Spotlight on... Overland Data.

New Overland CEO focuses on growth

Overland Data is a global supplier of data storage and storage automation solutions for computer networks. Overland's product line is currently geared toward the mid-range market, and is broadening to reach additional segments of the storage market including entry level small-business market, as well as the higher-end enterprise environment.

Recent events at Overland Data caught our attention here at CTR. Former CEO Scott McClendon was named to the newly created position of chairman of the board, and Christopher Calisi, a veteran of the software industry, stepped up to the plate as the new president and CEO. Poised to establish his new position, Calisi aims to do what he's always done best: implement and enact aggressive growth strategies. Calisi has a strong background in software, having served as chief executive officer of eHelp Corp., held executive management positions with Symantec Corp., and marketing and software design positions with Unify Corp. and Computer Associates.

To see what changes might be in store for Overland Data we interviewed the new CEO Christopher Calisi, director of product marketing Jim Jenkins, and Roberta Halliburton, director of marketing programs.

CTR: Jim, could you summarize Scott McClendon's overall impact on the company?

Jim: When I first started with Overland it was right before Scott joined. It was still a very small company. Since then, Scott has propelled Overland into a world class corporation with quality products, excellent customer support, consistent profitability over the years, and no debt. These are things he's always valued, in addition to continually exceeding expectations.

CTR: How will Calisi differ?

Jim: Having come from a fast moving software marketplace Chris brings an outsider's perspective to Overland. He has already shown his presence by having us look at not only our short to mid-range goals, but also the strategic ways we can grow faster and broaden our capabilities to other markets and other products.

CTR: Christopher, what is your vision for Overland?

Christopher: My vision is growth, pure and simple. My mission is to build a sustainable growth strategy for this company that will allow us to capitalize on new business and leverage it into new growth markets for the company.

CTR: Do you have any time goals?

Christopher: As quickly as we can. We're looking at six to nine months to build sustainable, differentiated strategies, which will allow us to gain a clear understanding of where we want to be as a corporation and what we have to do. The fruits of that work will come later.

CTR: How do you think prior experience will help you in this position?

Christopher: I have a great deal of experience in identifying and successfully executing new growth strategies for companies. Everything from corporate turnaround to building brands from number three, number four positions, all the way up to number one market leading position. That experience is absolutely critical for the work that needs to be done here at Overland.

CTR: What challenges do you expect to encounter in learning the mass storage industry?

Christopher: Considering that it's a dynamic market, I think it's important to make sure that I understand not only the history, but more importantly, that I understand where the industry is going.

CTR: Jim, you've worked for Overland for more than a decade. In terms of marketing strategy. Where would you say Overland has been, and where do you see it going?

Jim: Overland was originally focused on the mainframe attached tape market. In the last five years it has entered the open systems tape market, taken the DLT tape drive technology from Quantum, and integrated it into its own line of tape automation products. Last year we celebrated Overland's 20-year anniversary, and Overland launched its first non-DLT open systems product based on Sony AIT tape. Now we are expanding our capabilities and horizons both in terms of technologies and market segments. We recently launched a significant new library architecture which brings new capabilities to the tape automation space, in terms of high availability, that no other manufacturer today offers. We have a design that's a distributed robotic architecture, similar in many ways to a disk array.

CTR: Where has Overland been and where is it going in term of its product mix?

Jim: We are continuing our focus on tape automation and are also launching new products based on super drive technology like Quantum's SuperDLT. We've also elected to partner with Seagate's LTO Ultrium drive and we have new products based on Sony's AIT 3, which is coming out later this summer.

CTR: What is Overland's unique selling proposition to the enterprise environment?

Jim: We offer high availability and scalability. In today's global marketplace our customers expect to reach businesses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can't afford to be down ever. Our architecture delivers this, which is something that competitors can't. And our new architecture allows them to architect high availability tape backup solutions in a modular fashion.

CTR: What is product mix you are looking at?

Jim: We offer solutions in the server attached SAN arena. We have a NAS offering in the near future and we have other technologies that are non tape-related in progress. We don't feel we have to stay in the tape arena.

CTR: Will Overland be making tape arrays?

Jim: We don't have any definitive plans, though our products can be used in tape array configuration.

CTR: Christopher, can you tell me what type of strategy you are thinking of implementing?

Christopher: I've been here two weeks so I haven't implemented any strategy yet. We are going to undertake a fairly rigorous and methodical approach. I will be using industry acknowledged experts in strategy development to come in and work with us. We will continue to focus on execution and be the absolute best operationally that any company can be today. We will continue to take market share from our competitors at every turn, while we build this expanded view of where we want to take this company.

We have to focus on execution right now. Execution, execution, execution. That's the marching order as we start to build a broader corporate strategy that will take us into the market. But it will take a little bit of time before I can talk to you about that.

CTR: Does that mean you might enter the software market?

Jim: It's possible. Right now we are looking at our skill sets and capabilities along with market opportunities.

Christopher: My goal is to find growth for the company and continue to sustain as high a growth rate as possible. Whether that includes software or more hardware, I can't tell you today. All bets are off.

CTR: Do you have any new channel marketing plans?

Roberta: We don't have any new plans on the horizon, but we are in constant communication with our channel partners on a case-by-case basis to see what's going to be the most effective.

CTR: What challenges is Overland facing, particularly as it moves into high-end enterprise environment?

Jim: We are conscious of the fact that customer expectation grows in proportion to the amount of data storage solutions we provide. It is of utmost importance to us that we exceed the very expectations that continue to grow. In addition, as new technologies crop up in the marketplace, we are faced with the challenges of deciding which will be the winners, and making sure that we have the ability to deliver high quality products in a short time frame.

CTR: How do you think the current economic climate will impact the future of Overland's business?

Christopher: I think everybody is trying to assess the current economic climate. I do believe that in general, there is excess capacity in the economy. I'm not talking about just data storage, I'm talking about the economy in general, whether it's automotive industry or agricultural industry. There is some excess capacity coming off such a boom market within the last 10 years. How much excess capacity and how long that will last before we start to see dramatic growth...everyone, right up to Alan Greenspan is trying to make that determination. I think specifically for Overland Data, we have a very clear growth strategy and we'll remain in place. But if I could tell the future any further than that I would be picking stocks.

CTR: Do you have strategic partners in product development?

Jim: Our strategic partners are also our vendor partners. Quantum, Sony, and Seagate are all very close partners.

CTR: Do you work with OEMs?

Jim: We work with long list of OEMs including IBM and Compaq.

CTR: Who are you concentrating on for the enterprise environment?

Jim: The same ones that I described previously. The technology from the tape drive vendor stays the same; it just reaches into a different business than before. The primary difference is the size and scope of products we put together.

CTR: Who are your software partners?

Jim: There are many, among which are VERITAS, Computer Associates ,and Legato.

Spotlight On... is a forum of discussion for interesting developments in the industry. This is the first in a continuing series.