VIP News

Houston Health IT Companies Recharge with Durge in Demand

by Molly Ryan Reporter - Houston Business Journal

Exemplifying the American Dream With new developments in health care every day, health information technology companies have to work at a fast pace to keep up with demand. And in Houston, home of the world’s largest medical center complex, companies in the city’s emerging health IT market produce innovative new solutions and technologies at a relentless pace.

Health IT companies have to keep up with ever-changing regulations, health care policies and technologies to be able to update doctors and patients with the latest information. Because of these great demands, the industry has received considerable government attention, including billions of dollars in stimulus money since 2009.

Still, recent studies show that more health IT workers are needed in Texas, and new solutions from companies are always in demand. Between now and 2013, Texas is estimated to need an additional 10,000 health IT workers, according to a February study by Texas State University–San Marcos. Therefore, Houston companies such as Intellicure Inc., Encore Health Resources and Virtual Intelligence Providers LLC will need to keep expanding and transforming to meet the needs of the health care industry, which they plan to do.

Intellicure, which was ranked as Houston’s No. 25 fastest-growing technology company on the Houston Business Journal’s 2011 Fast Tech 50 list has made major technological advancements in the past two years, said David Walker, the 16-person company’s president and CEO. Intellicure provides hospitals and physicians with technologies to record patient information, track patient data and help doctors chose the correct treatment options at the point of service, or during the patient appointment.

“We have always tried to find ways to automate the process,” Walker said. “In the past two years, we have delivered clinical decision support … to bring information to doctors at their fingertips.”

Intellicure works mainly with wound care clinics, and in the next year, the company has plans to expand its technology in this area. For example, Intellicure is currently working on an iPhone application that allows a physician to take a picture of a wound, and then the picture is compared with other similar wound pictures to verify a doctor’s diagnosis and to suggest dressing options, Walker said.

“We are launching version one (of the application) at the end of this month,” he said. “It is a service that will help people in the third world and in underserved areas of our country get the same advice as in the Texas Medical Center.”

Another Houston health IT company, Encore Health Resources, a consulting firm that works to support health organizations with data collection and analysis that ranked No. 4 on HBJ’s Fast Tech 50 list, is seeing development in a different area — reimbursement. Encore, which was founded in 2009, already has 274 employees and expects to add around 50 more in 2012.

“There is a very fundamental shift taking place in health care, and I think the easiest way to describe it is there is a shift from volume to value in reimbursement,” said Dana Sellers, Encore’s CEO. In the past, health care providers were reimbursed for the number of patients they saw, but recent regulations will switch reimbursements to the value of the service delivered to keep a patient healthy, she explained.

Sellers expects the shift in reimbursement to lead to an emerging business area for Encore. The company is already developing new technology systems to gather cohesive information for accountable care organizations, which are groups of physicians designed to improve the quality of a patient’s care.

“These accountable care organizations need different kinds of information, so we are starting to work to see what the information requirements will be in the new world (of health care),” Sellers said. “It’s a whole new way of thinking — it’s really exciting.”

Since so many aspects of the health information technology field are changing, Virtual Intelligence Providers has designed programs to help train medical staff and caregivers as well as systems to measure organizational change management in medical organizations.

Virtual Intelligence Providers has not always been focused on health care IT in the past, and it started out 11 years ago as an IT provider for the oil and gas industry, but Sonia Clayton, CEO, said in 2010, the 75-person company began “to be more aggressive” in the health care field.

“We have been with Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, Moonat Medical, North Houston Cancer Center and others,” she said. “We have also developed off-the-shelf applications, change and learning management platforms.”

Although Clayton admits that health IT was a hard field to break into, she said she sees “a slow and cautious growth” in the industry, and she plans to continue to produce innovative solutions to best address its changing needs.

Sonia Clayton featured in MarriottSchool.BYU.edu

Built to Last: Advisory Board Member Continues to Help Others

Written for the April 2012 iNews

Student mentor at BYU, mother of two, cancer survivor of five years, CEO and president of a company—just a few roles that Sonia Clayton can claim.

In September 2001, Clayton created Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC. (VIP), which offers quality IT support for a low cost. Although she’s been working with VIP for more than a decade, she still finds her career intriguing and challenging.

“The most fascinating thing about my work environment is actually learning each of our client’s industry practices,” Clayton says. “Each corporation is as unique as a fingerprint. We serve more than ninety clients and at least fifty % of our clients are Fortune corporations with large footprints and a global presence.”

