Two former Symmetry Corp. executives have launched a new Franklin-based information technology company called Managecore and raised $1.24 million in an initial funding round that opened in October, according to a notice filed with the SEC.
Michael Haase, former executive vice president of sales and marketing at Brookfield-based Symmetry Corp., founded Managecore in October. Frank Powell, who was president and chief executive officer of Symmetry Corp. from 2013 to 2015, joined Managecore as a partner in December.
The company specializes in managing SAP systems, a core application for businesses that controls things such as logistics, human resources and manufacturing processes, but also offers a range of other services. Among them: cloud hosting services, SAP HANA, disaster recovery services, IT managed services and SAP consulting project services.
“Our focus is primarily on customers that own and run SAP,” Haase said. “We’re changing the model a little bit in terms of our outlook. We’re doing almost the exact same thing we’ve been doing for a very long time (with Symmetry Corp.) and we have a lot of competitors delivering those same services, but culture of the company differentiates us.”
Haase said Managecore is making transparency a major component of its customer service strategy. Rather than having its representatives work in isolation of its customers, Managecore will give its clients access to the screens its employees are working on to perform tasks and fix problems.
“What we’re talking about here is we’re creating a window for every tool-set and screen that we’re using,” Haase said. “Our customers get that same access so they can monitor the step-by-step processes taken to perform the task.”
Haase said SAP is a critical app and every business uses it slightly differently, depending on both their industry and their preferences.
“We can go and understand the technical details of SAP and make sure it’s up and running and efficient and tuned and optimized. However, when something goes wrong, if we can take the knowledge of the customer and their business and put it together with our expertise together, we’ll be able to resolve (problems) at a much faster rate.
“We’re an extension of our customers. No one knows their businesses as well as they do.”
Haase said Managecore has hired four employees in the past month and plans to hire as many as 10 more at its offices, located at 9875 S. Franklin Dr. Suite 300 in Franklin, by the end of 2017 depending on how many clients the company acquires.
