AIT Named Among Publication’s Top-50 Vendors

(Fayetteville, N.C.)  -- AIT has been named one of the top-50 companies in the business by Service Provider Weekly magazine.  The North Carolina-based hosting company (http://ait.com/?spw) made the list in part due to the implementation of GovTide, a portal technology that opens the multi-billion dollar arena of federal contracts to civilian small-to-medium businesses.  “This is one of several ways in which the company has gone beyond the immediate product line of hosting in order to create additional value for the core business,” said Clarence Briggs, AIT’s Chief Executive Officer.  “We’ve actually spent the past couple of years in heavy R&D mode, responding to some market demands and anticipating others.”  

This year has seen AIT place a heavy touch on security through development of various products for both end-user customers and for the company’s deep channel of value-added resellers (VARs).  “We’ve often been our own guinea pigs when it comes to new products,” said Briggs.  “Every security-is-an-issue story that comes out seems to have an accompanying tech solution; how do customers know which one is right.  There is a credibility boost in telling customers and prospects that you use the same product that is being offered to them.”  

GovTide, the reason AIT made this list, stemmed from watching the company’s home state bleed defense department contracting dollars.  “Most businesses – even those that could win contracts – either don’t know what is available or don’t understand the process,” said Bill Martin, who heads the industrial recruiting agency in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Fort Bragg is located. 

Briggs says the technology can also be used as a business-to-business contracting site in areas where there is no large government presence.  “I just believe that dollars allocated for projects should be stay in the communities where the projects will be located.  Economic development is a ways off from hosting, but no development means no need for the core services companies like AIT provide,” said Briggs.