Clayton works hard to incorporate what she has learned as president and CEO of her company to her position on the BYU Information Systems Advisory Board. As a board member, she remains in touch with five or six students throughout the year. She helps students with networking, career advice, and homework.

“I have run VIP for eleven years, and I have learned valuable lessons that I often share with the enthusiastic students and young entrepreneurs I coach and mentor,” Clayton says.

She says one of her favorite topics of discussion is how BYU students compare to students from other schools. She commends the missionary work and community service that students participate in and notes that BYU is great at promoting “servant leadership.”

“BYU students are remarkable for their unselfishness and their willingness to serve others and their communities,” Clayton says. “Last year, BYU students recorded more than ten thousand service hours, making BYU the national leader in service hours for a university. That is unheard of in today’s world!”

Her role as mentor to ISys students is close to her heart. The one thing that she keeps even closer is her example to women in the information systems program. She remembers how much of a challenge it was to be a female in her first job in Texas. Ten years later, she became the “Hispanic Female Entrepreneur of the Year.”

“My ISys career gives me access to many young and intelligent minds. I want to inspire them, especially women,” Clayton says. “I want them to believe in themselves. I want them to understand that anything is possible just by simply embracing the power of knowledge and learning with passion and with dedication. I love motivating because I know they can succeed.”

Exemplifying the American Dream

Written by Shala Hainer Tuesday, April 10 2012

Sonia Clayton, President, Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC

Exemplifying the American Dream Shortly after the tragedy of 9/11, Sonia Clayton created a new type of information technology consulting firm as an alternative for companies needing IT help. She reached out to friends and colleagues who had been laid off as a result of the economic downturn following 9/11, and her first wave of consultants began offering high-quality IT support at affordable prices through Clayton's company, Virtual Intelligence Partners, or VIP.

Clayton and VIP have won numerous awards, including recognition from the White House. Raised in Venezuela, Clayton immigrated to the United States in 1984. She has more than 20 years of experience in human resources – starting out in the airline industry - and information systems management, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, training and e-learning platforms. She has visited and conducted business in more than 40 countries and speaks four languages. Clayton is a co-author of the book “Corporate Bold,” a multi-year project that is a New York Times best seller.

Womenetics: You've described your company – VIP -- as the "Wal-Mart" of the IT
Sonia Clayton: To cope with tough economic times and during the economic slumps most common during the last four years, we had to hatch a game plan that made VIP similar to the most successful retailer on the planet. That would be the same vision that Mr. Sam Walton created. Much of our success will ultimately depend on our market strategy and ability to overcome logistical hurdles, maintaining our technical knowledge and tools, maintaining excellence in personnel selection, while maintaining competitive pricing for our customers. How we position ourselves with our customers is very important and that has to do with delivery and performance excellence, high levels of customer satisfaction and always having the lowest prices.

Womenetics: With a business administration degree and a background in human resources, how did you discover an interest in information technology?
Clayton: A lot of people ask this question. Actually, I learned technology through my husband, Kirk, who I put through school myself. Kirk has a computer science degree from Weber State University. As he went through his college semesters, he would leave books behind that I would love to read at night or in my spare time. And when I gained access to the Internet I became totally fascinated with technology.

Then during my years at Continental Airlines Corporate Security and HR, I got involved in the creation of general-purpose database management systems (DBMS), and I was a liaison between end-users and configuration experts. I understood the technical business processes, and I was effective at communicating the vision to the final users.

Exemplifying the American Dream Toward the late 1990s, I became acquainted with the world of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems. I was actually hired by an English ERP Training Corporation called DACG AG. They needed someone who would launch their ambitious Latin American expansion program. At that point, I entered the world of SAP (a business management software) and eventually became SAP HR Certified. In 2000, I transitioned through another consulting firm (RWD Technologies), and two weeks after 9/11 I ventured out on my own (to create VIP) after many of my employees and colleagues were left without work due to the economic downturn that followed the catastrophic events of 9/11.

Womenetics: How did that interest motivate you to start VIP? What was your strongest motivation?
Clayton: My inspiration and motivation has always been my employees. I love and care about people. Many of them have followed my entire career from the airline industry all the way to VIP. They always made me look good, and they have helped me succeed. I have always been inspired by them --- by their hard work, their ideas, their creativity, their loyalty and their desire to grow and succeed. Most of us are Latinos who wanted to contribute to America by making this country a better place to work and a better place to live. So, I drew on my years of direct sales experience to get the company off the ground. Knowing the importance of motivated and happy team members, I called them "consultants," and from our first day in business treated them with dignity and respect.

