About Us
Our Story
Ignis's co-founders James Purvis and Joel Hanson have been a dominating duo since they first starting working together at Okta back in 2013. They quickly became Okta's #1 sales team worldwide and helped bring on some of the largest customers Okta has today. One big reason for their success was their targeted focus on B2B and B2C identity management use cases which helped enable organizations to "ignite" their digital transformation journey. Their expertise surrounding the digital business combined with the massive shift in the marketplace to cloud and mobile were key building blocks to the founding of Ignis.
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However, what compelled James and Joel to start Ignis was their recognition of the tremendous lack of proficiency out there from solution providers in selling & delivering cloud technology. Every VAR (value-added-resellers) James and Joel worked with at Okta relied almost entirely on them for just about everything (i.e. technical documentation, demos, proof-of-concepts, pricing, implementation, support, etc.). They weren't seeing the "value add" these VARs were promoting and more importantly, neither were customers. A big reason why this is happening is that most VARs re-sell way too many solutions making them "generalists" when it comes to the technology. The engineers they employ have to learn numerous products across multiple categories which is disadvantageous for the customer. To put this into perspective, think if you had to undergo heart surgery. Would you want a "generalist" performing the operation or someone who specializes in cardiovascular surgical procedures?
At Ignis, we believe in specialization and delivering our solution offerings from end-to-end. Our focus is in the area of digital transformation and the underlying technology that sits behind it including: identity & access management, application performance monitoring, and API management. Our deep knowledge and expertise in these areas allow us to provide a differentiated value to our customers that have led to long-lasting partnerships built on trust, understanding, and commitment.
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Our Vision
Our vision is to enable organizations to provide a more secure, seamless, & user-centric path for connecting customers to the digital business.
Jerry Waldorf, Executive Vice President of Architecture
Jerry Waldorf has a brilliant mind and customers absolutely love him. Jerry has over 25+ years experience in software engineering and is a notable cloud architect in the Western U.S. Jerry has several patents relating to technology he even had his own Cloud Identity company back in 2011 until leaving to work for Okta. Jerry left Okta as the top Principal Cloud Architect and still assists the company in building out connectors for complex apps.
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Jerry has a Masters in Computer Science from UCLA and lives in West Hills, CA with his wife and family.
Our Leadership
James Purvis, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer
James brings over 13 years of enterprise software sales experience and has come from some noteworthy organizations such as Hewlett-Packard, Symantec, and Dell. Right before he co-founded Ignis, James was a Regional Sales Manager for Okta where he grew his territory to over $8M of recurring revenue finishing #1 in sales for the company.
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James has a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing from Colorado State University. He currently resides in Huntington Beach, CA with his wife and daughter.
Joel Hanson, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer
Joel Hanson has a strong engineering background as is recognized as a top-tier software engineer. Joel spent several years at Hewlett-Packard as a Systems Engineer and left to work for Okta where he was quickly promoted to a Senior Sales Engineer. Joel was an integral part of engineering some of the largest deals in the company for Okta and left as the #1 SE in organization before co-founding Ignis.
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Joel has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly and lives with his wife in San Diego, CA.
How We're Different:
We are hyper-focused on delivering user-centric technology solutions designed for the digital business. Our team has extensive knowledge with key technologies that drive and make digital transformation possible. By concentrating on this niche, we can focus on the skills and services that uniquely benefit our customers.
The digital-era is in full force. CEOs around the world are making a concerted effort to integrate the various digital initiatives across the business and create a clear vision that shows how the business will increase revenue thru digital experiences and increased customer satisfaction. Consumers today have certain expectations when it comes to doing business and demand their products & services to be readily available from any device in the most simplest and secure way possible.
At Ignis, we know the importance of the digital business and specialize in helping organizations embark on the digital transformation journey. We focus on delivering the core technology that enables seamless & secure connections between people, applications, devices, and products. Whether you are developing a new app, building out a portal, or revamping how you deliver your product or service, our team is behind you every step of the way.
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- James Purvis, Co-Founder
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Contact Us
Have a digital transformation initiative? give us a call. We can help.
Tel: 949-375-4835