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By Terry Judd | MSS
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MUSKEGON – It should come as no surprise to find the book “Blue Ocean Strategy” on the bookshelf of Eric Ringelberg and his wife, Michele.

Written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, the book details how businesses and organizations can achieve success and growth by venturing into uncontested markets – or “blue oceans.” By contrast, businesses and organizations that compete head-to-head are floating in “red ocean” marketplaces, where growth is far more difficult.

The blue ocean strategy in part explains the remarkable growth of the Muskegon-based Next I.T. since its formation in a small office nine years ago by Eric Ringelberg. At the time, Ringelberg saw an untapped market in West Michigan to provide information and technical expertise to small- to medium-size companies.

“The thing I really do is I have a goal to grow to a certain size,” Ringelberg said. “So I focus a lot of my time on a certain strategy to differentiate myself to the marketplace. I’m constantly reinventing the company to be different.”

It’s a strategy that has worked. As the company’s chief financial officer, Ringelberg has seen Next I.T. grow into a leading West Michigan company providing information technology services, consulting and project management.

From being basically a one-person operation in 1991, Next I.T. now employs 21, hiring seven alone since January. Employment is anticipated to rise to 24 by next January. The company has grown about 30 percent this year. No wonder Ringelberg was among the top four finalists for the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Next I.T. essentially is two divisions — information technology (I.T.), and web (Internet). As its names imply, I.T. is focused on computer networks and software, including file servers, back-up systems, e-mail, networks, printer support, downstreaming, electronic medical records, training and managed information technology services. The I.T. division has grown 48 percent this year.

The web division, headed by Creative Services Manager Michele Ringelberg, assists customers with web development, search  engine optimization, Internet marketing and e-commerce solutions. Services include content managed systems, database integration, marketing, managed web services, website developing and website management. The web division has grown 36 percent this year.

Eric Ringelberg expects to see further growth at Next I.T. with a goal of doubling the size of the web division by the end of the year. Besides its main office at 423 W. Norton in a building it owns in Norton Shores, Next I.T. also has a satellite office in Grand Rapids. Plans are in the works to further expand, with a Holland office expected to open during the first or second quarter of 2011 and future offices in Traverse City and the Cadillac-Mt. Pleasant area over the next three or four years.

A major factor in the company’s success was a decision by Ringelberg to shift into managed service, an industry term for fixed-fee management.Under managed service, Next I.T. can offer full information technology services to companies that do not have their own I.T. departments.
“Most of what we do now is proactively manage a customer’s network,” he said.  “We now tell them what needs to be worked on or fixed. Instead of hiring one person, they get a whole team. All of my company is at their disposal for less than they would pay an I.T. guy.”

Another example of “reinventing” the company was the addition of a separate web department after the 2003 acquisition of Dust to Digital, a local web development company. Ringelberg said that move allowed Next I.T. to expand into web development, e-commerce and web hosting.

“It’s my feeling that if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” he said.

Surprisingly, when Ringelberg graduated from Mona Shore High School in 1988, he knew little about computers. After serving in the Army National Guard, Ringelberg joined the U.S. Navy in 1990 and was appointed as a fire controlman, the person who operates weapons systems onboard a ship.
But in addition to operating computers and radar to guide missiles, fire controlmen also are trained to troubleshoot and repair the weapon systems. Ringelberg’s ship also repaired computers used in military operations.

After the Navy, Ringelberg received additional computer training before working for a California biotech company designing biomedical equipment. But he longed for his home of Muskegon and convinced his wife to move back to Michigan in 1995, working for an international consulting company providing technological services.

By 2001, Ringelberg left that company and formed Next I.T. with partner Brad Williams. The start-up company received assistance through a Michigan Economic Development Corporation award and had offices in the Chamber of Commerce’s Hume building in downtown Muskegon.

In those early years, Next I.T. primarily focused on providing information technology services to companies calling in with problems. Next I.T. workers would be sent to companies with specific problems, make the necessary repairs, and then go off to another job. After he bought out his partner in 2006, Ringelberg pushed the company into managed services.

“We always have done I.T. services,” he said. “We’d receive a call on a broken computer and work on it for two hours. But most of what we do now is proactively manage a customer’s network. We’re now telling them what needs to be worked on or fixed.”

Although the fleet of silver Chrysler PT Cruisers emblazed with Next I.T logos is a familiar sight in West Michigan, Ringelberg said they “barely leave the parking lot” because 65 percent of Next I.T.’s work can be done remotely.

Regardless of future plans, Ringelberg said Next I.T.  always will have its roots in Muskegon. That sentiment is echoed by Michele Ringelberg.
“As Eric says, ‘Muskegon is the center of the universe.’” she said. “This city always, no mater what, will be our home.” mss

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• michele ringelberg
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• next it
• small business
• technology