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- The Beginning
- Dark Days
- Dawn of a New Day
- Initial Expansion
- Rapid Expansion
- Controlled Growth
- New Digs
- The New Millenium
- The Under Toad
- A New Approach
- Future Plans
The Beginning
The idea for Port-to-Port Communications Corporation started during a telephone conversation between Bob Beaty and Damon Richards in October of 1990. Each was depressed about his respective job and they joked about the possibility of starting their own company where things got done for reasons that made sense and clients were given the greatest care. The company didn't have a name at the time, and the whole of its mission was to have something to do with computers. During the succeeding months, the company began to take shape. Its name was selected by Bob from a list Damon created during a solo brainstorming session while waiting for a plane at O'Hare airport. Once the name was picked, they were on their way. The duo designed a company that would provide the high-end consulting to small companies that was available to larger organizations. Further, Port-to-Port would focus on schools and other Not For Profit organizations.
The Dark Days
Port-to-Port opened its first office in July of 1991. We had a little space in the shadow of Rock Island Refinery. By the late fall of 1991 things looked pretty bad. Public schools work on a two year budget so we were out for another year. Damon and Bob were just barely making enough money to pay the $250 per month rent and they'd soon have to start making payments on the SBA loan they used to get started. They went three months without getting a paycheck. In fact, they were lending money to Port-to-Port so it could pay its bills.
To shore up business, they did a targeted mailing to about 200 doctors, dentists, and lawyers asking them to consider Port-to-Port for their computing needs. They followed up this mailing with telephone calls in search of leads. These were the days from hell.
The result of all this was a meeting with a young gentleman who appeared to be the company's salvation. He wanted us to help him redesign a Dental Office Management package that he was selling throughout the state. We signed on for a flat rate contract to develop an unspecified system.
This money allowed some breathing room. Port-to-Port even started paying out token salaries. Then fate stepped in again. Damon and Bob were invited to a Christian Businessmen's luncheon where they were introduced to a man from the Heritage Group's MIS department. He later called to inquire about Port-to-Port developing a small telecommunications application for one of the Heritage companies. We bid the job at $1200 and completed it on time.
The Dawn of a New Day
When our new client called to tell us it didn't work, we asked to meet with the guys who were using it to explain how it was supposed to work. That meeting included one of the executives of Calumet Lubricants. Three months later, the original developers of Calumet's Order Entry System were subcontracting the development to Port-to-Port at a higher hourly rate than Calumet was paying them. Shortly thereafter, they were out and we were in. Had Calumet not come along when it did, Port-to-Port would surely have failed.
The company stayed in the Crystal Flash building until January 1993. During that time they hired their first employee. He was to take over the day-to-day development on the Dental Office Management work. He quit after working only one month before demanding a pay raise because he was unable to meet any of his deadlines on the development.
Initial Expansion
Rob Glass joined the company in November 1992. His original assignment was to complete the Dental Office Management work that our previous employee had abandoned. Three was too many for Suite 109, so Port-to-Port moved into the Pyramids in January 1993, leasing an office on the fifth floor of Pyramid One. They lasted nine months of their three year lease before they needed more space to accommodate additional growth. Their next move was to the luxurious (it had walls for individual offices) space in Pyramid Two.
Rob became the first Associate to make partner at Port-to-Port in December 1993.
With room to work, Port-to-Port added their first technician to the staff in February 1994. In April 1994, Port-to-Port merged with a one-man development shop and, in the process, added a fourth partner. With four partners, we had to have a staff. All of the partners spent an entire day interviewing candidates for a new receptionist position. After eight hours of interviews, they selected the first interviewee. Her first task was to go out and buy herself a desk.
The number of Associates doubled when Port-to-Port added a new programmer who had just completed her degree at Franklin College in May 1994. In June, we picked up a summer intern from the Business and Finance Magnet program at Northwest High School (Damon, Bob, and Rob's alma mater). Just a month later, Firoozeh Hunt became the next Associate when she joined Port-to-Port.