During the recession that followed 9/11, we were full of pride and determination. We wanted to create jobs in America for Americans, and we did so.

Womenetics: As a new small business owner, how did you decide what services to offer your clients?
Clayton: We went through a period of trial and error, and then we defined our line of business. However, we have reinvented ourselves many times, and we are still doing that. As technologies emerge, change, mutate and merge with other technologies, we have to reinvent ourselves and our service offerings, while maintaining a global focus. Technology is most challenging in this way. Most of the time our clients point out the new horizon, and we treasure their advice and often follow their new routes. Hence, our clients and customers have become our partners, and we have become their trusted advisors.

Womenetics: How did you begin branching out to other areas of the country and internationally?
Clayton: We first obtained partnership representation in several cities in the U.S. We then followed a couple of large corporations internationally. They were providing work for VIP, so we went to Europe under their invitation. Then we merged with NGI Services, our Latin American subsidiary. They had established themselves in many countries in Latin America, and we now cover the entire region.

Womenetics: If you could change one thing about the way you've built your business or structured it along the way, what would it be? Why?
Clayton: I would be more aggressive about using investors. We grew up organically, and we created and supported VIP with personal funds. As the company grew up, we re-invested into the organization, but when the company acquired a multi-million dollar profile, it became much more challenging to sustain a healthy cash-flow process. By now, we are most comfortable handling large projects, but during the growing years, they were much more difficult to handle.

Womenetics: What advice would you give women wanting to start a business but who have little financing?
Clayton:

Know what type of business to start during a recession
Put together your business plan, and put it in writing
Define your small business ideas and strategies
Create differentiators. Don’t be a copy-cat; be a trendsetter
Be willing to work very hard. A true entrepreneur works 20 hour days and most weekends
Be willing to wear many hats
Manage and control expenses
Grow organically

Womenetics: What is the next step for VIP? Any plans to sell the company?
Clayton: We are not planning on selling the company. We have done very well independently, and we are considering investors. We hope to be public some day, and we understand the implications of this new venture. We are currently reorganizing the company to take it to a new level.

Womenetics: You've won several awards for your work with VIP. What award has meant the most to you, and why?
Clayton: The Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year of 2007. This was very significant to me because in 2006 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I went through a very difficult year, personally and emotionally.

Also, it was an award that recognized a Latino woman in business. I am proud to be a Latino woman in business and in technology because I believe that I am an icon of the “American Dream.” Twenty-seven years ago, I came to America alone and unable to speak English and with $50 in my pocket. It was America’s exceptionalism and unique capitalistic ideology that allowed me to achieve that dream.

I was nominated by my employees. I was shocked and most grateful. I am not in remission yet, but I hope to get there soon.

Based near Atlanta, Shala Hainer has been writing and copyediting since 1995. Beginning her career at newspapers such as the Marietta Daily Journal and the Atlanta Business Chronicle, she most recently wrote and edited articles for several nonprofit organizations before purchasing a flower shop in 2006. She earned a bachelor’s in communications from Jacksonville State University.

AT&T’s High Technology Day Event, presented by
HACEMOS Houston Chapter,
AT&T Hispanic/Latino Association
in partnership with JA Job Shadow

HOUSTON – This important initiative is intended to raise interest for, and awareness of, the latest technology and communication trends among local high-risk or otherwise disadvantaged youth at a high school level.

Our CEO, Sonia Clayton, was invited, and kindly accepted, to participate in today’s HACEMOS event (held in AT&T’s Bellaire Office) in her sincerest desire to help make the difference in our local communities, if only by witnessing with her presence and words a strong personal, and corporate, commitment to leveling the technology field, and the opportunities it offers. She understands, and relates personally, to the plight of our disadvantaged youth since she grew up in a rather tough or adversarial socio-economic circumstance, and that not here in the US but in Latin America.

At VIP we understand the ever pressing need in our time to foster a more direct dialogue, and involvement, between technology enterprises, their leaders, and the youth in our communities; one that impacts positively the lives of these young fellows, specially those considered at risk for dropping out of school, and not pursuing formal education or the acquisition of critical technical or crafts-related skills that would warrant them a better economic and personal standing in our society.

