CPI Solutions Fastest Growing Company $10 Million to $24.9 Million (86.02%) No. 3 Fastest Growing Company Overall In the 16 years that Arnie Friedman has run CPI Solutions Inc., his approach to growing the technology company has not changed much. That approach is based on two tenets taking care of his employees by providing a productive environment, and taking care of clients with high quality products and services. “If you stay with those two things, and couple with that some exciting technology, the strategy has been sound all along,” said Friedman, who purchased CPI in 1990. The strategy was also sound enough to land Camarillo-based CPI in the top 10 of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s list of fastest growing private companies. The company also ranked number one in the $10 million to $24.9 million category. In 2004, CPI reported revenues of $6.6 million. The following year, the company posted revenues of $12.3 million in revenues or an 86 percent increase. Deloitte recognized CPI as number 18 in its Los Angeles Technology Fast 50 list released last month. The list ranked companies based on revenues from 2001 to 2005. This year has seen the addition of new consultants and account managers that grew the staff to 54 workers. In addition, the company purchased an adjoining building to its current 12,000-square foot facility and may have to look for a third worksite. When Friedman and wife Sherri purchased CPI, the company was located in Westlake Village and built and designed personal computers. The firm later refocused on consulting services when its hardware customers began to go elsewhere for their needs. Today, Arnie Friedman considers CPI the largest regional player in technology and application development, and consulting. The current growth comes from two areas the existing client base and expansion into the emerging technology areas of IP telephony and software application development. Little competition Helping the company is the lack of competition with the level of talent and resources CPI has at its disposal, Friedman said. The larger and deeper the company gets in its skill sets, the easier it is to attract new business, Friedman said. “We now appeal to a larger client audience because of our size and technology depth,” Friedman added. The digital voice over Internet protocol technology offered by CPI is the result of a partnership with Cisco Systems. Software application development involves design and hosting of custom websites and software applications based on a Microsoft platform; and e-commerce and online catalogues. Another growth area for the company is in managed services, which have been available for several years but only recently have shown some traction, Friedman said. CPI caters managed services to small- to medium-sized companies to manager computer networks and become the IT department for those clients for a monthly fee. CPI will even host the client’s servers at its data center if needed. The benefit to the client is cost savings and a technological capability they would not otherwise have been able to afford if done on their own, Friedman said. Some managed service companies will focus on just one part of the workplace environment and what makes CPI stand out is that it manages the entire work environment. “Anything that happens within the environment we are responsible for,” Friedman said.
