NDM succeeds, quietly
A name like Network Design & Management does not tell you much. But a client list that includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the City of Seattle and biomedical giant Amgen sure does.
And those are just some of the clients NDM President Duston Miller and Vice President Steve Sims can discuss. Other very recognizable names do not want them disclosed, which is OK with NDM. Security is a big part of what the Spokane company is all about.
“Everything we do is highly, highly confidential,” says Miller, who founded NDM 11 years ago. He had worked for ISC Systems Corp., once among Spokane’s largest high-tech firms, and Avista Corp., which became his first customer.
NDM provides clients with servers and software that assure the confidentiality of information within a company, and protect it against outside attacks as well. Data security might also become an issue during and after a merger. And NDM does more commonplace tasks like installing e-mail and other internal communication systems that do not, as Sims says, “just happen.”
Miller says many companies keep information in “data silos” that cannot talk to each other. Or protect each other. Ousted employees stripped of access to the system they worked with may be able to tap into other systems simply because operators are unaware of changes in employee status. Also, information like medical or school records must be protected against unintentional disclosure.
Miller is definitely a data hawk.
“The next war is going to be fought over information,” he says. NDM’s job is assuring the right people see the right information at the right time.
He calls ignorance about system vulnerabilities and privacy safeguards “scary.”
“People just don’t know those things are out there,” Miller says.
NDM is finding more companies at its doorstep as they awaken to the new challenges and responsibilities. And with the recent addition of Sims as partner — word-of-mouth alone had driven sales — he and Miller expect to triple revenues this year into what they coyly refer to as “seven-figure range.”
“We’re scared about the growth,” Sims says. “You just don’t jump into big like that.”
Sims was circulation sales and marketing manager at The Spokesman-Review before the joined NDM.
Miller says NDM has built its reputation on an absolute commitment to respond 24/7 to client problems, even if it means packing an engineer onto an airplane. The company also has its own lab in its Bennett Block headquarters where engineers can model a problem, or develop new systems and solutions.
Its reputation, plus Spokane’s quality of life, has enabled NDM to attract highly experienced engineers that relish working with major national and international clients. One recent hire chose NDM over Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.
“I see that as a great coup,” says Miller, who adds that NDM has so far hired two technicians to staff a Puget Sound-area office pursuing opportunities coming its way in Seattle and Portland. NDM employs 11 in Spokane.
Sims notes the company is finding new opportunities in Venezuela thanks to work done there for an international mining company. “What happened there was a magic deal,” he says.
“We’re kind of a legend outside our home area,” Miller says. “We’ve got clients we’ve never even seen.”
But he hastens to add that does not mean NDM neglects the Spokane-area clients like Avista that have been with the company since its inception. He says NDM also works with partners like IT-Lifeline, the Liberty Lake-based data security and recovery company.
But company installations start at about $250,000, and can be as much as three times that expensive. It’s hard for the mostly small- and mid-sized businesses typical of Spokane to justify that kind of expenditure. Fortunately for NDM, there are plenty of companies elsewhere around the world for whom cost is not an issue.
“It’s kind of hard to believe where we are considering where we come from,” Miller says.
How many times have you heard an unheralded Spokane company say much the same thing?