Datavail Moves to Broomfield
Daily Camera staff
Mike Jones considers the Front Range’s venture capital community to be one of the most vibrant outside of the east and west coasts, right up there with Austin, Texas.
Toss in the intellectual capital gushing from the North Denver area, and Jones did not hesitate to relocate Datavail, a database administration service provider, to Broomfield in June.
Datavail looked to move its headquarters from downtown Denver in order to gravitate toward an area that would “allow us to be more prominent in the community,” said Jones, the company’s Chief Executive Officer.
The company’s model for the most part targets smaller companies — those earning annual revenues of about $10 million to $1 billion — and provides database administrative services typically available through independent information technology professionals.
However, Datavail has established a team approach — a relatively new solution in the industry — to better suit the needs of small companies that may not be able to afford full-time database administrators.
Rather than assigning a permanent administrator, the company has multiple employees with various skill sets on hand to help clients manage their concerns.
The company currently manages about 7,000 databases for 47 corporate clients, ranging from software companies to destination resort clubs. Jones said the database technologies have very broad user communities and are applied to many functions, which include providing product catalogs on the Internet, capturing video and compiling customer information.
The new location in Broomfield fit well with the company’s expansion plans, said Jones, a well-known supporter of the Broomfield and Boulder technology corridor.
“It has put us on the map,” he said. “Nobody wants to leave this area. It’s a wealth of technical talent.”
Datavail employs 40 employees in Broomfield and 55 in Mumbai, India. Employing both local and remote talent allows the business to provide planning and development services as well as monitor its databases at all times, watching for sensors that detect any abnormalities.
The company’s method incorporates more checks and balances, which helps “build the scale in technology competency,” Jones said. “We’re taking a little bit of the craft out of it to make it a little more of a science.”
While the company looks to reaffirm its growth, it also faces the challenges of a crumbling economy.
“People are unsure of how to make buying decisions right now,” which has caused some delay in finalizing deals with new clients, Jones said.
Yet, the CEO believes database management industry is part of a rising tide. The company is even projecting an 80 percent to 100 percent increase in U.S. employment over the next year in order to serve more customers, Jones said.
“We expect to be a leader in our field, be a respected partner of our customers, and a credible member of this business community,” he said.
Envysion, Inc., a Louisville-based company, started using Datavail’s services this fall.
As a Web-based video management company, “it’s critically important to us that our database systems can scale — that they are able to grow without breaking — and stay online to remain highly reliable,” said Chief Technology Officer Robert Hagens.
Smaller companies that require database administration services often don’t have enough work for a full-time database administrator, making Datavail’s method particularly cost-effective, Hagens said. Utilizing Datavail remote talent also allows Envysion to make software changes late at night, which prevents the disruption of service to customers, he said.
“(Datavail) is a critical part of our operation,” Hagens said. “And they are going to benefit from other (smaller) companies like us, and get that growth as a result.”
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