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Noblestar Corporate History

Noblestar is the innovative professional services firm known for effectively applying strong business and technological expertise as well as process and architectural rigor to promising digital technologies, to solve challenging business problems and enable sustainable advantage. The company, which has a reputation for doing the hard stuff, was started in November 1987 by Paul Opalack and Paul Pocialik. The 'Pauls' were executives in Cap Gemini's National Management Consulting Group ("NMCG"). Paul Opalack was the head of NMCG as Senior Vice President and Paul Pocialik was a Senior Manager in charge of NMCG's largest engagements.

In the summer of 1987, NMCG was presented with a unique proposal opportunity. A Dallas based firm, Recognition Equipment, Inc., was looking for a subcontractor to tackle one of the very first client-server, GUI-based engagements as part of a much larger overall contract they were bidding. It was also one of the early projects using the new relational data base technology (in this case, Oracle). The technology had to be state of the art and at the subcontract firm's fixed price.

After securing permission at the highest level of Cap, NMCG co-bid with Recognition Equipment as a key subcontractor. We won the engagement, which was one of the largest for both Recognition Equipment and for Cap. Consequently, Cap's President decided he did not want to do the subcontract. The Pauls objected strenuously but were overruled. Recognition Equipment was in disbelief, partly because Cap's withdrawal may have put the entire procurement and Recognition Equipment's win into jeopardy, and partly because NMCG's subcontract was generously priced.

Recognition Equipment asked the Pauls if they would undertake the engagement personally. They would, and did, after negotiating with Cap. The Pauls formed Falcon Systems, Inc. and began to build the foundation of Noblestar. The founders took no salary until the first deliverable under the subcontract, approximately four months after the start.

The engagement was successful, substantially profitable, and the first of many. Most importantly that first engagement established the firm's reputation for doing practical work at the edge of current technology, on-time and under-budget. That reputation is still guarded closely.

The Name

Falcon Systems Inc. became Noblestar in 1988 to avoid confusion with other 'Falcons' in the marketplace. The firm wanted a name people would remember and one not easily reduced to three letters as was common at the time. "Noblestar" won the debate, and has stood during the intervening years.

The Waves of Technology and Best Practices

Over the years, Noblestar gained a reputation for spotting and capitalizing on 'waves' of technology. Noblestar was one of the very earliest participants in the waves of relational databases (RDBMS), client server technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP), middleware, the Internet, mobile computing, wireless devices, unified processes, and, most recently, radio frequency identification (RFID). To catch these waves early, we had to be well grounded in technology and in the needs of the enterprises we serve. We do not believe in technology for its own sake; it has to yield a substantial return on investment for our clients.

Our Partners

Catching the right technology wave is only a fraction of the challenge. The other was choosing the right partners. Our partners complement our knowledge, experience, and training to enable us to successfully assist clients in achieving their goals on a number of fronts, which includes improved performance, efficiency gains, cost reduction, and compliance. Three of our partners include the following world class companies: Oracle, PeopleSoft and IBM Rational. Each shows how Noblestar 'caught the wave.'

The Spin Offs

From time to time, the professionals in the firm would construct software to solve a specific problem. Often, this 'engagement-ware' could be thought of as a product. The question then arises -'should we invest in this potential product or not?"

Noblestar spun off two product companies in the last five years. These spin offs were the result of two firm beliefs: True professional services companies like Noblestar cannot be successful product companies concurrently and that successful services companies and product companies have radically different cultures, funding requirements, sales methods, maintenance issues, personnel profiles and corporate structures.

In 1998 Noblestar developed engagement-ware to allow hand held devices to 'synch up' with servers. At that time, Palm Pilots and other wireless devices were just coming out. They looked to us like just one more 'client' in the client-server paradigm. We put the engagement-ware, and the employees who wanted to sustain it, into a subsidiary company, Riverbed, Inc. The engagement-ware was far commercial viability, so we invested a low six figure amount in making the engagement-ware, now named 'Scout,' more robust. It soon became 'mobile middleware.'

In 1999 we started showing it to VCs. Friedman, Billings and Ramsey, stepped up first. They put money in, and the reins were turned over to them. They were joined by Columbia Capital and later Mayfield Partners. In March 2000, Riverbed was sold to Aether Systems. Noblestar's profit on the transaction was in the middle eight figures.

In 2002 we did something similar, but instead of engagement-ware, the eventual product was born from Wireless Accelerator, a research lab we had set up to advance the state of technology in the area of wireless communications for the enterprise. This time the product was J2ME-based middleware for hand held wireless devices.

Again, a subsidiary was created. This time it was funded directly by the owners of Noblestar and was spun off to them. The spin off was named 'Defywire, Inc.' In 2003 VC firms, Intersouth and Anthem Capital, invested in Defywire. The firm is on a solid track with growing sales. The 'B' round of funding is scheduled for the fall.

In 1998, Noblestar had to rationalize its growing presence in the U.S. federal government market. It had already migrated all of its federal business into a subsidiary, "Noblestar Federal," but the subsidiary required substantial effort by Noblestar administrative staff to comply with the myriad unique requirements inherent in a federal practice. Also, if the subsidiary was going to continue to grow and prosper and provide opportunities for its employees, it had to be bigger. The consolidation of federal contractors that continues to today was just beginning.

So, after talking to several well-respected federal contractors, the Pauls chose to sell Noblestar Federal to SI International for low eight figures in 1999. They had seasoned leadership and wanted to make Noblestar Federal the cornerstone of their newly created, but well financed roll up. Noblestar Federal was sold. SI International went public in 2002.

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