Deva Industries, Inc.

By: Kathleen

McNamara

With a knack for solving problems and a great deal of

technological wizardry, Cape Coral resident Virginia Frazier certainly has her

act together. In fact, you might call her a Diva -- no, wait, that's Deva.

Frazier's unique company, Deva

Industries, Inc. provides organizational support for all types of companies,

ranging from start ups with 10 employees to major corporations with 15,000.

Frazier owns the Cape Coral-based business,

while her husband, Kenneth Polcyn, serves as senior consultant. Both have

extensive experience in the consulting business back from their last residence

in Washington, D.C., where they worked with government contracts in Plocyn's

former organizational development company.

style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Birth of a Deva

In 1991, the couple moved from the

hustle and bustle of D.C. to the peaceful canals of Cape Coral. Polcyn decided

to seek a semi-retirement, while Frazier started her own small business,

designing and selling a CADD program to help designers make clothing patterns.

"The idea was to keep it small, keep it simple," reflects Polcyn.

Frazier originally chose the

corporate title "Diva Industries" to represent a woman at her best.

The name, however, had been registered to another company. Instead of choosing

a completely different moniker, Frazier simply changed the "i" to

"e." Deva Industries, Inc. was born.

Just as the name has evolved, so

too has the company. At the suggestion of a friend, Frazier and Polcyn brushed

off their consulting caps to help organize the infrastructure of an employee

leasing company, also known as a Professional Employee Organization. Soon, Deva

developed a niche in consulting.

With the outsourcing out boom of

the mid-1990s, the couple quickly learned about the regulations and

organizational structure of the quickly growing PEO industry. "The next

thing we knew, we had become experts," Ken reflects.

Frazier originally gave herself a margin

of five years before her business would become completely profitable. But

success came in three years. Before she knew it, Deva was in demand.

normal'>The Deva Model

Frazier and Polcyn began to notice

that many of their client companies had very similar organizational structures.

After repeated observations, they formed a comprehensive model known as the

Process Knowledge Management System, or PKMS.

Through the

model, clients get a comprehensive guidebook to sales, conversion, payroll,

credit, benefits, human resources, risk/safety, employee issues, service

quality feedback and unemployment insurance. PKMS also includes about 300

forms, standard letters, contracts, regulatory overviews and information about

specific state and federal requirements.

A PEO may

use the model in several ways. It can be incorporated "as is" as an

actual operational structure, or it can be tailored to a client's specific

needs. It can also be a foundation for compliance with the internationally

recognized ISO standards, serving as a role model for entrepreneurial

organization.

Besides becoming fluent in the PEO

industry, Frazier and Polcyn expanded their know-how by working with companies

outside the employee leasing field. The PKMS model could be adapted, they

found, to fit the needs of almost any company with almost any problem --

whether it's employee issues, growth strategies or start-up jitters. "This

is very similar to what any business needs to operate," says Frazier.

"It's also generalizable to all small businesses."

normal'>Net Results

Taking the PKMS model a step

further, Frazier adapted it to the computer, available both on the Internet and

as a download. She sees the concept as an entirely new way for a business to

get outside organizational help. "There's a lot of information on the

Web," she says. "But I have never seen anything that addresses the

process [of a business]."

The transition from paper to PC

wasn't an easy one, especially given the small size of Deva. But Frazier, who

comes from an operations and information systems background, found a way to

produce the software and make it highly adaptable for the average business.

Technology has opened doors.

Because Deva has such a sophisticated Web site, "we're able to operate

like a big business," Frazier says. Even better, the couple can

dramatically reduce travel costs and time, working over the phone and sharing

visuals over the Internet through software accessed by both sides.

Frazier is now working on several

other computer-based tools: an automated proposal system and a client feedback

system, which will allow clients to obtain customer comments and group the data

into a useful form such as charts or tables.

normal'>Common Problems

Frazier and Polcyn have observed common

quandaries among their client companies. One of the biggest is a lack of

foundation organization. "They don't plan," Polcyn observes of many

problem companies. "If they even write a business plan, they don't stick

to it."

The lack of adequate capital is

another common blunder, as is the lack of policy to deal with problems right

away. "They are reactive instead of proactive in responding to

problems," Frazier observes. "The right hand doesn't know what the

left is doing."

Through the couple's combined years

of experience, they've mastered the art of uncovering and discussing such problems

-- a straightforward, diplomatic approach seems to work best. "We don't

tell them they're doing something wrong," says Polcyn. "What we do is

tell them the issues as we see them.

"Generally, if they're paying

us, they understand the issues," Frazier adds.

Deva has its own straightforward

guidelines, made clear to each client before the couple comes on board. When

speaking with employees, for example, Deva will conduct only confidential

interviews and report findings without identifying who said what. Polcyn says

that once the lines of a communication are open for everyone involved in an

issue, most companies will usually experience results. "Our process is cathartic,"

he says.

Deva won't just take on any client,

either. Frazier says the company concentrates on a small number, say four or

five a year, paying close attention to each client's needs. "We can't work

with everyone, and everyone can't work with us," says Polcyn. "We

have to meet and be comfortable. We're very straightforward as to what we do,

and we're choosy as to who we will work with."

The

individualized approach, combined with Deva's technological gains, affords the

Cape Coral couple an added bonus: quality time to enjoy Southwest Florida.

"I

love to go to work in the morning," Frazier says from her poolside. "We're

creating. We're always creating."