Issue Date: 7/15/2002, Posted On: 7/15/2002
Summit CEO optimistic despite drop in sales
Regardless of success, Patel says he's 'having fun' with tech company
John Pike WEST HARTFORD, Conn. � A product of the tech boom, Summit Technologies
reached a summit of business activity in 2001, but has fallen back sharply since
then. As most experienced managers will tell you, coping with periodic
fluctuations in business can be difficult. Indeed, for Paul Patel, Summit's
president and chief executive officer, it has been an ambivalent experience. "It
was easy going up," said Patel. "Expansion was OK; you just hire people and
money is coming in. But going down was tougher. It was an emotional nightmare. I
knew people's families." Patel, 32, a practicing Hindu, grew up in Gujarat
state, India. Privately owned Summit is one of the largest minority-owned
employers in the Hartford area. Patel estimates sales for 2002 at $3 million � a
drop of about one-third from the year before. An information-technology
consulting company, Summit recommends and installs hardware purchased by its
customers. It is the feet-on-the-ground that installs networking systems,
servers, and computers. At times it revises software and improves electronic
security. Patel said that, in 1997 � armed with a recent master's degree in
business from the University of Connecticut at Storrs and $5,000 in borrowed
cash � he, Chris Calma and Marty Hummel started Summit. The company's chief
financial officer is Patel's sister, Smita Patel. Every year has been
profitable, he said. Not bad for a recent graduate. Especially one who said he
had trouble affording a computer during graduate school. To pay bills during
school, Patel said, he imported granite and marble from India, China and Italy
in a distribution business. After hovering around $1 million in gross sales for
a few years, Summit jumped up about 50 percent to $1.6 million in 2000, said
Patel. The company reached a peak the following year with sales of $4.5 million
and 62 employees. With the technology bust, Summit has had to cut back to 35
employees. In particular, business declined after Summit completed a large
project for Pitney Bowes. Patel said he is still optimistic. "We are well
positioned to grow," said Patel. "We have the employees and the back-office
operation to easily double our size." That is, of course, if it gets the
customers. Past clients include a subcontracting job for the former Compaq
Computer Corp.; this one involved upgrading computers to Windows 2000 for Pitney
Bowes. Other companies Summit has done work for include CIGNA Corp.,
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Unisys Corp. "Our relationship with
Summit has worked out very well," said Ryon Raghurai, a principal consultant at
Unisys. All told, he said, Unisys has used Summit about 50 times. Raghurai
praised Summit for having "skilled consultants that can represent our interest"
and get the job done on schedule. Beyond that, he said, Patel brings customer
leads to Unisys. "It goes both ways. We give him work, he gives us work."
Recently Summit has been installing wireless Internet access in a few Starbucks
so people can drink coffee and surf the Web simultaneously. Patel said about
half of his work is as a subcontractor, rather than for the end customer who is
seeking to have the work done. "Summit does not have the size, sales force, or
funds to pursue national clients directly," said Patel. "Often we cannot get on
the vendor list because we are not large enough." As a subcontractor, Summit's
employees do the tasks the main contractor may not have enough employees to
perform. "The end customer feels they are doing business with just one company,"
he added. Patel said he is glad Summit did not get "sucked into" the dot-com
explosion of a few years ago. "We did not get burned by that," said Patel. "We
were so busy with our existing customers, and limited by our existing funds,
that we did not really pursue dot-com companies. Now we are in a better position
than we would have been." "The growing pains are tough, but it is always
interesting to shift from project to project," said Patel. But regardless of
whether Summit is up or down, Patel said he is "having fun." And for that alone,
he has what many miss in their daily routines.