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In some ways, the experience KiZAN Corp. had with its merger with Panurgy Corp. in 1998 was akin to having a messy affair.
Some long-term relationships were damaged by the fling.
The sexy new relationship turned out to be disappointing and expensive, in part because the parties involved came from very different backgrounds.
And after two years, KiZAN executives found themselves paying off Columbia, Md.-based Panurgy to end the relationship.
"We were very naive," said Roger Kobel, president of the company, which now is called KiZAN Technologies LLC.
"We (thought), 'OK, we're part of Panurgy now, and they're going to lay these brand new laptops at our feet and (give us) new offices," said Geoff Pearson, general manager of KiZAN's Cincinnati office who also is taking over KiZAN's sales and marketing efforts. "None of that materialized. We had dot-com delusions."
Now KiZAN is trying to restore its name, which it gave up to be "Panurgy Mid-America" for approximately 10 months in 2000. And that is the biggest lesson KiZAN executives said they have learned the value of a good brand.
"Don't ever underestimate the impact of a name change," Pearson said. "We are still suffering from that. We took the new name on for 10 months, and 10 months of a different name will give me probably another two years of grief."
KiZAN is an information technology service firm that preaches the exclusive gospel of Microsoft Corp. products. It was founded in 1991 by former CEO Tim Landgrave, now founder and CEO of Vobix Corp.
The IT engineers and other technicians on KiZAN's staff bled "Microsoft blue," according to Kobel, and they were passionately devoted to Microsoft products. KiZAN was rewarded with lots of attention and leads from Microsoft and was named Microsoft's solutions provider of the year in 1995, Kobel said.
WAN also grew during the heady days of the Internet bubble, when, like other companies, it was focused on grabbing market share and "mind share" of customers and growing quickly in the hopes that profits would follow. First impressions were positive
That atmosphere in 1998 made the rollup, which Panurgy predecessor IT Partners proposed to KiZAN executives, seem the thing to do.
At the time, according to Kobel...