Remarketing, Repairing and Reinventing

From the May 2, 2003 print edition

By Jeff Miller

In 1996, a big layoff caused Sarah Ducharme to lose her job as a “remarketer,” selling equipment that had come off of a lease. But instead of searching for another job, she made her own. Her new company was called Complete Communications Inc., a remarketer that sold computer equipment.

“I started with a pair of tennis shoes, a backpack, an 800 number and a small office in Wakefield,” Ducharme said.

Today, through a series of smart mergers and market savvy, Ducharme is the sole owner and CEO of New England Network Group, a 20-employee IT services, support and consulting company in Everett.

The transformation from remarketing to IT services and support began in 1998. Ducharme’s remarketing firm was by then not only selling machines, but also repairing them — the future trend was clear.

“Hardware margins were dwindling,” Ducharme said. “Services was where I saw the future.”

So that year, Ducharme bought Capital Computer Solutions, a small IT services company in Lexington.

The company grew. By 2000, Complete Communications had 15 employees, and two-thirds of its business was in IT services.

But Ducharme was still pushing to increase her company’s savvy in the IT services realm. In 2001, she met New England Network Group.

“They were small, five or six people,” Ducharme said. “It made sense for us because they were purely a services company but didn’t have the infrastructure we did. We were also looking to scale, and this was the best way to do it.”

The merger took place in the fall, and the new entity took New England Network Group’s name.

“It fit the company better,” Ducharme said.

The company now offers a wide range of services, including 24-7 network support, network installation, technology integration after a merger and finding reliable Internet service.

Customers range from small virtual companies with just 15 employees to large corporations that employ more than 1,000.

In March, Ducharme took another big step when she bought out her two partners, becoming the company’s sole owner. Financially, it was the right time, Ducharme said — if the company had grown much bigger, she would not have been able to afford it.

Personally, however, the timing was somewhat inconvenient. Four weeks prior, she’d given birth to her second child and, not long after that, lost her babysitter. Her husband works as a senior engineer at the company, so the baby came to work until the family could find a replacement.

“I put (the baby) in my office in her car seat under my desk while I tried to take care of e-mail and customers right before the acquisition,” Ducharme said. “It was the world’s shortest maternity leave, like trying to juggle bricks with a blindfold.”

But it’s not unusual for children to occupy the offices of New England Network Group.

“We’re a very family-oriented company,” Ducharme said, “so sometimes there are children here. Quality of life is important.”