A National Integrator of Technology-Based Business Solutions: Sirius Computer Solutions

“Headquartered in San Antonio, TX, USA, Sirius Computer Solutions is a nationally recognized solution provider with a certified team of sales and technical professionals who have the skills, product knowledge and commitment to help clients develop and implement the right solutions to solve their business needs.”

Innovations in business and technology are happening at an explosive rate, and are becoming more interrelated. That’s the new technology paradigm of today, and the biggest changes are happening in four categories: Cloud, Data, Engagement and Security. As technology becomes more pervasive in your business strategy, you can create value by positively affecting your revenue, reducing costs and complexity, strengthening your customer loyalty, minimizing your risk, and creating a more productive workplace. You want to shape your own future, but you can’t do it alone. That’s where Sirius Computer Solutions comes in.

Sirius provides complete business and data center solutions that help you transform your enterprise and overcome your most difficult business and IT challenges. Whether it’s in your enterprise, in the cloud or through a managed service, our solutions support your strategy. Sirius offers solutions that are integrated, implemented and supported by highly certified services consultants using proven methodologies.

With more than three decades of experience implementing sophisticated integrated solutions, thousands of professional and technology certifications, and top-tier partnerships with the world’s leading providers, nobody is better suited to help your business succeed than Sirius.

Sirius at a glance

• Privately held, headquartered in San Antonio, TX
• More than 5,000 active clients in the U.S.
• Over 4,000 professional and technical certifications
• Over 1,700 employees, with sales locations across the U.S.
• Regional Sirius Technology Enablement Centers (TECs)
• A Command Center for Managed Services offerings
• Corporate Headquarters: 10100 Reunion Place, Suite 500, San Antonio, TX 78216
• Established: 1980
• Industries served: All
• Geography served: United States

Comprehensive Integrated Solutions
Sirius is a national integrator of technology-based business solutions that span the enterprise, including the data center and lines of business. Built on products and services from the world’s top technology companies, Sirius solutions are installed, configured and supported by its dedicated teams of highly certified experts.

With the right people and the right partners, Sirius is able to focus on solutions to help IT professionals cut costs, increase reliability, ease the burden of management, maximize flexibility, mitigate risk and improve service.

“We require our teams to be certified in multiple disciplines and products, so they can help you get from the high-level architecture of a solution all the way down to the technical configuration and implementation of point-products,” said Joe Mertens, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Since its founding in 1980, Sirius has grown to be one of the largest IT solutions integrator in the U.S. Today, Sirius offers integrated, multivendor technology solutions that meet the requirements of the full range of organizations, from small businesses with fewer than 500 employees to large enterprises with thousands of employees and hundreds of locations.

A World-Class Services Organization
Sirius has built a world-class services organization around hundreds of recognized technology experts who specialize across all disciplines related to enterprise computing. Drawing on centuries of combined experience, these highly skilled, certified consultants can determine which technology products are best suited for your specific challenges, and then provide the services that will ensure the fastest return on your investment. Sirius also has a dedicated software team capable of helping companies evaluate, acquire and implement software solutions in the areas of commerce, business intelligence, information management, collaboration, identity and access management, business optimization, systems and storage management, and more.

Building Robust Partnerships
The company’s client challenges frequently require solutions from more than one manufacturer, so Sirius partners with strategic vendors whose technologies will help make it more successful. And it employs people who continually evaluate potential partners and their products or services, to ensure that clients have access to a complete range of useful solutions. Today, Sirius’ partners comprise technology innovators with strong market presence and long-term, sustainable business strength.

Knowing the Leadership Team

Joe Mertens, President and Chief Executive Officer – Joe began his career with Sirius (then known as Star Data Systems) in 1984 and his responsibilities grew to include sales and operations of the company’s wholesale and distribution divisions. In 1997, those divisions were sold to Savoir Technology Group and renamed Business Partner Solutions (BPS), of which Mr. Mertens was appointed president and CEO. During his tenure at BPS, sales grew from $237.9 million in 1997 to $767.2 million in 1999 through a combination of organic growth and the integration of six acquisitions.

In 1999, BPS was consolidated into Savoir Technology Group and Mr. Mertens took the helm as the combined company’s president and chief operating officer, with responsibility for all sales and operations in North America.In July 2000, Avnet Computer Marketing purchased Savoir Technology Group and Mr. Mertens was named executive vice president and general manager of the IBM Business Unit, where he was credited with growing sales to $981 million in 2000. In July 2001, Mr. Mertens moved into a consulting role for Avnet and was named executive vice president of Business Development. He returned to Sirius in May, 2002 as executive vice president, and was named president in April, 2008. In August, 2011, Mr. Mertens was named chief executive officer of Sirius upon the retirement of the company’s founder, Harvey Najim.

Mr. Mertens, a native of Texas, received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious IBM Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Mertens serves on the IBM Solution Provider Advisory Council, and the board of directors of Sirius Computer Solutions. He has also served on the boards of directors for Network Systems International (NASDAQ:NESI), Appsmall.com, and Savoir Technology Group (NASDAQ: SVTG). Mr. Mertens is a member of the Alexis De Tocqueville Society, and has served on the board of trustees for the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County.

