Halverson: My background is in IT Services. I was the Vice President for the Western Region for IBM Global Services in what was defined as business innovation services which focused on all of their consulting, systems integration, application development and e-business delivery for the Western United States Within my IBM career I was brought in as part of the team to not only create services as a viable part of the business as a revenue-generating division of IBM, but also to manage a large outsourcing relationship in IBM for Sears. I was also part of the team who sold the IBM global network to AT&T. I also started the IBM/Siebel alliance, establishing Siebel as the largest alliance partner from an application software perspective with IBM. Prior to IBM I was with Price Waterhouse where I ran their telecommunications industry consulting practice for a number of years and prior to that I worked with Pacific Bell, now a business unit of SBC Communications. My background has really been focused on IT Services and creating complementary business solutions using IT as a catalyst in the marketplace.

IMV: What was your path toward NetBrowser Communications and what prompted you to join the company?

Halverson: In 2001, I was consulting a company that NetBrowser acquired. My awareness of the business problems that NetBrowser resolves really grew when I was with IBM. For a service provider, whether internal or external to a corporation, the most reliable hardware and software will not standup to a power outage. What good is a firewall when your servers are on fire? NetBrowser introduced the concept of managing the physical base of a company, power, fire, environmental and physical security equipment, as a global network. I was attracted to NetBrowser because of this whole area of providing business value in somewhat of an untapped domain of the electronic marketplace. Specifically the economy is going through this electronic revolution really all business being functioned around the hardware and software components of the electronic world. It became apparent that in order for that to function smoothly, efficiently and reliably there was a hidden element sitting there in regards to the mechanical and physical infrastructure that was necessary to support that.

At the same time, NetBrowser was in the process of doing a Series A round and the participants in the round asked me if I would help to lead the combined company as the CEO. Naturally, the rest is history.

IMV: Tell us about your role at NetBrowser?

Halverson: As the Chief Executive Officer it is really my job to lead the overall vision and strategy for the corporation and build and support the right team to properly execute against that plan. Naturally, in a small company you get your hands dirty with everything from product marketing and engineering to pipeline management. That is the only way I would have it actually. I love my job even with the hair raising nature of today’s technology marketplace. It forces you to be a gazelle with the constant changes that are thrown at you.

IMV: What were some of the challenges that you saw NetBrowser had before you joined? How have the challenges changed from the beginning until now?

Halverson: I think the challenge is still the same now as when I joined and that is market awareness of really what we do. We don’t fit into a neat category where we approach the marketplace with a product with better features or speed or marginally better value. We approach a marketplace which we are actually pioneering. It is certainly helping that power and security are among the top concerns of many corporations these days, but to some extent we are battling a little of the (ironically) “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM before” syndrome. Once companies learn about us and our message that you can’t have a reliable network until you manage your Zero Layer with the same attention as your 1-7 Layers, then there’ve worried we are a relatively new company versus the 30 year old Johnson Controls of the world.

One thing I’ve initiated is to get the team to build a category awareness plan. We have trademarked the phrase “The Zero Layer” as the management layer we play in the network management world. When a CIO is used to speaking in terms of managing the seven OSI layers of the network, we can step and correctly state there is a foundational layer upon which the glass house of IT sits. Our messaging, coupled with whitepaper and article placements has really gotten the product interest level going.

IMV: As you look at NetBrowser today what do you think are some of the jewels or the core competencies that will make NetBrowser succeed?

Halverson: I think that our compencies or jewels include three main compenents: one intellectually property, two domain expertise and three, service, or our intense focus on the customer.

As for IP, e-Guardian is a patented technology which, in a nutshell, is able to speak any native language to any piece of equipment through any physical means and transport back the information over an IP network with maximum security and minimum network demand to a central global server for analysis, alarming, trending and reporting. Our agent-server technology is the first software of its kind to overcome the issue of navigating firewalls without security compromise. Additional IP will be forthcoming with the filing of patents for our pending decision support system, dubbed ‘Project Insight’ which will take Zero Layer information and turn it into actionable understanding.

Second, we have assembled a team that has worked in, consulted in and felt the pain of Zero Layer management issues. With empathy for the customer like we have, you can be assured the product, service and value we deliver will be spot on the marketplace.

