Our Company

Ancient History

We weren’t always the company we are today – far from it.

From 1997 and for the next 10-years we were just like every other IT support company out there.  We charged by the hour and sold a ton of hardware. In fact, we used to have a GSA Schedule and a team of salespeople responding to every bid they could.  Federal, State / Local, Education, we did it all.

We even though we were pretty smart when we launched our ‘Bronze/Silver/Gold’ support plan which we offered to any business that would raise their hand.  But it always bothered me that in order for us to have a great month, it took a customer having some disaster or unplanned upgrade.

But, the bigger we got, the noisier it became and less fun it was!  We weren’t able to have a tangible positive impact on our customers’ businesses when we KNEW we could.

Hitting The Reset Button

In 2007 we committed to finding a better way to deliver consistent and valuable results for our customers; by shifting our focus from selling hardware and fixing problems to preventing problems before they happened.

Before we could make a huge leap forward, we had to commit to NOT doing the things we used to do that we knew would hold us back from making any real and lasting change;

No more;

• GSA Schedule
• Bidding on large contracts for State and Local Governments
• Bronze, Silver, Gold support agreements

We had to design a service offering from the ground up that first, allowed us to deliver our very best for EVERY customer, and second, transferred the responsibility for results squarely onto our shoulders by doing away with open-ended hourly billing.

By making our agreements ‘all-you-can-eat’ if forced us to be efficient with our customer’s resources (since we couldn’t just send them another bill!).  But it also had the benefit of putting us and our customers on the same side of the “cost/value” equation.

If their IT was going haywire – bad for them and bad for us.  If things were running in a consistent and predictable way good for us both.

Process As A Tool For Improvement

As continued to refine our service we quickly found that Process is EVERYTHING – documenting, training, and refining HOW we. as a company, were going to deliver our service was the only way we could drive consistent results.  It also allowed us to look at our services as a set of systems, each of which we could measure and improve on.

You can’t just hire a bunch of ‘good people’ and expect them to deliver on a consistent basis without a set of policies and procedures on HOW to deliver those services.  Without process around service delivery, you hear; “When I get X-tech he knows what to do, when I get Y-tech, not so much.” This is a DEAD GIVEAWAY that the company doesn’t have a process in place for service delivery.

Our company mindset changed from “Bill more hours, sell more product!” to “How can we be smarter and more effective with our customer’s IT resources?” and “How can we improve our process in a way that improves results for our customers?”

We’ve been working on our process (called Insight) for years – evolving with ever-changing business needs and the shifting technology landscape.

We Are Small (and feel it is an advantage)

In our industry, bigger is seen as better.  Companies, buy other companies, buy other companies – all in an effort to roll up onto a larger topline number and make the company worth more (which doesn’t really help the customers any!)

Ever the contrarians, we feel the opposite.

Here’s why – you can’t give the proper care and attention that real proactive services require when you have hundreds of customers, most of whom are on the reactive ‘Bronze Plan’ and call out of the blue for emergency support – sorry it just won’t work. Believe me, I’ve tried!!

Instead, we focus on steady growth with the right customers and watch our staffing metrics like a hawk.

The Only REAL MSP In North Carolina (We Think!)

Every IT Services company out there calls themselves a Managed Services Provider – it is the latest marketing catchphrase.  It’s nestled in-between “VAR” (value-added reseller) and “MSSP” (managed security services provider) – no doubt ginned up in time to take advantage of growing concern over security risks!

But they ALL provide mostly ‘other stuff’ like Bronze / Silver Plans, Monitor w/ a bucket of hours, Projects & Hourly Services, Cloud, etc.  The same old stuff we used to provide when we were a “VAR” but just with a fancier title!

Now if they want to call themselves an IT Services Company that offers “Managed Services” you’ll get no complaint from me but you just can’t define your entire business by an offering that makes up 10% of what you actually do – especially something like Managed Services that takes mountains of time, energy discipline and focus to get right!

We ONLY deliver services under a managed services agreement and we only deliver one service – Insight.

Outstanding People In Dedicated Roles.

I know that EVERY IT company says they have great people and I have no reason to doubt them.  I’ve seen this first hand.

But here is the secret – great people doing ‘everything’ can’t come close to our people, each in dedicated roles with defined expectations and responsibilities and metrics that flow from a solid process.

It’s just that simple – Ssshh, don’t tell the others!

A Simple Formula

In the end, it all comes down to a simple formula;

• Our People + Our Process + Our Tools + Discipline = Awesome Results You Can’t Get Anywhere Else