Jim Simpson, President of Strategic Initiatives – Jim was named president of Strategic Initiatives at Sirius Computer Solutions when the acquisition of MSI Systems Integrators was completed in November, 2010. Prior to the acquisition, Mr. Simpson was the president and CEO of MSI, and a member of MSI’s Board of Directors.

In Mr. Simpson’s current role, he is tasked with the executive oversight of Sirius’ Consulting, Software, and Mainframe groups, and leads emerging technology initiatives including cloud, mobility and healthcare. He is also heavily involved in the Sales organization, and represents the Sirius executive team at numerous client meetings throughout the year.

As MSI’s president and CEO, Mr. Simpson excelled in managing the growth and development of an organization that he had helped shape into one of the nation’s top IT business integrators. In 2006, his outstanding leadership skills were recognized with the executive of the year award presented at the VAR Business 500 Conference for leading one of North America’s successful technology integrators. In 2007, Mr. Simpson was named as one of the Top 25 Most Innovative Executives by CRN magazine.

Mr. Simpson joined MSI in December 1999 and demonstrated leadership in the areas of defining and building upon MSI’s core competencies to enable information technology for business and leveraging MSI’s strength in partner and customer relationships. Prior to joining MSI, Mr. Simpson held a number of key leadership positions during his 19-year career with IBM in sales and sales management.

Mr. Simpson received his bachelor’s degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and is an active member in the community. He is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization, and of the Creighton University College of Arts and Science Advisory Board. He is also currently chairman of the Board of Directors of the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.

Case Studie

Virtualization Yields Value for Eco-friendly Hosting Company

Customer: Affordable Internet Services Online, Inc., AISO.net
Industry: Web Hosting Services

Challenge
The power consumption levels of this environmentally-conscious web hosting provider were making it increasingly difficult for the company to maintain its operations using solar power. Affordable Internet Services Online, Inc. (AISO.net) needed an IT infrastructure that could reduce its power consumption, while maintaining responsiveness and high availability.

Why Sirius Computer Solutions
Sirius Computer Solutions has the in-depth technology expertise to analyze client requirements and recommend a systems solution that met the eco-friendly hosting provider needs.

Solution
AISO.net selected a new IT environment architected Sirius Computer Solutions and composed of IBM, Network Appliance, Cisco, and VMware products, that met its energy consumption, system redundancy and scalability requirements as well as the corporate mission of an environmentally-friendly hosting infrastructure.

Key Benefits

Virtual server capabilities of VMware provide the flexibility to host additional clients and increase revenue potential.

Server and storage consolidation reduced data center power consumption by approximately 60 percent.

Replacement of 120 white box servers with four, scalable and easy-to-manage IBM xSeries servers reduced cooling costs and the data center footprint.

Cost savings and avoidances enabled the client to pursue additional environmental conservation solutions.

“We looked at other companies that could do VMware. Sirius seemed the most knowledgeable, answering our questions faster. They had even worked with some of AISO.net’s clients.” – Phil Nail, founder & chief technology officer, Affordable Internet Services Online.

POWER7 is just what the doctor ordered for medical billing provider

Customer: AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions www.ahsrcm.com
Industry: Billing and practice management services and software for the health-care industry

Challenge
AHS had six older IBM iSeries and System i servers with earlier operating systems, and maintenance contracts that would have cost the company more than $500,000 for the next three years.

Solution
A single IBM Power 750 server running IBM i 6.1 is now running the workload from all six of the older servers, as well as two other servers from a subsidiary company. In addition to dramatically higher performance, the hardware and software maintenance contract for the next three years will cost less than one-tenth what it would have cost for the six older servers.

Why Sirius Computer Solutions
As the nation’s top value-added reseller of Power Systems^™ servers running the IBM i operating system, Sirius has extensive experience specifying, configuring, installing and testing these midrange systems. For that reason, along with the company’s longstanding relationship with Sirius, AHS could be confident that they would get the best possible solution to their server replacement challenge.

Key Benefits

• AHS was able to migrate workload from eight older Power Systems servers running different versions of i5/OS onto a single Power 750 server running IBM i.
• The combined hardware and software maintenance contract for the new server costs less than 10 percent of what it would have cost for the old servers.
• AHS only has one footprint instead of six at its co-location site.
• Daily reporting times have been reduced from more than five hours to about 90 minutes.
  There were considerable data center savings in terms of power consumption, cooling and footprint.
  A three-year lease through IBM Global Financing reduced the up-front cost to affordable monthly payments, and facilitates the company’s technology refresh strategy.

“With all the money we’re saving, along with the extra performance, the decision to migrate to the new Power 750 was really a no-brainer.” – Manny DaSilva, Chief Technology Officer.

“We help companies of all sizes and in all industries become more competitive by taking advantage of technology solutions across the data center and throughout the enterprise.”