However, the work isn't done yet, Flitcroft said. Now that the company's business has made a transition away from the VAR integrator model, the brand has to change to match it.

To do that, Alliant hired three marketing professionals as well as outside marketing consultants to help rethink the business and figure out its differentiators. The marketing professionals interviewed employees, clients and executives to figure out what set the business apart. They used that information to build a brand that focuses around the company's Continuous Infrastructure Services, with a new logo and website.

After Alliant had decided what set it apart externally, it had to also evolve internally to align the culture with the new business focus of the "buck stops here" for customer issues.

"The rebranding wasn't just about our product offerings and how we're going to make it utility-based. We had to rebrand what was in our employees' heads," Flitcroft said. "You can't have one without the other."

That meant an internal messaging campaign and also recognizing that not all of the company's employees were a fit for the new business model and brand. In 2007, the company had 125 employees with very low turnover. As the business model evolved, Flitcroft said that many employees came into conflict with the new business model. As a result, today there are only 19 of those original employees still with the company.

"We're okay with inventing ourselves. So much so that the people that built the company, considered the most valuable people in the old model, were the biggest obstacle to becoming a new company. Myself included," Flitcroft said. "There were points that I wanted to fire myself," he joked.

The biggest recommendation Flitcroft had for VARs looking to dive headlong into services was to make the leap whole heartedly. For a long time, he said that Alliant Technologies tried to straddle both worlds, but that was just holding them back from making the jump.

"We said we didn't want to be a VAR integrator, but we still kept being a VAR integrator," Flitcroft said. "For two years, no matter how much we talked about it, we still sold boxes and bodies."

The bottom line, Flitcroft said, is that the transition will become inevitable, as will a rebranding around the new business model.

"[VARs are] going to have to go through something," he said. "The customers, the market is shifting. It's changing."

The transition will be hard, he said, and customers and employees are bound to abandon ship. However, he said that, from his experience at Alliant Technologies, the result will be well worth it for longevity and profit.