Sysorex returns to federal market

Systems integrator Sysorex Federal Inc. has come back for a second round, with a focus on services as well as products.

Sysorex was one of the top 25 government systems integrators in its first incarnation, said co-founder and president Nadir Ali. Then in 1997, the founders sold the Vienna, Va.-based company — at the time called Sysorex Information Systems Inc. — to Vanstar Corp. for $50 million.

As a condition of the sale, Ali and his partners agreed not to use the Sysorex name or compete in the federal space for three years. Ali stayed with Vanstar for a year to help with the transition, then joined co-founder and chairman Salam Qureishi in California.

During the downtime, the two honed their integration skills, working as consultants and investors, Ali said. "We had always intended to come back. Under the noncompete, we just couldn't move forward. When that expired we started putting together a strategy of what the approach should be."

Ali and Qureishi formed Sysorex Federal last year, using it as a platform to acquire other firms. On April 21, Ali announced that Sysorex Federal acquired Information Systems Consortium Inc., an Oracle Corp. integrator with skills in enterprise application integration and enterprise resource planning. Terms were not disclosed.

The company is likely to acquire other firms in the next few months. The newly reformed Sysorex Federal has 15 employees, Ali said.

"The old Sysorex focused on products. The new Sysorex Federal focuses on products and services," he added. "We've been operating in stealth mode, just prepping for re-entry."

In stealth mode, the company founders have been busy getting word out to old customers, he added. "The name is very strong in this marketplace. Everybody I've talked to has had a positive response about us coming back."

Kevin Carroll, program executive officer of enterprise information systems for the Army, is one of those old customers.

"We were quite happy," with the old Sysorex, he said. "We were kind of surprised when they were sold. We're glad to see them coming back into the market."