Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Quick shift saved company from bust BBR Wireless found way to cope with dot-com bust

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 17:01:11 -0500

Quick shift saved company from bust BBR Wireless found way to cope with dot-com bust
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By MARCUS GREEN
[email-masked]
The Courier-Journal

BY DURELL HALL JR., THE COURIER-JOURNAL
Jim Carroll, president of BBR Wireless Management, held a cellular phone. The company
helps others manage their wireless rates.

BBR Wireless Management hit its first turning point before it hit the market.

The company was incorporated in September 1999 at the height of the technology boom. It
planned a Web site — using venture capital — that would help consumers and small
businesses buy pagers and cell phones.

"Everything was still rosy," recalled BBR's founder and president, Jim Carroll, "and
venture capitalists were throwing millions of dollars at projects such as ours."

Then the dot-com bubble burst.

BBR was forced to ask a fundamental question. "Are we providing a service that people will
buy?" Carroll said, adding that's "one of the questions I think a lot of the dot-coms
didn't ask themselves before they got going."

Another niche emerged as BBR met with clients. Some expressed interest in the day-to-day
management of wireless rates.

It would prove to be a turning point. With the help of Louisville Web developer Firstegg
LLC, BBR redesigned its online site to appeal to large companies with demanding wireless
needs.

By 2001, BBR had reinvented the company. It created software for clients to access via the
Internet and eschewed any notion of being a high-tech firm.

"We're using some high-tech tools to be able to deliver our service and make it economical
for the client and make it profitable to us," Carroll said.

The service is simple. BBR audits a client's wireless activity, looking for ways to
shuffle rate plans to "squeeze every dollar out of the carriers," Carroll said. The
software lets companies maintain those savings.

BBR will reach another turning point this spring. The company is working with Kentucky
Highlands Investment Corp. on financing for a client-care center and headquarters in
southeast Kentucky. BBR, which has offices at the University of Louisville's technology
incubator at Shelby Campus, would keep its sales staff in Louisville.

Employment at the client center is expected to increase from 15 to about 50 people during
the next three years.

 Carroll stresses that BBR does not advise clients to change wireless providers to secure
better rates. It only finds the best rates and discounts. Thus, employees don't have to
worry about new phone numbers or trading in their phones.

 With cell phones a virtual necessity for business, BBR streamlines the proc   ess of
managing each wireless phone bill.

 The cell phone bill is "either going to the end user, and they're expensing it, or it's
going to the corporate headquarters, who is paying the bill on behalf of the user , "
Carroll said. "The people that are missing in between are the managers whose budgets are
usually being hit by this cellular service."

 Carroll said cell phone use has  begun  to envelop large chunks of company budgets. On e
client reported that wireless expenses had exceeded the costs of wired telephone service.

 Citing industry statistics, Carroll said business users generally spend $75 to $100 per
month on cell service — compared with about $60 for personal phones. "You get a few
thousand users and you've got a $1 million annual expense."

One of BBR's strengths, Carroll said, is the telecommunications and accounting experience
of the company's management, which includes Chief Operating Officer Bruce Kramer, wireless
data analyst Denny Marshall and John Singerman, vice president of business development.

Instead of marketing directly, BBR relies on telecommunications agents. "It's just
cost-effective &elipse; a good way to do it as opposed to direct sales," Singerman said.

Ovbiously, BBR's growth has been helped by growth in the use of cell phones. According to
the Commerce Department, nearly 110 million people in the United States used a cell phone
in 2000, compared with about 5 million in 1990. Wireless telecommunications revenues
jumped 29 percent to $83 billion in 2001 alone.

BBR, which says it is breaking even, recently added SimplexGrinnell, the Westminster,
Mass., fire protection division of Tyco International, as its newest client. The deal will
put 7,000 Nextel users under BBR management, said SimplexGrinnell wireless analyst Pam
Huckaby.

SimplexGrinnell began looking for a vendor to manage its wireless plans last fall. BBR
came recommended through strong word - of - mouth, she said. "They weren't all smoke and
mirrors like their competitors."

SimplexGrinnell expects to shave about $2 million off its annual wireless expenses.

http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2003/02/10/biz-front-turn10-6413.html

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