Stottlemyer unveils new name for ITSolutions

For Todd Stottlemyer, picking a new name for his company is about more than just deciding what its letterhead and business cards will look like.

Since becoming CEO of ITSolutions LLC earlier this year, Stottlemyer has focused on the culture that stands behind the name.

Starting today, the company will be called Acentia, which combines the word ascend, or moving higher, with essential, or critical.

The company’s goal is to be doing the hard, critical work for its customers. “I think the name is perfect because we want to be positioned to be essential to their mission and objectives,” he said. “That is the company we are and that is the company we aspire to be.”

Stottlemyer, who was an executive at BDM International and then was the CEO at Apogen Technologies before it was acquired by QinetiQ, had been working for the Inova Health System in Northern Virginia. But he saw potential in ITSolutions that excited him enough to leave Inova and persuade his former Apogen chief financial officer, Tom Weston, to leave QinetiQ.

“We want to focus on the hard stuff for our customers, and we want to be recognized as the best place to work for employees,” he said.

The company has about 700 employees and does work in the health care, defense and intelligence space, providing services such as program management, infrastructure modernization, software development and network engineering and architecture.

“Brand really matters because it represents who you are to your customers, your employees and your partners,” Stottlemyer said.

But it has to be more than just words on a logo. “It has to be reinforced by who you hire, how you develop talent, how you recognize and reward people and the role we play in the community,” he said.

Stottlemyer said the company will be measuring employee engagement and customer satisfaction because those are critical components in standing out from competitors.

“When everything was just money, money, money, a lot of companies didn’t have to distinguish themselves to be successful,” he said.

But that isn’t true today. “There are a lot of pressures on budgets, which leads to pressure for better performance and accountability, which I think is a good thing,” he said.

To succeed, you need to show the value you are delivering to customers and internally, employees have to see it as well. “It all comes back to analytics because you can measure performance, employee engagement and customer satisfaction,” he said.

In addition to the new name, the company has brought on two new board members, Mike Daniels, former chairman and CEO of Network Solutions, and Gen. Elder Granger, who served a variety of roles in the military health system.

The goal for Acentia is to grow from about $170 million this year to $1 billion in about six years through organic growth and acquisitions. The company is backed by the private equity group Snow Phipps, which bought ITSolutions in 2009.

On the mergers and acquisitions side, the company is looking at health care-related companies, particularly ones that can bring new customers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Veterans Affairs. About half of Acentia’s business is with health care customers.

The company also is interested in broadening its capabilities in analytics, program management, software and data visualization and infrastructure modernization, Stottlemyer said.

And of course, cultural fit is important as well, he said.

“We are trying to develop a distinct culture here that focuses on demonstrated value, performance, being the best place to work, and being a trusted partner,” Stottlemyer said. “You can have the technology and customers, but if it doesn’t fit culturally it won’t work.”