GRIC Communications, Inc. announced today that it has changed its company name to GoRemote Internet Communications, Inc., a descriptive new name for a recognized global leader in managed remote access solutions for enterprises.
“Our new name more effectively communicates our business focus. In short, we make it simple, secure and cost-effective for enterprises and their mobile and remote employees to go remote,” said Bharat Davé, CEO and President of GoRemote.
GoRemote provides the industry’s most comprehensive managed remote access solution. The company offers the only “Total Remote Solution” across all mobile and remote environments (mobile, teleworker, and branch offices) from a single provider with centralized, policy-based security and real-time management.
Leading enterprises in pharmaceuticals, financial services and insurance, retail, and other industries are using GoRemote’s solutions to dramatically reduce the costs, risks, and complexity of remote access while boosting productivity of mobile and remote workers.
Gartner, Inc., the world’s leading technology research and advisory firm, has positioned GoRemote in the Leaders Quadrant in Gartner’s Managed Remote Access Magic Quadrant for the first half of 2004. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market based on their vision and ability to execute that vision. According to Gartner, leaders are vendors who are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction, and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market.
“For the Everywhere Enterprise”
Along with the new name, GoRemote is unveiling today a new logo and a new theme: “For the everywhere enterprise.‘” The theme refers to GoRemote’s target market: enterprises with employees working everywhere – in remote sites such as branch offices, retail sites and home offices, as well as from “mobile offices” in hotel rooms, airports, cafes convention centres, and elsewhere.
Thousands of enterprises across the globe are “everywhere enterprises” – they have shifted employees and resources from main corporate headquarters to remote offices to reduce costs, improve productivity, and ensure business continuity. More than 93% of all enterprises have remote employees, according to a study conduced in 2003 by Research Concepts LLC for Network World, a leading trade publication. At the same time, more employees than ever are taking advantage of mobile devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs) and laptops and ubiquitous access including Wi-Fi to “go mobile.” International Data Corporation (IDC), a leading analyst firm, estimated in 2002 that the global remote workforce would grow from approximately 110 million employees to 162 million by 2006.
As more employees go remote, enterprises are facing escalating security risks, rising costs, and increasing management and support headaches. However, to remain competitive in the global economy, enterprises increasingly must provide their remote workers with secure, reliable, and ubiquitous remote access. GoRemote’s unique “Total Remote Solution” solves this challenge for enterprises, by pulling all the pieces together that enterprises need into a simple, secure, and cost-effective solution.
New Name Completes Successful Repositioning
GoRemote’s new corporate name completes its successful strategic repositioning process from the service provider to the enterprise market. Since the company’s founding in 1994 through 2002, it focused primarily on providing global roaming services for ISPs and telcos.
Starting in 2003, the company shifted its focus to the large and growing enterprise market for secure remote access solutions while continuing to leverage its service provider relationships. In December 2003, the company acquired Axcelerant, Inc., a leading provider of managed broadband VPN solutions for branch office and teleworker/home office environments.
As evidence of the company’s increasing momentum in the enterprise market, the company recently announced that it acquired in the first quarter of 2004 over 40 new enterprise and value-added reseller (VAR) accounts, increased enterprise and VAR revenues on a combined basis as a percentage of total revenues to 42%, and generated 25% of its revenues from broadband services. At the end of the first quarter of 2004, the company had more than 200 direct enterprise customers.
Enthusiastic Support
GoRemote customers, partners, industry analysts and many others are applauding the company’s new name.
“This is a great move. The name GoRemote is much more descriptive and effective than GRIC. We have hundreds of employees who go remote each day using the GoRemote solution and will respond very positively to the name GoRemote,” said David Rossien, CIO of Adventis, a GoRemote enterprise customer. Adventis is a leading strategy and management consultancy to the global information industries.
“GoRemote – the new name perfectly complements their proven solutions for the enterprise. The new name will enhance our joint efforts to further grow our businesses with enterprises that demand remote access and mobility solutions which enable them to compete and profit in the constantly changing global marketplace,” declared Michael Bray, director of the Mobility Practice at Getronics North America. Getronics is a GoRemote enterprise partner and one of the world’s leading providers of vendor independent Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions and services.
“GoRemote has evolved from its roots as a roaming services company for ISPs and telcos to its position today as a leading provider of comprehensive managed remote access solutions for global enterprises. By changing its corporate name, GoRemote is making it very clear that its strategic positioning and value proposition have evolved. This is a smart decision and one that, coupled with an increased marketing investment, will further enhance its enterprise market position,” said Mark Winther, Group Vice President of Worldwide Telecommunications, International Data Corporation.
Market Research Backs Name Change
measure awareness and perceptions of GRIC and to test the GoRemote name.
“In summary, the research clearly indicated that GRIC was an ineffective corporate name,” said Rob Fuggetta, GoRemote Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. “Overall, awareness of the name GRIC was low among enterprise decision-makers. This finding, which was not surprising given our historic focus on the service provider market, meant that we were not changing a name that was well established in our target market. Among people who knew the GRIC name, they associated it with roaming services for ISPs and telcos, which clearly is not our strategic focus,” Fuggetta added.
The research also revealed other weaknesses with the name GRIC. “People were confused by the name and thought it was harsh-sounding and unappealing. Yet another problem with the name was that people frequently mispronounced the name, especially people outside North America,” Fuggetta said.
“On the other hand, the name GoRemote tested very well among our target market of enterprise IT decision makers and among enterprise partners. People thought it was appealing, easy to pronounce and remember. Several branding experts we consulted with also stated that it is much easier and more-cost effective to build recognition of a name like GoRemote that’s descriptive of our business than one that is not. This is an important consideration for companies that must build brand recognition with limited marketing resources,” he pointed out.