A showroom for the latest and fanciest IT systems

Clients invited to view live demos of IBM gear

To the layperson, Lighthouse Computer Services’ Technology Innovation Center looks like an ordinary computer server room. Five large computer racks hold a multitude of servers, data storage units and three retractable laptops – almost all in black. The din of cooling fans and a portable air conditioner fills the room.

Yet to the technologically savvy, the center is a showroom of the latest and fanciest IBM computer systems on the market. And Lincoln-based Lighthouse, an IT systems and services provider, is one of just two IBM business partners in New England to have such a facility.

“There’s no substitute for actually coming into this lab and seeing [the systems] operate live,” said David Sylvestre, vice president of marketing at Lighthouse. He noted that selling the equipment with written proposals is difficult due to the complexity of the technology, while the center enables customers to view demonstrations that mimic their own systems.

Lighthouse plans to show the one-year-old center to customers and the media on Tuesday, during a grand opening of the company’s expanded headquarters at 6 Blackstone Place, off George Washington Highway. The company completed renovations of an existing office suite adjacent to its offices in late March.

Within the 4,000-square-foot addition is a 40-seat classroom linked to the innovation center. The classroom has an overhead projector that displays system functions on a white board at the front of the room, and a webcam at the back of the room can film seminars and demos to broadcast in real-time over the Internet, Sylvestre said.

Ernie Yenke, chief operating officer at Lighthouse, said the new facilities help set apart the rapidly growing company from competitors in the region.

“It really becomes more of an extension of our capabilities on the technical side,” Yenke said. Customers have spent days in the center, testing the $2 million in IBM products on hand to pinpoint what equipment they need to design their own computer systems. “We’re able to help them do a proof of a concept on a total solution, not just a particular problem,” he added.

The center has earned Lighthouse status as one of IBM’s premier business partners, the highest designation given to companies that sell IBM products. In return, IBM gives its top partners quarterly bonuses and access to marketing campaigns, among other benefits, said Deborah J. Kestin Schildkraut, who heads up the innovation center program at IBM.

Schildkraut said Lighthouse is among about 50 of its business partners in North America that have added innovation centers since the program was launched in 2004.

“I think partners that have [the centers] … are finding it very critical to their business because they are seeing incredible results out of it in terms of closed deals, increased sales cycles, etc.,” she said.

Lighthouse, a privately owned company, has told the Providence Business News that its revenue reached $116 million in 2005, more than doubling sales from the previous year.

Last week, Yenke said that the innovation center was one of several factors that contributed to the company’s banner year.

For Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, 35 percent of its $88.3 billion in 2005 revenue came from business partners such as Lighthouse, according to company spokeswoman Jennifer Lasi Mann. The company has more than 100,000 partners worldwide, with the greatest concentration in the United States and Canada.

At Lighthouse’s grand opening Tuesday, IBM General Manager Donn Akins, a top global executive for the corporation, plans to be present to take questions from the media and guests. Representatives from VMWare and Microsoft – which are among several brands offered at Lighthouse – are expected to attend as well.

The event features a celebrity appearance from Steve Nelson, a former linebacker and three-time NFL Pro Bowl player for the New England Patriots.