Staffing stabilized for the rest of the year but plans for growth were starting to show success. Port-to-Port had again outgrown an office. This next move was sure to be the last for a while! The group designed a 6,000 square foot office space to be built on the fourth floor of Pyramid One. They signed a lease with a December 1994 occupancy date.
In December 1994, another local computer company owner approached Port-to-Port about taking over support for clients of his company. After several meetings and discussions, Port-to-Port hired him and two members of his staff.
Rapid Expansion
The new office space and the additional staff made our receptionist's tasks overwhelming. She received the first promotion from Staff to Associate in the company's short history when she became the Office Manager in February 1995. Her first task this time was to hire her replacement.
With the integration of the other company's staff, and the added client support, the first half of 1995 brought a large increase in staff. In addition to the those three hires, we added two technicians from a competitor, another summer intern, and three new graduates from Indiana colleges.
We also met a woman while she worked to get Calumet Lubricants ISO 9000 certified. She brought a new line of business to Port-to-Port in the form of ISO 9000 and QS-9000 consulting. She also was the catalyst for a name change. In June 1995, Port-to-Port began Doing Business As Port-to-Port Consulting.
The expansion caused many internal growing pains. During the last half of 1995, all of our college hires left for various reasons. Some of our other new additions didn't share our view of client service. In the end, we were left with a smaller, more committed staff. During this turbulent time, Port-to-Port maintained communication with our clients and kept them well serviced.
Controlled Growth
In 1996, Port-to-Port got control of its expansion. In every previous year, revenue had at least doubled. In this year, we decided to slow our growth. Bob left to pursue opportunities in Chicago. During this year we added slowly to our staff and client list. We hired a young man out of the rock quarries of Tennessee as a new technician. In the summer, one of our college hires from 1995 returned after a stint with another company. We also added another hire straight out of Hanover College at the end of the year.
1997 was another year of stability. We developed the internal systems that would allow us to grow successfully and share in our clients' success during 1998. We had a change at the helm as we added a new receptionist early in 1997. Shortly thereafter, a technician who was leaving one of our clients added another dimension to our technical team. In May, we added to the international flavor of our organization by hiring a French intern through the AIESEC program at Purdue University.
New Digs
At the end of 1997, Port-to-Port was presented with the opportunity to move its offices from the Pyramids to the downtown location formerly occupied by Junior Achievement. The timing wasn't perfect, but the move made good sense for business. Once again the moving trucks arrived to transport us to another office location.
Our receptionist had a baby in the spring of 1998, so Rob's and Damon's mothers shared the responsibilities at the front desk for three months. Spring also brought some transition in our technical staff. We added two technicians in the spring. In the summer, we hired an intern from Butler University to do some marketing research for us. We got another technician who transitioned from IUPUI in the summer. At the end of 1998, Port-to-Port filled out its technical staff by adding two more technicians.
In 1999, we hired another intern in the spring -- this time a developer. Port-to-Port became a far more professional organization with the addition of our first Operations Manager in April. He handled all internal operations. His first task was to hire a sales consultant. He selected a gentleman fresh out of Indiana State University from a field of qualified candidates. He followed this hire with an interim receptionist (Rob's and Damon's mothers weren't interested in repeating). His next challenge was to add a few more technicians, including a seasoned technician from a competitor and another technician who didn't stay with us very long. When our interim receptionist went back to her teaching job in the fall, we hired a new full time receptionist.
After months of consideration, Jeff departed in August to go back to the one man shop he'd enjoyed before joining Port-to-Port. We hired Becky Hardwick in September to fulfill the training responsibilities previously handled by Jeff.
The New Millenium
Port-to-Port started off the new millenium with a couple of significant changes. In January, our ISO consultant left to pursue opportunities outside of ISO consulting. As a result, the company decided to abandon ISO work rather than tackle the difficult task of replacing her. We again expanded our international flair by hiring a recent graduate from Puerto Rico to the development staff in preparation for some major database development work.
By mid-February, we needed to expand our technical talent again. To augment the staff of technicians, we added one new person in early March. Later that month, we added another. Both of these new additions brought previous experience in similar jobs with them.