Virtual Intelligence Providers LLC (VIP) makes today a small though comprehensive powerhouse in delivering Business Technology and IT Support Services. VIP is Sonia’s brainchild, first established in 2001 with the help of a small though highly qualified cadre of visionary, and technologically savvy, individuals. The firm’s strength resides not just in the specialized knowledge, disciplines featured, maturity, poise or flexibility of its offer or resources, but rather in its permanent commitment to client’s satisfaction, professional excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of services and solutions offered.

*VIP is a certified minority, women-owned/operated, equal employment organization qualified to provide services at various levels, both for private and governmental organizations. Also, the firm is an award winning corporation and recipient of 19 awards of excellence; registered with the Houston Minority Supplier Development Counciland with the Better Business Bureau.

Copyright © 2012 – Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, Houston, TX www.vip-global.com
Questions or comments: Contact Leica Fielding, Public Relations at
VIP-Global (281) 866-8228, lfielding@vip-global.com

Greater Houston & South Texas Better Business Bureau’s (BBB)
Sonia Clayton - 2012 Nomination

HOUSTON – Our President & CEO - Sonia Clayton, was introduced as the newest member of Better Business Bureau Houston-Chapter where she will serve as a member of their Education Foundation – 2012 Board of Directors.

Such an honor, and this goes without saying, only emphasizes Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (VIP)* and, of course, Sonia Clayton’s commitment to volunteerism in our communities around our beloved Houston.

The mission of the BBB’s Education Foundation Board of Directors is to develop, enhance or supplement the organization’s current advocacy programs to benefit consumers across the board. Since consumers are an integral part of a sound economic process anywhere, just as much as entrepreneurs would make the other, it is then of the utmost importance to have effective and efficient initiatives in place for defending and protecting consumers. A satisfied consumer makes all-around sense business wise, as it furthers the success of our local communities and economic process. To put it differently, a confident and happy consumer is inherently related to a successful business sector and economy.

We then wish Sonia a most successful participation in the BBB’s EFBD, and are certain she will contribute her very best as she understands entrepreneurialism and, by extension, genuine, effective, responsible business leadership; the latter key to economic development, wealth generation and prosperity, not just in the US or in the Western world, but all over where the proven goodness of the free-market ideas, coupled with a functional democratic process, might be tried and enjoyed.
Virtual Intelligence Providers LLC is a though comprehensive, international, powerhouse delivering Technology Solutions, IS Staffing and IT Support Services since year 2001. The firm’s strength resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but rather in its permanent commitment to client’s satisfaction, excellence, business ethics, flexibility and affordability of all services and solutions offered.

Greater Houston & South Texas Better Business Bureau’s (BBB)
Sonia Clayton - 2012 Nomination

HOUSTON – The world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, has approved Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (VIP) as a primary Tier One vendor and provider of Consulting and Permanent Placement Services. This is the second contract VIP is awarded out of corporate headquarters in Bentonville, AR. VIP has beaten key competitors to win this high– profile consulting services deal with the retail giant. The deal, calls for VIP to supply personnel for permanent and contract positions in the Information Technology field.

VIP is an award winning company and a Houston– Minority– Woman Owned– international service provider specializing in :

VIP has been an active member of the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council since 2001. VIP has received 19 awards of excellence to include White House and State Recognition awards.
The Council congratulates VIP for all of their success and determination!

Greater Houston & South Texas Better Business Bureau’s (BBB)
Sonia Clayton - 2012 Nomination

Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (VIP) participates in the
World Affairs Council in Houston, TX

Virtual Intelligence Providers was a proud participant in today’s World Affairs Council Houston Luncheon featuring former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as guest speaker.

HOUSTON –Both our CEO, and Human Resource Manager, Sonia Clayton and Frank Velasco respectively, were on hand for this important event, one other in a host of local activities devoted to the incessant promotion of liberty, democracy, and individual socioeconomic advancement through the consistent and rightful application of free-market thinking and strategies.

President Uribe delivered masterly on the important aspect of public security as a pillar to continued and unhindered exercise of economic activity at a community and nation-wide level. Most outstanding in his dissertation was the importance of understanding that prosperity does not happen by chance, but that it is rather a conscious and very individual effort at promoting and expanding, ethically, the exercise of unimpeded entrepreneurialism as a platform, and powerful engine, of economic prosperity for any society in the world. His unparalleled performance and record has Mr. Uribe as the most successful ruler of a Latin American nation in the last 50 years—as his popularity among Colombians, 75% at the end of his presidency, proved.

