ENTREPRENEUR WATCH

Veteran software executive Joe Fiorentino joined Ecora Software in May 2006 as CEO and president. Michael McCord photo

When veteran high-tech and software executive Joe Fiorentino arrived to take over the reins of Ecora Software in May 2006, he found a company in what he called "stealth mode," one poised for a restart.

During his career — which includes turn-around efforts with up-and-coming tech companies such as Idiom Technologies and Eprise Corporation, and whose roots extend back to Digital and Sun Microsystems — Fiorentino has specialized in restarts, which essentially requires a relaunch of the company to get it back on track, often after investors have decided that it needs an infusion of different management talent to save a money-leaking ship.

In the case of Ecora, which was founded in 1999 by entrepreneur Alex Bakman, Fiorentino said he had significant running start for the relaunch — it already had established products and smart people in place and good ideas for growth.

"(Ecora) needed a break-out strategy to take it to the next stage," Fiorentino recently told Seacoast Ventures. "We needed to reinvent the customer engagement model."

So far, so good, according to Fiorentino. Ecora — which specializes in the technologically exotic but crucial areas of automated configuration, change management and compliance reporting — is poised to break through and is keeping pace with Fiorentino's goal to double revenues (estimated $20 million for 2007) without having to double its work force of 100 employees.

Fiorentino talked to Seacoast Ventures about the challenges of taking Ecora to the next stage while competing with industry giants such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and EMC that are, he estimates, "100 times our size."

On swimming with the industry whales:

Our challenge is to double our revenues, expand our customer base, build our management team (which includes founder Bakman, who is the company's chief technology officer) and have a smart, highly charged field organization. We need to hire the right people who are up for the challenges

The advantage we have is being more flexible and the fact that our products have technical differentiation from our competitors that are meaningful to our customers. Our value is the ability to deliver in hours, to install, collect and report. It's a value that can be measured in days and quarters.

On keeping technologically light:

I'm not a BlackBerry guy. In day-to-day operations, all I need is a cell phone, and e-mail.

On Ecora's market:

We have more than 3,000 customers in the Fortune 20,000. A significant amount of them have security and compliance needs in the financial and retail (sectors).

On a restart philosophy:

I've seen five of these start-ups thrive and grow. It takes a dedication to process and discipline and having done this a couple of times, it's easy to restore a field organization in short time. I believe that a great idea will achieve success over time.

On finding the right talent:

Recruitment is a challenge because the availability of talent in our geographic area (which ranges to Andover to the south and Gloucester to the southeast in Massachusetts) isn't as much as it is farther south. We've had to work to get our name out.

On an exit strategy:

Exit strategies aren't 100 percent reliable. Our job is to stay focused and grow to build a company that creates value for everyone — our investors, our employees and our customers.