San Mateo-based Splice fuses Web services for small businesses - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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But for Andy Coan, founder and chief executive ofSan Mateo-based Splicer Communications, it has definitely paid off. Coan started Splice in after being in the telecommunications business for nine Coan started Splice as atelecokm broker. He served as a middleman between companies and providersz and took a commission onthe sales. at the insistence of his Coan stopped being just a broker and became a resellet of services from 26different companies. The bust actually “At that time companies were laying off a lot of he said. “They didn’t have the manpowed to manage. We allowed them to leverage our abilit to research different options for It was really kind of theright time.
” As a Coan’s revenue grew to $14.3 million in 2008, a 48 percent increase over 2006. The companyt employs 17 people and plans to add at least two more this maybe three. Splice charges a commissiojn on the services it sells to its roughlh150 clients. One invoice, many optiond So what’s Coan’s secret?? Variety. Because Splice offers services from a varietuof partners, the company can completely customizde a system for any one and they would still only have one invoice to pay and one support number to call.
And that’s how he’ss able to succeed, even when he’es competing against his own suppliers, like Verizon and “They place an order with they’re getting a Splicd invoice,” he said. “And behind the scenes it really doesn’t matterd that we’re designing a multi-carrier You have one throat to choke.” But Coan also ran into some luck in 2003 when he movefd Splice from being a broker to aservics provider. MCI Worldcom, which was a leader in networo solutions, had basically collapsed after it had been rocked by The company filed for bankruptchyin 2002, the larges t bankruptcy filing in the U.S.
up to that The company’s work force was and Coan, who had worked for MCI, was in a primwe spot to becomea partner. “At the time they had the biggesr network, the biggest footprint in the world,” he “And going with them made a lot of sensd given the fact that they hadjust re-organizex and came out of bankruptcy.” As the economy continues to Coan says Splice is incredibly well-positioned. Companies are finding it too expensivw to keep large IT staffds in house and try to deal with many When Splice bundlesplans together, he said, it can offer saving that customers can’t get if they were buying the service retail from every supplier.
Andy Dolich, chiefv operating officer of the SanFrancisco 49ers, agrees. He said that the team only has a staffc ofthree in-house IT personnel, and for everythinyg else, they use Splice. “They’re an excellent solution in any kind of especiallyone that’s as unpredictablde as this,” Dolich said. “They can take care of researchinh all the different carrier options and customize it to what ourneedss are.” Dolich also said that the service is reliabls — his IT director never has a complaint to make about the company. “There’s neve r a flashing red light,” he said.
He likener Splice to a referee — if you know the name of the refereew at the end ofthe it’s probably bad. With Splice, he said, that hasn’t been a But it’s not like Coan hasn’tr seen any effects of the down economy. His customeras are slashing budgets and puttinf offany upgrades. His biggestt fear is that his customerws will go outof business. But for now, Splicre is doing fine. March was one of the company’s best and they are conservatively projecting 20 percenf growthin 2009, Coan said.