Being part of Houston’s vibrant business community, Virtual Intelligence Providers LLC has consistently and successfully delivered Business Technology and IT Support services since year 2001. The firm’s strength resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but rather in its permanent commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of services and solutions offered. Its service offer comprises quite an array of business fields, disciplines and areas of expertise, enough to satisfy the various technological expectations or necessities of small, medium or large size organizations: ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications, Business Technology Training, Application Development, Performance Improvement, Staff Augmentation, Curricular Development, IT Architecture/Infrastructure, Network Security, IP Project Management, DB Management, even Corporate

*VIP is thoroughly certified as a minority, women-owned/operated, equal employment organization qualified to provide services at various levels, both for private and governmental organizations. Also, the firm is registered with the Houston Minority Business Council and with the Better Business Bureau. Instructional and e-Learning Services.

Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (VIP) “Winner of Distinction Award”
for Fourth Consecutive Year

Virtual Intelligence Providers goes on record again as a recipient, now for a fourth consecutive year, of the “Winner of Distinction Award”. This is the local Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) recognition for commercial excellence and integrity within our ever-growing business community.

HOUSTON – Today Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (www.vip-global.com) was chosen, yet another time, as a recipient of the 19th Annual BBB “Winner of Distinction Award. Sonia Clayton, our CEO, was in attendance for the luncheon where Houston’s BBB recognized the winning organizations and issued formally the 2011 corresponding awards.

Being part of Houston’s vibrant business community, Virtual Intelligence Providers has consistently and successfully delivered Business Technology and IT Support services since year 2001. The firm’s strength resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but rather in its permanent commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of services and solutions offered.

VIP’s line-up of service/solutions comprises quite an array of business fields, disciplines and areas of expertise, enough to satisfy the various technological expectations or necessities of small, medium or large size organizations. Among its most sought-after features VIP offers ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications, Business Technology Training, Application Development, Performance Improvement, Staff Augmentation, Curricular Development, IT Architecture/Infrastructure, Network Security, IP Project Management, DB Management and even e-Learning Services.

Questions or comments: Contact Leica Fielding, Public Relations at VIP-Global (281) 350-6862.

Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (VIP) and NGI Services, LLC
Announce Joint Venture

HOUSTON – As one clever way to face up to challenging times for business development and commercial associations, VIP and NGI have joined forces in what is a strategic and synergistic approach to placing and providing their enterprise-wide professional and technical services and solutions.

This also marks both organizations’ coming of age in their respective, though complementary, fields of application: for NGI IT Consulting, Outsourcing & Network Integration, and for VIP its traditional and rather successful model for Business Technology and Organizational Services and Solutions.

“One important, exciting and fitting association…” says Sonia Clayton, VIP’s CEO. “NGI’s flexible and quality-driven IT Infrastructure Support and Products, plus the Business and Organizational Technology approach of VIP, make this venture one loaded with possibilities and potential. Our joined efforts have an added benefit: enhancing both firms’ presence in the Latin American markets. Lastly though not less significant, it shows executive determination, on both organizations, to keep moving forward in the face of an ever more difficult and changing business environment.

VIP’s strength as a Business Technology Provider resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but also in its organizational commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of all services and solutions offered. The firm’s offer is a wide array of fields or areas of expertise, chief among them: ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications Advisory, Business Technology Training, Application Development, Performance Improvement for Organizations, Augmentation, Curricular Development and e-Learning Services.

NGI Services LLC, for its part, is an organization whose presence in Latin America and in the USA enables it to offer a wide variety of products, services and solutions intended for enterprise-wide IT and Telecommunications. NGI’s offer range from the deployment of collaborative solutions, e.g. IP telephony, telepresence and mobility, through Data-Center Construction and even Consulting Services in areas such as IT Security. NGI products’ portfolio features a wide variety of products encompassing Cloud Computing and IT Outsourcing.

*VIP is thoroughly certified as a minority, women-owned/operated, equal employment organization qualified to provide services at various levels, both for private and governmental organizations. Also, the firm is registered with the Houston Minority Business Council and with the local Better Business Bureau.

Copyright © 2010 – Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC,
110 Cypress Station Drive, Ste. 123, Houston, TX 77090

Questions or comments: Contact Leica Fielding, Public Relations at VIP-Global (281) 350-6862.

