Case Study: eMOBUS Experience With SKMurphy

This is a case Study of SKMurphy’s advisory support for eMOBUS. It includes a detailed write-up by Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS.

Case Study: eMOBUS Experience With SKMurphy

We normally we work with a team of two to five engineers or scientists who have working technology and deep domain knowledge but who need help identifying and exploring opportunities for scaling up their business based on building long term customer relationships that provide recurring revenue. The eMOBUS team knew how to sell and had deep domain knowledge for cellular spend management, they wanted practical insight into how to incorporate software technology into their service offering in a way that aligned both with customer needs and larger technology trends.

Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS co-founded the company in 2005 to bring stability to the fragmented world of mobility management. Under Arnaiz’s direction, eMOBUS has grown from an idea into a rapidly growing cloud computing company – providing web services and licensing its platform to various VAR’s and consulting companies. eMOBUS is the only mobility management platform to take a preventative cost containment approach, which has earned the respect of industry leaders such as Netsuite, Johnny Rockets, Master Halco and Swinerton Builders. Moe honored as one of “40 under 40” to watch by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine in 2010.

SKMurphy has helped us with several key transitions in our business over the last four years. The impact on our business has been to move from a carrier reseller model under increasing margin pressure and shrinking differentiation from other resellers to a fast growing technology enabled service organization who offers a platform that is so compelling that we are licensing our technology to other providers in addition to continuing to use it to power our own business.

From the beginning Sean challenged us to change our perspective from acting as an agent for the carrier to an advocate and trusted advisor for our customers. This resulted in a shift in our focus from procurement and transactions that migrated a customer onto a different carrier to a monthly service that monitored their business needs and current billing,  making adjustments as necessary to get them the most cost effective configuration with either their current carrier or a new one.

As we continued to work with SKMurphy they helped us to identify and explore opportunities where software-enabled solutions not only allowed us to scale the business but allowed us to focus on building long term relationships with our customers that provided recurring revenue.

They were also helpful in recruiting our CTO, who has migrated our business from Excel and Quickbase to a cloud solution that is scalable to the needs of our growth plans. This migration to the cloud has also enabled us to offer a platform as a service to telecom expense management firms who wanted to add a mobility management component to their offering. Through out the process, SKMurphy provided insight into the technology trends that we should leverage.

I think two of the hardest challenges that a startup faces are hiring the right people and winning the early deals that establish credibility. Both of these problems are ultimately the CEO’s responsibility. Sean was available as needed, working nights and weekends when we did. What was surprising was that each new level of deal required us to learn a new way of selling.

We have other advisors whose sales, financial operations, and technology insights we value, I think where Sean has been most helpful was in thinking through and then executing the switch to a software-enabled services firm selling subscriptions from a rep firm focused on the next sales transaction.

As the CEO I have gathered a team of talented advisors because I want to make effective decisions. Their value is in the questions that they ask that force me to look at the problem from a variety of perspectives.

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