* * *
Dale R. Alldredge
President of $5-million Technic Tool Corp., a manufacturer of outdoor power equipment in Lewiston, Idaho
When we decided to put computers on every employee's desk, we contacted a local retailer, located only five minutes from Technic Tool, to help us determine which hardware and software we should buy. I'd known that particular retailer socially for 20 years and trusted him. He and his staff had worked with a large corporation in town, and the people I talked to there reaffirmed my confidence in his ability to help us make IT decisions. When I called, he sent people over immediately, and we told them what we needed. They in turn asked us a hundred questions. They then recommended specific hardware and software, and later installed it for us. Even today we call the store when we have problems with the system, and someone is here within 15 minutes to help us.
A short time ago I borrowed money for the company. The bank that made the loan required compiled financial statements, and we had to use external accountants to prepare them. The accountants at the local firm I chose looked at our records and realized we didn't have an automated accounting system. We asked them what kind of software to buy, and they suggested a package.
I called up the retailer I'd been working with on our other technology purchases and told him about the accounting software. If I decided to buy it, I wanted him to sell it to me so I could rely on his store for technical support. He researched the software and then ordered some samples so his staff and I could test it. Finally, I bought it from him. I could work with out-of-town suppliers, but I like using local companies to help me make technology decisions.
* * *
Shane Jones
CEO of Ace Personnel, a temporary-placement service in Overland Park, Kans., with $6 million in sales
In the early days I usually called my mother-in-law, Sally. She'd studied computer science in graduate school and so could give me the necessary information most cheaply. When I got my first office, a six-by-nine-foot closet, Sally appeared with all the software I might need for my business. She loaded some of it on my new computer -- I didn't know how -- and showed me how it worked. As time went on, though, I began to feel guilty about relying so heavily on her. I should have been calling to tell her what her grandchildren were doing. Instead I was calling at all hours of the day and night with technology emergencies.
In the beginning I did my payroll by hand. Toward the end of the first year, I had to turn in 250 W-2 forms to the IRS, for all the temporary employees we'd placed that year. I panicked, because I knew we'd never finish the W-2s in time, and even if we could, the IRS would never accept them -- the agency requires the information on a magnetic media disk. Anticipating the problem, Sally gave me an early Christmas present -- an accounting-payroll software package. It enabled us to get the information to the IRS in time, thereby avoiding a $12,000 fine, which would have shut down the company. We still use that software now, six years later.
Back then I also had a college student named Steve working for me, who had a strong technology background. He always bought the latest technology for his personal use, and he'd been programming since high school. He suggested we buy a 386 PC with a speed of 24 megahertz and a 40-megabyte memory. His proposal sounded like a foreign language to me -- my knowledge of computers ended with the 80-88, one of the first PCs to hit the market. I'd gone to buy my fourth one and found that the model was obsolete. So I took Steve's word and even let him make the decision about where to buy the computer -- from Gateway 2000.
Steve now programs for Microsoft. I would have loved to have kept him at Ace, but when he graduated, we had only 3 or 4 computers and just couldn't afford to hire a dedicated computer person. Now we have about 40 computers and enough profits to support a full-time systems manager to handle our technology decisions.
* * *
Bill Ward
Founder of the Magic Bean, a 20-employee restaurant and hostel located in Quito, Ecuador
When I first started the business, I hired Byron, an Ecuadoran with experience in hotel and restaurant management, to help me with the paperwork and the daily operations of the restaurant. Most important, he suggested a way to get our phone line fixed when it was down: go to the phone company around closing time, wait for people to come out of the building after work, and ask if they want to fix a phone for some extra money. The phone service here is government run, and it's awful. The first person we talked to came right over and fixed the line in 10 minutes for $10.
I brought a Macintosh with me when I came down here, but everyone was using IBMs. I realized that if I wanted any kind of software, peripherals, or technical support, I too would need to buy an IBM PC. My current manager, Britt, is an American. Because my computer knowledge was limited, I let him make the decision about which PC I should buy.
I told him exactly what I needed a computer to do -- accounting, inventory, graphics, and so on -- and he decided that a 486 would be more than sufficient for us. He's also shown me how to computerize most of my daily business operations, such as tracking the restaurant's daily sales receipts.
I didn't know Britt had a technology background when I hired him; I realized it only when he asked me if I had a modem and whether I was connected to the Internet. He said he'd researched the Internet in Ecuador and found three companies we could use to go on-line. In early 1995 we began subscribing to Ecuador's EcuaNet.
Britt also helped me personally: he taught my dad, who lives in Britt's hometown, how to use E-mail. Now my dad and I can "talk" every day.
