In Good Company

Michael Stumvoll’s e-mail signature gives you more than just his contact information. With a simple click, he walks onto the screen, introduces himself, briefly explains the business technologies that he sells for networking giant Cisco Systems and then provides links for you to get more information.

Click on the “VoIPTrainer” link and another man appears, demonstrating step-by-step how to use Cisco’s telephone system.

The man in that video is Jim Cossetta. He knows Cisco’s technologies can be complex, and no printed manual or plodding PowerPoint can match an interactive presentation. The proof is in the success of Naples-based 4What Interactive, the multimedia company Cossetta and his partners co-own.

The VoIPTrainer e-learning tool is one of their creations. So is the ability of Stumvoll, business development manager for Cisco’s World Wide Channels, to greet his e-mail readers “in person.”
The exterior of 4What’s offices, located in a nondescript industrial park off Old 41 Road, offers no hint of the busy environment inside. With a staff of about 20 project managers, programmers/designers, account executives and others, 4What on a typical day recently was juggling about 10 projects for Cisco, its biggest client, plus 20 to 30 additional projects.

Cossetta and co-owners Reid Atwood and Wade Mastro call their company a consulting business, “but in an interactive technology way,” says Mastro. Their work ranges from creating e-learning systems and marketing products for multinational corporations like Cisco Systems and Discover Financial, to building Web sites for Southwest Florida International Airport, to turning a simple PDF into an interactive e-mail blast for a local Play N Trade video-game store franchisee.