.
How do the new rollouts of full city wireless coverage (such as Clear in Atlanta) affect our business?
WIMAX and fixed wireless are very promising for us. While these technologies are in their infancy, this is just the next era in a long tradition of new modes of access driving revenue in our business. All of the federal funding on wireless broadband should expedite the proliferation of wireless which should shorten the speed by which we see the work in the field. Our company does well when new technologies turn traditional established technologies on its ear. In the late 90s, our former parent company made a great deal of money managing and installing frame relay networks (a cheaper alternative to expensive point-to-point T1s and cumbersome ISDN lines). From 2002 to now, Endeavor has garnered substantial revenue from deinstalling those old frame networks and replacing them with VPNs operating over xDSL, cost-effective T1s, and cable. Over the years to come, we'll enjoy business from replacing those wireline modes of access with wireless.
The impact of recent economic woes is so pervasive that it’s reached global proportions. While companies around the world struggle to avoid total collapse, Endeavor is not just surviving but actually managing to thrive. How is that?
We discussed the opportunity created for our company by the economy back in January during the 2009 kick-off. I'm glad to see that you see this to actually be the case nine months later. There are several contributing factors as to why we have grown in the wake of a contracting economy. First, companies look to reduce fixed overhead by outsourcing field operations. We provide a strict variable cost model where customers only pay for the installation and maintenance dispatches they need when they need them versus keeping employees and vehicles on the books regardless of demand. In addition to the natural trend towards outsourcing, we have signed a number of new clients this year. While some of our existing customers have slowed down, we've cast a wider net. From an operations perspective, elevated unemployment actually helps our business. It gives us more ready access to talented field resources.
The nature of our business is such that we do well on both sides of the growth curve. As I mentioned, when business is on the decline, customers look to reduce overhead by outsourcing. When orders are on a steep growth, demand exceeds customer capacity, and they have to outsource to get the work done. This natural position of insulation coupled with the number of new customers that we have signed served us very well in the downturn and positions us equally as strong during the recovery.
Comptel
October 11-14, 2009
Orlando World Center Marriott; Orlando, FL
Click here to register for the show
Supercomm
October 21-23, 2009
McCormick Place; Chicago, IL
Click here to register for the show
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Staff Member of the Month
Field Engineer of the Month
Company Spotlight
Upcoming Events
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Charlie from Atlanta
Charlie, a member of Endeavor's ESP Development Team, has been chosen as Staffer of the Month for September. Charlie has a can-do attitude and the ability to “think globally.” He designs ESP enhancements with the objective in mind but also considers how it will affect other departments. Charlie always lends a helping hand to other Endeavor team members after the improvements have been implemented to help with hands-on training and any other questions that may arise. Charlie is originally from the Tampa, Florida area and has a BS in Computer Science from Auburn University. In his spare time, Charlie enjoys camping, watching movies, and spending time with his wife and daughter.
Brad from Vancouver
Brad is an Endeavor Field Engineer from the Vancouver, British Columbia area in Canada and has been with Endeavor for a year and a half. Brad is extremely pleasant, and has represented Endeavor with professionalism on customer sites. He is very knowledgeable, and this has been proven on the numerous dispatches he's completed. Brad is originally from the US and has lived in the Vancouver area for several years. When he's not busy rolling to Endeavor sites, Brad enjoys hiking, bowling, snowshoeing, and supporting his wife at the gift shop she runs.
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