Business Intelligence Focus Pays Off As Wise Choice For Mariner

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In the first part of the decade, as the technology bubble burst, application development service companies were a dime a dozen. Phil Morris and Joe Guy, who founded Mariner in Charlotte in 1998, knew they had to differentiate themselves in the market if they were to survive. “We essentially re-invented ourselves into a Business Intelligence (BI) company – we took our skills to a particular niche with a great deal of promise,” Morris said. “In four years, we turned Mariner into a 100 percent BI company.” It helped that Microsoft was also exploring this new field, which has become the latest trend in application technology. In 2005, according to a report by Gartner, Microsoft experienced a 35.9 percent increase in revenues from its BI platform, more than twice that of the other leading database management systems and legacy pure play BI Vendors. As a Gold Certified Partner with Microsoft with specializations in BI and Information Worker solutions, Mariner is sharing in the growth, with a 40 percent annual increase in business during each of the last three years. It now has 22 employees and plans to add three more by the end of the year. “We’re riding the wave,” Morris said. Morris was recently named to Microsoft’s BI Business Advisory Council, a prestigious group of 25 individuals that provide the firm with information from the field.

Read the full story (Local Tech Wire)