This presentation was given to a class of MBA students at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. I share my personal journey of starting and running a business that provides software development and analytics consulting services.

1. Saad Shah
5/12/2014
Metric-X, LLC
Being an IT Entrepreneur
MIS 524: Enterprise Information Systems

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MIS 524 - Enterprise Information Systems
 (3 credits)
 The strategic use of information technology (IT) in the
enterprise.
 Topics include intra-organizational systems,
interorganizational systems, the use of IT in a competitive
environment, control of IT, IT resource planning and
organizational issues for the management of information
systems.

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IT Career Scenarios
 Work for a Non-IT Company
– Work in the IT Department
– Use IT to get your job done
 Work for an IT Services Provider
– Sell or deliver IT services to others
– Start your own company

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Topics
 About …
 Point of View
 The Journey
 Technology / Customers
 Highs, Lows, Mistakes
 Strategy

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About Metric-X
 Focus:
– Help companies manage and
analyze their data
 Founded:
– 2000
 Team:
– 10 people

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Services
 Business Intelligence
 Software Development
– .NET, SQL Server
 Excel Integration
 Project Management

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Customers

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About me …
• Project Management
• Software Engineering
• Analytics

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Partner

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Point of View

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Immigrant

12. Michigan (home)

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Mission
Help companies intelligently apply
information technology to improve their
performance
“we help you turn your data into profits”

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Ideal Customers
 Midmarket and Smaller
– Revenue Range: $10 to $500 Million
– Located in Michigan
 What We Look For:
– Healthy
– Hungry
• “Data-Driven”
– Attitude towards vendors
– Pay on Time

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Our Guiding Principles
 “Open Doors, Open Minds”
 “Success is a consequence of
doing the right things for the
right reasons”
 “When a customer asks for
help, we are receiving a gift”
 “We get what we want in life
when we help other people get
what they want”

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The Journey
2000 2014

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Career
1980’s 1990’s 2000’s 2010’s
BS Industrial
Engineering
MS
Information
Systems
Wizards of
Word
Processing
Cambridge
Technology
Partners
EDS / GM /
OnStar
Metric-X
Software
Engineering
Product +
Consulting

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QuickBooks Dashboard

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The Challenging and the Fulfilling

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Fulfilling
 Pay it Forward
 Growing People
 Make a Difference
 Use Talents, Gifts. No Complacency!

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Challenges
 Cashflow
– Accounts Receivable / Collections
 “Quality”
– Requirements on-time, on-budget
 Talent
– Finding, Retaining, Growing

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The Future
Variables:
 Technology
 Competition
 Economy
 Talent

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Technology (Opportunity)
 Cloud
 Mobile
 Big Data
 Predictive Analytics
 In-Memory Analytics

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Lessons Learned

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Mistakes
 “Working in the Business” instead of
“Working on the Business”
 Not selling during good times

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Second Guessing
 No Equity Partners
 No Debt
 Limited Geography
 Few Services

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Strategy

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Operating Approach (Pre-2011)
 Provide personalized service
– Serve only a few clients at a time
 Invest in understanding the clients’ business, priorities, systems and culture
 Provide services that help clients get the most out of their technology investments
– Architecture, Project Management
 Conduct knowledge transfer
 Keep costs low
– Don’t maintain a bench of consultants
– Minimize fixed costs
 Subcontract specialized talent when required by clients
– Engage partners where appropriate

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Operating Approach+ (Since 2011)
 Teachable:
– products and services that you can
teach others to deliver
 Valuable:
– Specialize in doing one thing better
than anyone else (“Microsoft BI”)
 Repeatable:
– generate recurring revenue through
products that customers would
repurchase often (“Software
Subscriptions”)

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What Really Matters

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Thank you!
Saad Shah
1-248-495-4925
sshah@metricx.com