One of our new technicians left for personal reasons later in the summer. We wasted no time in replacing him with another seasoned, experienced technician in July. This was followed in August by the addition of our first female sales consultant. With the extra effort in sales, we needed to enhance our client service area. We added a technician with Novell experience to man our internal help desk full time in September.
As staff responsibilities became more defined, some of our team members weren't the best fits. We made corrections to responsibilities and assignments throughout the remainder of 2000. In the end, some of our people had departed, but we had added another to our technical staff and our sales team had been eliminated.
We entered 2001 with the hopes of growing our client base. We moved some of our web design work inside with the addition of a web developer who had been supporting some of the web activities of the Indianapolis Star. We began to rebuild our sales force with a veteran of the retail sports industry. And we re-organized our technical team by creating a coordinator of day-to-day Technical Activities, including the Help Desk, making one of the technicians responsible for managing projects, and adding a new person to the technical staff.
In addition, we created a Sales Assistant position and filled it with a woman who brought new exuberance to the sales department. Once she felt comfortable with her position, we added a second Sales Consultant.
The Under Toad
As Port-to-Port ramped up for expanded sales, the US economy began its long, slow decline into the toilet. Since a large portion of Port-to-Port's business came from the not-for-profit sector, and it was the first to squeal, we saw a precipitous decline in our business activity. The rest of our client base soon started to feel the squeeze as well. We had no choice but to back off of our expansion plans.
For the first time since our inception, we had to fire people for no fault of their own. It was more difficult than any other task we've had to perform as a company. Unfortunately, we had to go through the process more than once during the year. And to top it all off, we didn't do it in the best manner. You can imagine the impact this had on our staff.
When it was all over, there were only five of us. We all worked hard and kept our clients running smoothly.
A New Approach
The difficult times of 2001 and 2002 gave us pause to reflect on what Port-to-Port believes is important. As a result, we renewed our commitment to providing the full service that we want our clients to have through our Pertingo® offering. This commitment led to another shuffling of staff and responsibilities. We moved Becky full time to the Help Desk. We added Andrew Fisher to our technical staff in April of 2003. In August, we added another person to the technical team as well.
In the summer of 2004, we reinstated our Summer Intern program by adding Shawn Windler on the technical side, and Xiamara Hohman on the marketing side. Their efforts went a long way to help Port-to-Port continue a successful recovery. Late in 2004, we added another recent IUPUI graduate to the technical staff with the goal of promoting one of the field techs to the second full time Help Desk, a task that was being shared among the field techs. That person didn't work out, so we replaced him with yet another IUPUI Jaguar.
By early 2004, it was clear that the Pertingo® Computer Support Service model was the best way for Port-to-Port to provide services to its customers. We had begun moving to this model in 2001. We dropped classroom training in 2002. We stopped accepting new Break/Fix customers in 2003. We eliminated our custom programming work in 2004. Finally, at the end of 2005, we sent letters to more than 60 clients telling them that we would no longer support any non-Pertingo customers. Our customer base had gone from nearly 150 different organizations with whom we had varying levels of interaction to about 40 organizations in which we were deeply involved. We had gone from a mindset of "we can do anything for the right price" to one where we only work with organizations where we add value.
sAt the end of 2005, we added Christine Walls, a former Port-to-Port client, to the staff as the first administrative person in nearly 3 years. She took on responsibility for overall operations, in addition to some direct management responsibilities.
Futurn Plans
Port-to-Port intends to be the premier provider of full service, outsourced computer support to closely-held businesses and not-for-profit organizations in central Indiana. We have a dedicated and competent staff capable of meeting all manner of challenges. We will continue to add to this staff as we find talented and committed people who blend into our unique culture.
Through our flagship service, Pertingo®, we have created a vehicle for establishing excellent communications with our clients and customers. We will continue to add features to this service going forward. Nearly 1,000 people in small organizations all over central Indiana sit in front of computers that are supported by Pertingo®. The number grows every month.
