The Network Support Company Revenue and Competitors

Network Support is 10 years old! In this space I want to take a moment to celebrate this milestone by reflecting on our journey together. We have come a long way from our first quarters in the spare bedroom of my house. The business quickly took over my garage and, to my wife's dismay, our living room, too. Matt Glaser, our first employee distinctly remembers reporting to work and having my eight-months-pregnant wife answer the door in her bathrobe. Much to my family's relief, we moved to a small office on the West side of Danbury after four months. Three moves later we settled in our current location in 5,000 square feet at 7 Kenosia Avenue with satellite offices in Bristol, CT, Allentown, PA and Melbourne FL. Curiously, although we have grown significantly and been profitable, we have never made growth or profit a priority. We believe that healthy organisms naturally grow, and that profit and growth are a measure of health, not a primary business objective. As we have focused on the health of fundamentals in the company, our core business of consulting has grown every year for 10 years - even through the three year IT downturn after Y2K. We have added employees every year except two and we have never had a lay off. In the past three years we have doubled in size. When I reflect on this good fortune, several reasons and lessons learned come to mind. First and foremost, you, our clients, are the major reason we have grown. Many of you have been with us for five or more years and your incredible loyalty to us through our good times and our growing pains is humbling. Through your survey responses, emails, and in person, many of you have helped us understand your needs better, pointed out areas for improvement, and made us a better company. Thank you for your honest communication, loyalty, and faith in us. Secondly, we have the best employees of any service company I have ever experienced. When we hire people, the two non-negotiable qualities we look for are character and caring. We believe that it is impossible to provide truly excellent service without honest people who fundamentally care about you. We have immensely talented engineers, managers, sales people and administrative people, but it is their commitment to ethical conduct, to doing things the "right" way and the emotional pain they feel when a client is ailing or upset that truly distinguishes them. Third, integrity and treating others as we want to be treated is at the core of our culture. Our commitment to this principle leads us to tell you when we make a mistake that affects you - and to make proper amends. It means we document our work extensively and proactively review it for fairness so you know exactly what we do for you and only bill what is appropriate. It means that when we hire an engineer or sales person from a competitor, we do not take the competitor's clients or solicit their employees. It means that if we are late to an appointment we tell the truth about why. We are not perfect, of course, but we strive to adhere to these high standards and refer to them almost daily. Finally, we are committed to operational excellence. It is an inseparable component of excellent service. It is not enough to simply have caring, skilled people. If the parts an engineer needs are not there when he needs them, or phone calls are not returned, or an emergency call gets lost, or a warranty repair falls through the cracks, it doesn't matter that we care or that we are skilled. We have failed in our mission and not delivered what we promised. The first of the two lessons also relates to operations. I have had to learn the value of operations in the school of hard knocks. Only as I changed has the company been able to grow. Now I embrace disciplined processes where before, as an undisciplined entrepreneur, I resisted it. The majority of our difficulties have occurred during critical growth stages and only operational changes could cure them. We faced difficulties of varying intensities as we grew past 7 people, then 13, then 20, then 35. Each of these growth stages required a significant change in structure and communication channels that could only be properly addressed through operational improvements and adjustments. Each change required more and more from our people in terms of greater personal and corporate discipline and teamwork. Not easy, but well worth the cost. The second lesson came from a mentor and it has allowed me to sleep many nights when I might otherwise have tossed and turned. It is this, "The goal of the manager is not to make sure that there are no problems. The only time a manager has no problems is when he is dead. The goal of the manager is to solve the current set of problems in order to then get a new set of more difficult problems." While slightly Kafka-esque in outlook, it is reassuring to know that experiencing problems is perfectly normal. Currently, we are reaching the end of a two year effort to address our growth past 35 people into the 40's. We have completely changed every major system in the company, restructured management, redefined every job, and added new capabilities in network monitoring and web services. We are extremely happy with the results but it is your opinion that counts. We look forward to hearing from you over the next year as you experience the results of these changes first hand. Thank you for letting me share these thoughts and reflections with you. And thank you for letting us serve you. We especially look forward to the next 10 years growing with you and making a positive difference in your lives.