Third, but perhaps it should be first, is the professional service we provide in delivering our software suite. As you can imagine this marketplace requires a consultative touch. We are touching the more sensitive parts of a company’s infrastructure. The bond that we create with our customers is a lasting one and this is important for longevity, well past the expiration of IP.

IMV: What should the audience of our newsletter be looking for in the near term from NetBrowser and Jeff Halverson?

Halverson: Our near term focus is to get our solution established as the most efficient and effective data acquisition and infrastructure monitoring solution out there. With a good base of e-Guardian customers we lay the groundwork for the business intelligence layer that we’ll lay on top of that later in the year. Right now we count 30 of the Fortune 500 companies as our customers. We will be looking to get that number to 60 and to grow the depth within account.

And from Jeff Halverson, I think the important thing to consider and watch is the ways I am going to provide the leadership to not only penetrate the market with this message in existing verticals, but lead the appropriate expansion into multiple verticals around the marketplace.

IMV: What are some of the technical trends that are happening in your area?

Halverson: A major trend in our marketplace is the movement of older building automation and control system onto the Internet. Another marketplace move has been to try and standardize the communication protocols from the different brands and types of equipment. For instance, right now Caterpillar generators do not speak the same language as Cummins Onan. Luckily for NetBrowser the awareness of the of putting old world control systems on the Internet to do monitoring is growing due to FBI warnings and manufacturers have been trying to standardize on a language for 25 years and they are not a day closer to they’re goal. We are forecasting another major technical trend, which we have anticipated in the design of our products, which is an obsession on security. Older monitoring acrchitectures are not secure when they are attached to the Internet and there will be a scramble to address this.

The other trend is using that business intelligence to create additional revenue streams for the marketplace. For instance, the ability of doing that not only from a cost efficient energy auditing, but the ability to turn that energy auditing into usage-sensitive billing both from an internal cross-charge basis for a large corporation but also then to a servicing market perspective back to their customer base from the stand point of delivering truly usage-sensitive billing for power consumption, fuel consumption, and those type of things that are pertinent to the provider.

IMV: With the market being so difficult, are there any business trends that you’re seeing with your customers when you go out to sell?

Halverson: The most relevant trend that exists in the marketplace today is that the Chief Financial Officers are running the business. Cash management is the most concerning issue that exists today. What I mean by that is that discretionary spending is not related to just an efficiency proposition, but is actually just being deferred because of the value of protecting the cash position of a particular company on a very short term, on a quarter to quarter basis. That makes it difficult then to prove a business case for an upfront expenditure that might have a multiple quarter payback. It’s almost requiring an instantaneous payback for investments to be made right now in the marketplace and that’s very difficult and eventually self-defeating.

IMV: Anything else that you think would be of interest to our audience?

Halverson: I think that there is a huge underlying cost that exists in a large number of companies today embedded in their data centers, switching centers, and their call centers. These additional costs exist because of the company's approach to monitoring and managing facility assets. I believe that the NetBrowser solution, both in the e-Guardian solution of today and in the future product solutions that we are bringing to the marketplace, will have a significant opportunity for these companies not only to streamline but to generate a much more efficient use of their dollar for both an expense management and from a capital expenditure.

Backgrounder: A 30-year veteran of the technology industry, Mr. Halverson recently retired from IBM as the Vice President for IBM Global Services, Western US, where he managed all the Business Innovation Services groups creating new business solutions for IBM solutions. He ran the Telecommunications Industry practice for Price Waterhouse. He worked at Pacific Bell as a Director, and has a background in the telecommunications industry.

About NetBrowser: NetBrowser Communications enables companies to achieve increased uptime, greater asset utilization, better operating efficiencies, improved energy management, and enhanced security in their mission-critical facilities - any space that maintains important, sensitive electronic equipment. Collectively, NetBrowser calls these critical facilities assets the Zero Layer™.

NetBrowser’s patented product, e-Guardian®, enables Global 1000 customers to monitor the Zero Layer™ enterprise-wide via a standard web browser from anywhere. e-Guardian® serves as a complement to major Network Management and Building Automation Systems in providing early warning of pending Zero Layer™ failure and security breaches.

For more about NetBrowser, please email info@netbrowser.com