In the past year, Atrion Networking Corp., an MSPmentor 100 company, has leveraged customer feedback to push into Intelligence Management, according to Director of Product Marketing Robert Johnson. Here’s the update.

“We don’t tell our clients which applicants to use,” said Johnson, who has been with Atrion for three years. “We help them use their tools and their information to do better business.” Atrion used to focus exclusively on network and application monitoring and data backup and storage (DBR). But Atrion’s SMB clients are using and managing more applications than ever, so the company has found a niche helping clients use those tools as efficiently as possible. The first step is making sure Atrion SMB clients’ IT applications are working properly through a process called “synthetic transaction.”

Again, Johnson explains: “If the customer is, say, an online bank, we make sure their applications are functioning properly by testing their applications through their server. Our competitors don’t go this far with application management as far as we know.”

Atrion Networking is a 160-employee SMB itself. It’s a characteristic that Johnson says has made Atrion very popular in the SMB market. “Mid-size companies like working with mid-size providers,” he said. That’s probably because Atrion deals with the same issues that it helps its clients work through: application integration, server monitoring and getting the most out of their marketing dollars.

“We go through mutual discovery with our clients,” said Johnson. “The technology is there to help the business. Our job is to help IT departments deliver more value.”

Atrion’s business strategy has worked to the tune of $40 million in annual revenue and approximately a 500-company customer base in the northeastern United States. Atrion Networking achieved Microsoft Gold Portals & Collaboration Competency in the Microsoft Partner Network in mid-April and plans to introduce more products into the market based on client demand.

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