On January 20th, 1993, MyITpros and Bill Clinton were inaugurated. Since you’ve heard the Clinton story, I’ll tell you the story of MyITpros.
Scott Collins founded the company, first known as Modular Technology, as a sole proprietorship. In 1996, Modular Technology, LLC was formed, and in October 2000, we started doing business as MyITpros.
Scott started out as a services provider for computer, network, cabling and phone systems. His mission was to help businesses use technology to advance their business plan.
Scott targeted several types of businesses with a letter of introduction, and CPAs were the first to respond. Although we serve organizations in every sector, to this day, CPAs and other financial service firms are one of our strongest verticals. And one of the CPA firms Scott signed up in 1993 is still a client today.
Shifting Paradigms
In the early 90s, most computer consulting companies were building and selling PCs to their customers. Scott’s approach was different. He believed that a business should have business-class technology, not white box clones built in someone’s home. His approach of making technology recommendations with a client’s best interests in mind lives on.
While clone PC builders are a thing of the past, many IT service companies still focus much of their energy on selling hardware and software. Scott’s vision of a client-centered, vendor-agnostic approach guides us to this day.
One of Scott’s innovations was years ahead of its time. In 1999, he introduced the Proactive Service Plan (PSP). Almost every computer consulting company in the 90s used the billable hour model for project and break/fix work, ours included. PSP offered a more proactive approach, with regularly scheduled visits to maintain a company’s IT systems to avoid costly downtime.
The approach later became known as managed services, utilizing technology to automate many of the things we used to do manually – and adding 24×7 monitoring to alert us to systems in need of care.
Changing of the Guard
In 2000, Scott and I met and we hit it off. We shared a strong business ethic and a desire to help clients succeed. Scott was the engineer with a passion for technology. I was a serial small business owner who believed that the market was terribly under-served when it comes to technology services. We believed there is always a better way, and I joined MyITpros to help Scott build something special.
The company experienced 35 percent growth in 2001. The burst of the Internet technology bubble and 9/11 slowed us down a little, but in 2002 we still grew 17 percent.
After 10 years in the business, Scott was ready for a change. He wanted to go back to school to get his PhD, so in October of 2002 he asked me to consider taking over the company. I studied the company financials and ran some pro forma projections, and saw we could be profitable if we made some changes.
Scott went back to University of Texas to pursue his Masters and PhD in biomedical engineering, while I assumed every function in the company but one – service delivery. Our focus the next few years was not on growth, but on quality.
In 2005, Scott and I entered into a 5 year buyout agreement. Today, besides myself, the other shareholders are Bill McCharen (President), Sheridan Steed (Controller) and Brady Adams (Director of IT and Projects Management)
The People
Throughout the years we have made some fantastic hires, and the great success we’ve had is due to great people.
I met and hired Bill McCharen in 2004, and today he is President of MyITpros. In 2005, Sheridan Steed joined the company and her title is Controller. She leads the accounting, administrative and HR functions of the company. Together – Bill, Sheridan and myself – formed our initial leadership team.
Brady Adams was hired in 2008 and he serves as Director of IT and Project Management. Matt Rohler, Director of Operations, has been with the company since 2011. They both started as System Engineers, and are integral to MyITpros’ current leadership team.
At the start of 2003, we had 4 employees. Currenty, MyITpros has 24 employees (and counting) and we are continuously recruiting.
We love to learn, and believe in developing leaders from within. Check out our Team Page to learn more about all our employees; the people to thank for our success.
We Believe
We’ve averaged 24 percent growth per year over the last 8 years. The growth of our people is harder to quantify, but it’s simply been phenomenal. No matter how our business model may change, we exist to help and empower people.
- Do the right thing
- Do good work and own it
- Adapt with agility
- Learn and improve
- Laugh and have fun
Our Clients
We’ve talked about our company and our people, but our history is entwined with the history of our clients. Their success is our success, and it’s an honor and privilege to be an important part of every organization we serve. We’ve always worked hard to be more partner than vendor, more like an employee or shareholder than a consultant or adviser. When you’re our client, we are your IT department.
Thank you to all the people who have made our history a story of success.
Join the team.
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Chris Boyle, CEO
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