Virtual Intelligence Providers (VIP) has been honored one other time with its inclusion in 2 of the most prestigious business lists in Houston: 1st is the 2009 Houston Fast 100, a ranking by Percentage of Revenue Growth spanning 3 years (2006-08) and 2nd, Houston’s Top 50 Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses, also a ranking by validated Percentage of Revenue Growth for years 2007 and 2008.

The Houston Business Journal grants this mention(s) annually as a way to recognize and encourage the efforts of local entrepreneurs, among them women & minorities.

Up to current year, 2010, Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, has made it into HBJ’s prestigious lists for 3 consecutive years.

VIP (www.vip-global.com) is a Business Technology, Project and IT Support Firm with a pragmatic, flexible and down-to-earth approach on cost-efficiency and best-of-approaches model, one that can be successfully used by organizations large or small alike. It is owing to this strategy, and to the energy, resourcefulness, professional prowess and determination of its CEO, Sonia Clayton, and its consulting teams, that the outfit has been able to not just weather the clearly adversarial business environment of the last few years, but establish a name now synonymous with quality and satisfactory organizational outcomes.

In spite of strong cross-winds, a weakened economy and outright hostility by segments of the political establishment, Virtual Intelligence Providers continues to soar, doing so since 2001; and its most outstanding asset is not just the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility that characterize its professionals, but rather its permanent commitment to excellence, ethical behavior and competitive pricing of any services, solutions or products offered.

VIP’s is a comprehensive array of business fields and areas of expertise, vast enough to satisfy the ever-growing technological expectations, or necessities, of small, medium or large size organizations: ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications, Business Technology Training and Documentation, Application Development, Performance Improvement, Technical Writing, Staff Augmentation, Curricular Development and even e-Learning Services.

*VIP is thoroughly certified as a minority, women-owned/operated, equal employment organization qualified to provide services at various levels, both for private and governmental organizations. Also, the firm is registered with the Houston Minority Business Council and with the local Better Business Bureau.
Copyright © 2010 – Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC,
110 Cypress Station Drive, Ste. 123, Houston, TX 77090
Questions or comments: Contact Leica Fielding, Public Relations at VIP-Global (281) 350-6862.

FAST 100 - Virtual Intelligence Providers'
Outstanding Achievements are Recognized Again!

September 15th, 2009
For Immediate Release

HOUSTON – VIP’s outstanding achievements have earned a place on the Houston Business Community being recognized by the Houston Business Journal as a Fast 100 Company.
VIP was also added to the FAST 100 List published on a special section of the Journal on September 11, 2009. The Houston Fast 100 is ranked by two year growth. All of the companies on the list are headquartered within the ten-county Houston metropolitan area and have been doing business for a minimum of five years.

VIP and Sonia Clayton were honored by the Houston Business Journal, Whitney Bank, Pierpont Communications, G&A Partners, Staples and Verizon Wireless during a hosted awards luncheon, last Friday September 11th, at the Intercontinental Houston Hotel.

The Houston Fast 100 Awards Ceremony had more than 950 businessmen and women in attendance, most of them highly recognized rapid growing businesses in Houston, as well as their colleagues, friends and family who came to the event to cheer them on.

We congratulate our President and CEO for a job well done!

Virtual Intelligence Providers honored again in the 2009 “Houston Business Journal's Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses List”

August 21, 2009
For Immediate Distribution

HOUSTON – Virtual Intelligence Providers (VIP) has been honored another time with its inclusion in the “Houston Business Journal's Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses List”. This privilege is granted annually by the Houston Business Journal as a way to recognize and encourage the efforts of local women-owned & operated enterprises / businesses whose continued growth and successful track record warrants for them to be featured in that prestigious list.

FAST 100

Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, has been on this list for a couple of years now. The Journal publishes it annually along with a brief note on the chosen organization and its owner or operator. A luncheon then is in order, followed by the delivery of the corresponding awards honoring both the business—and its female founder or owner. On hand to receive the latter was Frank Velasco, in representation of Sonia Clayton, VIP’s CEO & President, away for the occasion on family business. Omni Bank, Aetna, NAWBO, WBEA and Fox 26 acted as co-hosts and sponsors for the event held at the Inter-Continental Houston Hotel--2222 West Loop South.

