Company address: 116 E. Pleasant St., Milwaukee, WI 53212
Company Web site:www.stammbt.com
Industry: Outsourced IT services
Number of employees: 10
Education: B.S. in management information systems from UW-Whitewater
Family: Wife, Lisa.
What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?
"In the last year, we have invested and continue to invest a significant amount of money in our infrastructure in order to better serve our existing and future clientele. We have added several non-billable and billable staff, implemented new technologies to better serve our clients, doubled our office space and retained business advisors to assist us in developing detailed growth plans."
What’s new at your company?
"A lot! We have implemented new technologies that allow our Help Desk to remotely connect to, fix, and support our clients’ computers – as long as they have a high-speed Internet connection – anywhere they go: work, home, hotels, remote offices, etc. Also, we have just started a new division to service residential clients. Several employees who work at our business clients have been asking us to help them out at their homes, and now we do."
Do you plan to hire any additional staff or make any significant capital investments in your company in the next year?
"Yes. We are currently looking to hire six additional employees to increase capacity for our field engineer, help desk and administrative teams before the end of this year."
What will be your company’s main challenges in the next year?
"To recruit, hire, train and retain exceptional employees as fast as our growth demands. We don’t sell any physical product, so the services our employees provide are our only product. Our people are our most important asset, and therefore our biggest challenge moving forward."
What’s the hottest trend in your industry?
"Managed services. For years, IT service companies and their clients have been working against each other. When a client has a problem, the IT service company fixes the problem and sends a bill. The managed service model is proactive, rather than reactive, to ensure that things don’t break in the first place. For a fixed monthly fee, the IT service company works to make sure the client’s computers and network continue to run smoothly. The managed service model forms a true partnership between the IT service company and the client."
Do you have a business mantra?
"Never stop improving. We can always do better. We can always work smarter."
From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?
"Richard Branson of Virgin, for several reasons: (1) He is always entering new industries that he thinks are poorly run; (2) he sets huge goals and achieves most of them; (3) he is not afraid to fail; (4) he is active in and funds several charities; (5) he knows how to have fun while always shamelessly promoting his brand; and (6) he has a real passion for life.
What was the best advice you ever received?
"Invest in great business systems and technologies to run as efficient and productive as possible. I received that advice when I first started this business 12 years ago while I was a sophomore at UW-Whitewater. Initially, I didn’t listen, thinking that all efforts should be spent selling. A few years after that, once we had started growing and had become quite busy, I had to go back and implement great systems. It was more costly and difficult to implement these things than it would have been to do it from the start. Now, I am always trying to implement great systems even before we really need them."
