CIMI Corporation is a strategic consulting firm specializing in the development, marketing, deployment, and use of high-tech networking products and services. We offer consulting services and some limited information report products. See our Services page on this site for additional information.Press material must be emailed to our newsletter and PR mailbox above. See our press and PR page for more information.

About Our Founder and CEO

Tom Nolle is the founder and president of CIMI Corporation. Tom started his career as a software engineer, evolving to the role of project director and software architect. During this period, he was in charge of the team that built a major financial network and one of the software architects of a packet switch used throughout the world. He also designed and developed retail distributed computing networks and multi-computer network-distributed information publishing systems.

In 1979, Tom became an independent consultant, working first with equipment vendors to develop new and efficient devices for financial networks, and then with major financial institutions in deploying advanced network technology.  CIMI Corporation was incorporated in 1982 as a continuation of this activity, and through the 1980s Tom led CIMI Corporation in developing effective new strategies for market forecasting and surveying, as well as innovative techniques in distributed transaction processing, multi-processor protocol handling, and information storage and retrieval.  CIMI, during this period, functioned as a network and systems integrator, software publisher, and strategic consultancy.

Tom's technical knowledge of network hardware and software have been a major reason his views of the market have been sophisticated, accurate, and insightful.  He is still in demand as an auditor of engineering and software products and organizations, a validator of technology claims in the final stages of company financing, and a high-level designer of hardware and software.  He's equally in demand as a maven on the business of networking, and his predictions of the growth and decline of market sectors are sought after by investment bankers, VCs, and security analysts worldwide.

A key to the success of his predictions is a computer forecast model based on simulating buyer decisions on key technology purchases using available econometric indicators and a base of 17 years of survey data.  This model has produced the most accurate forecasts of industry trends available, and continued development is expanding its scope from enterprise networking to mass-market services and technology products.

A prolific writer, Tom is a columnist for No Jitter, Network World ("Reality Check"), Telecommunications Magazine ("Technical Perspective"),  TechTarget (telecom networking practices) and Internet Evolution's Thinkernet.  He contributes feature articles to these and other publications  He is also the author of our newsletter, Netwatcher. His positions on technology and industry issues are colorful, contrarian, and highly accurate. He's predicted many of the major shifts in our industry, most at a time when popular opinion was against his position.  Tom is a member of the IEEE and  also a past member of the IPsphere Forum, ACM and the Telemanagement Forum.  He has served on the executive board of the North American ISDN Implementors' Forum and the ANSI committee on electronic interchange. He's one of less than 3,000 who have been members of the IEEE Communications Society for 25 years or more.

Tom is also a believer in industry ethics. He discloses client relationships to the press, refuses founder shares in companies, and treats clients and non-clients alike in making public comment. He also refuses to consult with companies whose mission and value proposition are at odds with market reality.  When you read a comment of his in the media, or in our own publications, you can be sure that it reflects his real views on the issue.  Nobody paid for that public position, and nobody ever will.  That's a promise.  No paying client gets less than his best, and that's a promise, too.  Ask anyone in the industry about either of these points; we know what you'll find.

Statement of Ethics

We believe that professional ethics are a key element in a successful consulting relationship. CIMI Corporation therefore makes the following pledges:

•     We will protect confidential information disclosed to us as long as it does not become public knowledge through other means, whether we are under formal non-disclosure agreement or not. We will, of course, execute formal agreements where appropriate.
•     We will disclose the existence of business relationships with other firms to clients or prospective clients if there is reason to believe such relationships might create conflicts of interest.
•     If the press asks us about a company, and that company is a client, we will disclose the relationship to the reporter. We will also disclose it if we hold 500 or more shares of stock in the firm, or a value of stock in excess of $50,000.
•     We will accept no form of indirect compensation; marketing fees, referral fees, compensation in stock, etc. in any area where we provide consulting.  If we have an "insider" position in any company or industry (founder share ownership, directorships, etc.), we will add it to this page by way of disclosure, and disqualify ourselves from providing consulting services in the space if the position raises substantive conflicts of interest.  See below for the current disclosures.
•     Our views are not for sale. We will never make a statement or forecast in any forum for any reason other than because it is what we believe. If you read a document we've written, attend a seminar at which we speak, or read a quote from us in a magazine or in a press release, it states our honest view, and no one has paid us to change that view.

Demand a statement of ethics from any prospective consultant.  Review the ethics policy of anyone you see quoted in the media, or hear at a trade show.  It's your only way to be sure you understand everyone's agenda.  We will provide a written and signed version of this pledge on request.

Disclosures:

There are no disclosures of special relationships or interests at this time.