Qcorps scores military coup


Qcorps scores military coup
Home service bundler sheds veil of secrecy with big defense deal
By Jennifer Dawson Houston Business Journal

Sep. 8 — A Houston-based company that has quietly carved a niche bundling household services now stands to make a bundle moving military personnel and college students.



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Qcorps Residential Inc. has been awarded a huge contract by the U.S Department of Defense, making the company's national network of service providers available to millions of military members and their families who are frequently reassigned.
In addition, Qcorps last week launched UniversityMoves.com, a Web site that allows college students to shop for and connect a variety of home services over the Internet.
The double coup represents a breakthrough of sorts for Qcorps, which helps people moving into new homes or apartments set up a variety of services ranging from electricity and cable television to telephones and even bottled water delivery.
For the past few years, Qcorps has operated in relative obscurity, initially building up a client base of multifamily developers such as Camden Property Trust and Trammell Crow Residential.
The company has purposely maintained a low profile to deter would-be competitors.
But landing the enormous military contract has compelled the local firm to change its covert ways.
"We had to lift up some of our veil of secrecy," explains John Meyers, chairman and CEO of Qcorps, in a rare interview. "We have the one and only network out there.
"With the Defense Department, it has become necessary for us to speak," he adds. "Prior to that, our policy was to not speak."
As part of the new "open policy," Qcorps has hired Rubenstein Associates, a New York public relations firm.
And the privately held company is, for the first time, talking about the way it conducts business.

Navy in the channel

The business model allowed Qcorps to stay in the background as it was thriving. The company sells access to its network to channel partners, which offer their clients a customized service under a their own brand names.
For example, when someone moves into one of Camden's 143 apartment complexes around the country, they're given access to "Camden Connect" so they can hook up a laundry list of services. The Camden Connect Web site is actually Qcorps' network that has been customized for the Houston-based apartment operator.
In addition to apartment developers such as Camden and Trammell Crow Residential, channel partners include title companies such as First American Title and Stewart Title; home builders such as David Weekley Homes and Newmark Homes; and real estate brokers such as Prudential Gary Greene Realtors.
Various Web sites have different offerings, but many of them allow users to change their addresses, hire movers, choose an electricity provider, sign up for local and long-distance phone service, order cable, subscribe to newspapers and magazines, select an Internet access provider and arrange for bottled water delivery.
"We can serve every address in the U.S. with over a dozen services," Meyers says. "In most addresses, we can serve them with over 20 services."
The service, which is available 24 hours a day, typically saves two to 10 hours that a person would spend on the phone ordering these services.
The U.S. Navy signed a three-year agreement with Qcorps to help make moves easier and less stressful for military members and their families. The service is available to all active duty Navy members and the more than 9 million additional authorized members of the Navy Exchange Service Command, or NEXCOM.
Rear Admiral William Maguire, commander of NEXCOM, says the Qcorps network will help military members remain stable and as stress-free as possible during their frequent relocations.
"It's one of the things they've targeted as a way to improve retention," adds Meyers, who says many military people move every two to three years.
Qcorps also announced a deal two weeks ago with the National Military Family Association, an organization that is dedicated to resolving issues of concern to military families in the seven uniformed services.

A widening network

When Qcorps was established in March 2000, the company focused on the multifamily market, but has since widened its scope.
Qcorps only included big brand name service providers in its network at first, such as SBC, Reliant Energy and Time Warner Cable. Now Qcorps is signing up smaller local providers around the country, and has more than 1,000 service providers in its network.
The company's research shows that a user will likely purchase service from one of the providers listed on the Web site, making a compelling reason for providers to want to be included in the network.
Securing customers via the network also saves service providers money in marketing and order processing, Meyers says.
"The value that a service provider receives is often in excess of $100 an order," says Meyers. "And they're getting customers that they otherwise wouldn't receive. We can have dramatic impact on their sales."
Ray Purser, a local spokesman for Time Warner Cable, says after working with Qcorps for about a year, the media giant is pleased with how the network complements its own marketing efforts.
"It is a way for us to be able to market our product to those individuals who are about to move or have moved. Those individuals can be very hard to market to," Purser says. "It makes it easier for the customer, and it makes it easier for us."
Meyers does not disclose specifics about Qcorps' financial transactions, but says deals vary among the more than 250 channel partners that re-brand its network.
"The service providers pay fees for the orders they receive through the network," Meyers says. "In many cases we're paid fees. In some cases our channel partners receive usage fees in return."
Meyers founded Qcorps three years ago with 15 other people, all of whom have remained with the 65-person company. The employees, officers and directors collectively own a substantial majority of the firm, Meyers says. There also is external equity in "some very friendly hands," he says.
Before starting Qcorps, Meyers, 41, was the chief operating officer of the WEDGE Group Inc., a private firm with a portfolio of operating holdings totaling more than $500 million in value. Prior to joining WEDGE, he was a partner with McKinsey and Company Inc.
Qcorps does not reveal revenue figures, nor will the company disclose how many people have used its service. Based on its plans for the future, the firm will be able to keep some of those secrets under wraps indefinitely.
"We do not anticipate going public," Meyers says. "We're private and very happy."

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