Suntiva Helps New Company President Accelerate Strategy, Achieve Early Wins

BACKGROUND

SAFLINK Corporation (NASDAQ: SFLK) provides secure credentialing and identity assurance management solutions for public and private enterprises - from biometric devices and physical access controls to network security and smart cards. In 2004, SAFLINK merged with SSP-Litronic, a market leader in identity management and smart card technology. Shortly after this merger was completed, the company hired a new President of Public Sector, with a charter to rapidly integrate the two organizations, grow the customer base, and ultimately develop and execute a winning, long-term business strategy.

THE CHALLENGE

After a very successful track record as an executive in a $1B+ IT consulting firm, the new President recognized the importance of his first few months, and in achieving some early wins. He knew he needed an aggressive 90-day agenda that would help him:

• Learn the ropes quickly, getting up to speed on key people, products, services, and customers;
• Integrate the recently merged organizations, which still had overlapping roles and responsibilities, along with separate local offices just a few blocks apart;
• Organize the combined company around a single, customer-focused go-to-market strategy, and then put the right people in place to make it happen;
• Influence the product roadmap to ensure that corporate R&D efforts were aligned and consistent with current and future government requirements;
• Prove the value of the new strategy through an early sales win that required the resources and expertise of both organizations.

And, the new President had to do all this while also learning to work with a new boss (the CEO) and the rest of his peers on the executive team - all of whom were 2,000 miles away.

THE SUNTIVA SOLUTION

Suntiva brought focus and structure to the President's hard-hitting 90-day agenda with its Strategy Alignment methodology. We provided a roadmap for developing the business strategy, helping to accelerate the integration of two very different organizations — culturally, structurally, and functionally. We also provided expert advice for the strategy itself — from the organizational design and resulting account plans to the implications for product design and prioritizing customer requirements. Suntiva offered fresh perspectives to the leadership team, and freed the new President from having to manage the process, so that he could be a full participant and contributor to the new strategic direction.

THE RESULTS

In his first 60 days, the President delivered an integrated Public Sector business strategy to the SAFLINK executive team, and quickly gained buy-in for his team's vision and approach. Some of the most visible results to date include:

• A very large, early win on a strategic Federal customer bid, with a solution that integrates products from both of the merged organizations.
• Re-organization of the two companies into a single, customer-focused management structure. This has created new roles and opportunities for many key leaders, while improving their visibility into key markets, and significantly growing the pipeline of qualified opportunities
• Alignment and commitment of the Public Sector leadership team to the overall strategy, to include critical agreements on top strategic priorities and initiatives in the coming months;
• Better collaboration on key corporate initiatives (such as product R&D), thereby improving the understanding and focus on requirements in the government market.

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