Virtual Intelligence Providers (www.vip-global.com) has successfully and uninterruptedly delivered Enterprise Technology and IT Support Services since 2001. The most outstanding feature of VIP is not just the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but rather its permanent commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordabilityof services, solutions or products offered.

*Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, is certified as a minority, women-owned/operated, equal employment organization qualified to provide technology services at various levels, both for private and governmental organizations. Also, the firm is registered with the Houston Minority Business Council (HMBC), and with the Better Business Bureau--BBB.

Copyright © 2009 by Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, Houston, TX, USA. www.vip-global.com
Questions / Comments: Contact Leica Fielding, Public Relations, 281.350.6862, lfielding@vip-global.com

“Houston Business Journal's Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses List” will include Virtual Intelligence Providers one more time

July 13, 2009
For Immediate Distribution

HOUSTON –Virtual Intelligence Providers (VIP) is set to be included again in the “Houston Business Journal's Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses List”. This privilege is granted annually by the Houston Business Journal as a way to recognize and encourage the efforts of local enterprises or businesses whose continued growth and successful track record warrants for them to be featured in that prestigious list.

The list will be out in a Journal's Special Section scheduled for publication on August 21, 2009. It will be followed, on that same date, by a luncheon, with the Journal itself along with Omni Bank, Aetna, NAWBO, WBEA and Fox 26 acting as co-hosts, at the Inter-Continental Houston Hotel--2222 West Loop South.

As part of Houston’s own community of businesses, Virtual Intelligence Providers (www.vip-global.com) has been successfully delivering Enterprise Technology and IT Support Services since 2001. The most outstanding feature of VIP is not just the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but rather its permanent commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of services, solutions or products offered.

Virtual Intelligence Providers LLC (VIP) wins
its certification as a Small Business Enterprise

April 22, 2009
For Immediate Distribution

HOUSTON – Thanks to the auspices of the Office of Small Business at the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (www.vip-global.com) became officially certified today as a Small Business Enterprise—SBE. The corresponding certificate was issued under NAICS-541512, which covers a wide rage of Computer Systems Design and Consulting Services.

This is, undoubtedly, another important milestone for an organization that started very modestly and now features quite panoply of specialized Business / Organizational Technology and IT Support Services. VIP is, part of Houston’s very vibrant business community, now in its 8 consecutive year of successful performance as choice provider of enterprise services and solutions. The firm’s strength resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but rather in its permanent commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of services or solutions offered.

VIP’s line-up of (service) features covers a comprehensive array of business fields or professional areas of expertise, enough to satisfy the ever-increasing technological expectations and needs of small, medium or large private corporate or governmental clients, chief among them: ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications, Business Technology Training, Application Development, Performance Improvement, Staff Augmentation, Curricular Development and e-Learning Services.

HOUSTON – On April 22, for the third consecutive year,theBetter Business Bureau honoredVirtual Intelligence Providers, L.L.C. (VIP) with the “Winner of Distinction” award for excellence. The BBB recognizes annually accredited companies that maintain a superior commitment to ethics, overall excellence and quality in the workplace.

Since its beginning in 2001, VIP has been committed to honesty and integrity in all of its business functions and relationships. VIP works to maintain its reputation for reliability and integrity in its performance while keeping open and honest communication with its partners and customers.

With headquarters in north Houston, VIP offers consulting services in IT and ERP Project Management, Staff Augmentation, Performance Improvement, Administrative and Project Support, and HR and Educational Initiatives. Its staff of highly qualified, seasoned professionals has provided quality, cost effective IT and business solutions for more than 70 Fortune 500 corporations with international operations.

VIP adds the third “Winner of Distinction” award to its already impressive list of honors including: E-10 Emerging Company award, “One Amazing Woman” from the National Association of Women Business Owners, Top Business 2005 from DiversityBusiness.com, “Top Houston Woman in Technology” by Gov. Rick Perry, “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Houston Business Journal’s “Fast 100 Growing Companies” among others.

HOUSTON – In what is otherwise a challenging time for business development and commercial associations, VIP has opened another project front by signing a new strategic alliance staffing service agreement for IT and Infrastructure Support through Worldwide Technical Services provider, Moody International (www.moodyint.com).

Moody, headquartered in the UK and with its Americas regional office in Houston, has an international network of over 80 offices in 60 countries. It is a leading global provider of technical staffing, technical inspection, consultancy and training, to the oil and gas, construction, mining and power generation industries and ISO certification services to all sectors. Its blue chip client base includes ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, BP, Aramco, Bechtel and Dow Chemical.

