Refinery Inc., a six-year-old Web development company, identified the wireless industry as something it “definitely needed to be involved in,” the company’s director of marketing said.
However, Refinery isn’t planning on chasing wireless applications like some corporate holy grail-an illusion other Web development companies have fallen for.
Instead, the company is taking a more pragmatic approach.
“We’re evaluating where a wireless component makes sense,” said Laura Vagnone, Refinery’s marketing director.
Vagnone said the company only plans to make use of wireless technology when it fixes a problem or makes something easier, not just because it’s wireless.
“It’s a matter of using the right tools for the job,” said Glenn Frazier, the company’s vice president of strategy.
The right tools are what this Huntingdon Valley, Pa.-based company is keenly interested in. What started as a Web development company-serving such high-paying and prominent clients as Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures Classics and Motorola Inc.-is now primarily focused on business-to-business consulting.
“In the past three years we’ve really evolved,” Vagnone said.
That evolution was natural, she said, because Web development is really just a way of organizing and presenting a company. As Refinery employees worked with clients’ Web sites, they really began working with the clients themselves.
Refinery moved from tooling with a company’s HTML to tooling with the structure and management of the company itself.
Frazier summed up Refinery’s evolution by describing the company’s guiding principle for dealing with clients: “The greatest value opportunity for the shortest path.”
As part of Refinery’s evolution, the company’s executives began reconsidering their overall strategy. They decided to focus on three key areas: programming, consulting and wireless applications-an area which would become a necessity for business operations, they decided.
“We know wireless services will be an important component of the services we provide,” Frazier said.
The services Refinery provides now include designing wireless interoffice networks, enabling mobile access for field workers and developing other wireless applications and devices-all parts of the palate Refinery uses in its pragmatic approach.
However, the evolution to offering wireless solutions wasn’t a walk in the park, company executives said. Refinery had to do some refining of its own.
“You have to take a slightly different conceptual approach to wireless,” Frazier said. “The fewest clicks to valuable information is important.”
In its early years, Refinery had mainly worked on graphic-intensive Web sites-they designed sites for the films Space Cowboys and Run Lola Run-and when they began moving toward wireless applications, they found they needed to get a little more medieval.
“It’s like taking a step back from writing for Windows 2000 to writing for punch cards,” Frazier said. “You can’t make use of any of the tricks of the trade.”
However, Frazier said, the basic concept was still the same-logically organize and present information.
“The underlying principles and tools weren’t that different from what we were working with,” he said.
And now, after considering which wireless applications and services work and which don’t, Refinery executives said they can go that extra wireless step for their clients.
For example, Refinery’s project management system-a database the company said is so useful that several of its clients have licensed it and customized it for their own use-now can be accessed wirelessly. Users can get into their project sites and review new text items like meeting notes and specifications.
Frazier said Refinery works in consulting positions with financial, pharmaceutical and telecommunications clients. He said the most important aspect of Refinery’s work is the relationships it forms with its clients.
“Our starting point is, `What is the business value that we can provide for you,’ ” Frazier said.
