In addition to its catchy name, Philadelphia's SUMO Heavy Industries also has a catchy concept: Select just one vital piece of web development and turn that expertise into a whole company. Bart Mroz and associates Robert Brodie and John Suder focus strictly on digital commerce. In just eight months, SUMO is doing brisk business, marketing through word of mouth, relying on social networks, skype and blogging instead of office furniture and overhead.
There's a little bit of bad boy in the ring, as evidenced by a recent blog post titled "Why We Choose Not to Be a Certified Magento Partner," giving the company a line in the sand quality reminiscent of a certain local jeweler's hateful billboard ads.
Chat with Bart Mroz, founder and partner of SUMO Heavy, and find that indeed Magento, boasting $25 billion in transactions, is SUMO's primary eCommerce platform. The line of independence is drawn like this: "Magento is a framework. If you become a partner, you are obligated to sell a certain number of licenses," says Mroz. "Sometimes we don't use Magento."
SUMO Heavy wants the flexibility of customizing client solutions via service providers including Rackspace, hosting.com, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). That way, says Mroz, "If a framework or technology changes, we can change with it."
To sell the full service eCommerce package, the trio provides branding, design, development and marketing. Their latest projects include a total redesign for Robinson Luggage, and they've just signed with a "huge automotive products distributor;" details of the deal to be divulged upon launch.
Source: Bart Mroz, SUMO Heavy Industries
Writer: Sue Spolan