Chuck Parker, Technical Staffing Services General Manager for the USA operations commented: “Moody International is very excited to be associated with such a dynamic and successful organization in VIP. The strategic alliance agreement will very much benefit both VIP and Moody, but more importantly our clients, and our mutual ability to continue to provide them with the “best of the best” in technical staffing requirements.”

“As for VIP, it is another very important, exciting and synergistic association…” says Sonia Clayton, VIP’s CEO. Moody’s footprint and quality services, plus the flexibility, know-how and strength of VIP’s capabilities in the IT/Infrastructure Support department, make this association one loaded with possibilities and potential. It also shows management determination, for both Moody and VIP, to keep moving forward in the face of existing challenges.

VIP’s strength as a Business Technology Provider resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but also in its organizational commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of all services and solutions offered. The firm’s offer is a wide array of fields or areas of expertise, chief among them: ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications Advisory, Business Technology Training, Application Development, Performance Improvement for Organizations, Augmentation, Curricular Development and e-Learning Services.

HOUSTON – On March 31 after two years of an exhaustive, rigorous process to meet established criteria, Virtual Intelligence Providers, L.L.C. was formally certified by the City of Houston’s Affirmative Action and Contract Compliance Program, under NAICS-541512, as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women Business Enterprise or WBE.

Both of these certifications attest to and reflect upon the spirit of perseverance, ingenuity and vision of Sonia Clayton and that first cadre of inspired IT professionals who first came around in 2001 with the idea to establish the organization.

Although times are perhaps more challenging now than ever before, this same spirit and creativity continues to infuse our daily activities, either in the office or out at a client's place of activity. We look forward to humble though steady and firm growth in the hopes of prolonging what, up to this day, has become our mutual success.

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Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, (VIP) inducted by the Houston Business Journal (HBJ) as both one of the Fastest Growing [# 25] Woman-Owned Businesses, Sep. 22, and one of Houston’s 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies—Sep. 26--in the area. HBJ includes businesses into the latter list on the basis of at least 5 years of uninterrupted activity and 2-years of verifiable revenue growth. VIP was ranked 43rd.

HOUSTON – This is the Houston Business Journal’s contribution to fostering business growth, diversity and excellence in the tough, very competitive environment of our city, the 4th largest in the United States. Better yet, the Journal pays tribute this way to the hard work, tenacity, resourcefulness, visionary spirit and unrelenting pursuit of quality demonstrated by leaders and entrepreneurs behind the organizations nominated for its recognitions.

Sonia Clayton and Eduardo Nunez

Sonia Clayton and John Beddow

Sonia Clayton, our CEO, sums it all up: “Minority or not, we in the business community are all into this tireless effort. No one gives you anything for free just because you are female, male, Martian or any other special class. Don’t try going into business thinking that just because you possess certain characteristics (ethnicity, veteran, disabled, female, others) deals will come your way. You must work very, very hard to achieve results. The satisfaction for our firm is greater since we’ve weathered successfully very difficult times, as with the one of the firm’s inception in 2001, through the uncertainty and fears of the ensuing years. Even in these very days of doom and gloom in the world’s finances VIP keeps on pressing on. We concentrate on what is ahead rather than to allow ourselves the vertigo of the present day that may curb the desire and reduce the momentum critically needed to keep moving forward “.

Locally established, VIP’s strength as a Business Technology Services Provider resides not just in the specialized knowledge, maturity, poise and flexibility of its professional force, but also in its organizational commitment to excellence, ethical behavior, flexibility and affordability of all services and solutions offered.
The firm’s offer features a wide array of fields or areas of expertise. Chief among them: ERP Project Support/Management, Implementation Support, Change Communications Advisory, Business Technology Training, Application Development, Performance Improvement for Organizations, Augmentation, Curricular Development, Technical Translations and e-Learning Services.

*Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, is certified as a minority, women-owned/operated, equal employment organization qualified to provide technology services at various levels, both for private and governmental organizations. Also, the firm is registered with the Houston Minority Business Council (HMBC), and with the Better Business Bureau--BBB.

Copyright © 2008 by Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC, Houston, TX, USA. www.vip-global.com
Questions / Comments: Contact Leica Fielding, Public Relations, 281.350.6862, lfielding@vip-global.com