When the Sarbanes-Oxley Act became federal law in 2002, organizations focused heavily on business processes to achieve regulatory compliance. Thomas Mrva noticed most companies were overlooking one critical component of their financial management: IT.

The Lighthouse Computer Services founder and president saw a significant opportunity for his IT consulting company and seized it. Mrva invested in research to clearly define the IT requirements of Sarbanes, hired more certified auditors, and developed an IT regulatory compliance practice.

“I realized early on that Sarbanes would have a huge impact on IT,” Mrva said. “Most people just didn’t see it. But when you consider Sarbanes covers mail systems, document retention, disaster sites, and on and on, you begin to realize how important it is. And compliance is critical for public companies. If they’re not compliant, the world learns about it, and the fines are huge.”

Regulatory compliance turned out to be a perfect fit for the service-oriented team of expert IT consultants Mrva developed over the company’s 10 year history—a team Mrva describes as “hungry to tackle a company’s worst IT problems.” And companies across the Northeast turned to Lighthouse in droves as they became aware of the broad role IT plays in managing financial information. As a result, the Lincoln, Rhode Island-based company experienced record sales in 2005 and more than doubled its 2004 revenues to exceed the $100 million mark for the first time.

Basement to boardroom
By 1995, Thomas Mrva had reached the point where he wanted to make a dramatic change in his professional life. He’d been working as an applications developer for IBM for years and was sick and tired of the long hours, travel, and time away from his wife and three children. “I was at the point where I could have become a potato chip salesman and I would have been happy,” he said with a laugh.

Mrva started Lighthouse Computer Services with a list of loyal clients, an office in the basement of his home, and a mission to build strong, productive, long-term technology partnerships with his customers. He kept his rates low and watched his book of business rapidly expand to the point where he couldn’t handle it by himself.

But the entrepreneur wasn’t interested in hiring just anyone to take on the extra business. “I only wanted the folks with 15-plus years of experience, but the dilemma was, I was a startup company in the middle of the dot-com boom,” Mrva said. “There was no way I could offer the types of incentives and perks that were out there at the time, so I took a different approach. I looked for the people who were just as sick of the corporate grind as I was. I wanted the people who were more concerned about their quality of life than about making the most money.”

The Lighthouse president managed to find like-minded friends and former colleagues who eagerly came on board, and quickly established a company of experienced, service-oriented IT professionals. Said Mrva, “I know I’ve got the right person for the job when they go to the customer, ask to see their five worst problems, and can go back and honestly tell them, ‘I can help you with two of them.’ That’s when I know I’ve got the right person, and that’s the type of person we hire.”

Since he hired his first employee, Mrva said he has remained dedicated to hiring only the “superstars” of the industry, and in January, IBM presented the company with the prestigious Beacon Award for Overall Technical Excellence, recognizing just how talented Lighthouse has become.

“Since the earliest days of Lighthouse, we’ve insisted on hiring the very best technical talent available, so this award goes to every member of our technical team,” Mrva said. “Winning in the category of Overall Technical Excellence only confirms what I know—and what so many of our customers have experienced—Lighthouse’s technical team is the best of the best.”

Kick the tires
Lighthouse not only differentiates itself from the competition with its award-winning staff, the company is also the only IBM Business Partner in the Northeast region with an on-site Innovation Center. The multi-million dollar lab allows customers to test leading-edge technology and “kick the tires” before committing to an IT solution.

The company has offered an IBM TotalStorage Solution Center for the past three years at company headquarters, but the new center, opened in September, takes customized product testing to the next level. “They can come in any time, test platforms and equipment, and put together any configuration they want, and they’re welcome to do it,” Mrva said. “We make it flexible for them so they can put any scenario together that fits the needs of their particular environment. This allows customers to make decisions with far less risk.”

The innovation center offers pre- and post-sales support, including product demonstrations and test drives, solution design consultation, proof-of-concept support, product installation and implementation assistance, training, education, and customized workshops. “Normally, customers have to travel long distances or try to do these things remotely,” Mrva said. “By having the innovation center in the region we serve, we’re providing our customers with a time saving solution. And as we all know, time is money.”

Controlled growth
Despite record growth in 2005, Mrva said he is confident the company could increase revenue by as much as 400% in its IT regulatory compliance practice in 2006. “Lighthouse’s partnerships with technology leaders like IBM, VMware, Microsoft, Avamar, and others help us bring clients into the next stages of IT compliance, resolving many of the technical gaps discovered during the IT audits and assessments,” he said. But the Lighthouse president added he refused to risk the company’s established expertise simply to meet demand.

“My philosophy has always been, we can only grow with the right people,” Mrva concluded. “We have 65 right now, but I would grow to 1,000 if I had the right people with the all of the skills, passion, and drive we look for. There are other practices we want to build around regulatory compliance, but we won’t do that if we can’t find the superstars. That’s paramount. That’s how I’ve built this company from the start, and that’s how we’re going to continue to grow.”