The early years 

In 2001 Brian was a Computer Science student at UNCA while also working at a small home-PC repair shop as a bench-tech.  Within a few months of starting as a tech he took over all service operations, which allowed the owner to focus on small business services.  There was, however, a disconnect between what Brian saw as potential in business services and what his employer was doing.  While discussing this with a fellow UNCA classmate named Ryan, he learned that his classmate felt the same way about his own computer repair shop employer. Even as young Computer Science students, we felt we could do better and began laying the foundation for a new company that would focus on IT for businesses. 

 

At first, we worked from home creating and maintaining websites and setting up email for small businesses.  After several months, we formally created Advanced Data and Network Solutions Inc. and signed a 3-year lease at 347 Merrimon Ave. Upon receiving the keys, we packed up our personal computers and brought them to the new office.  With no capital to speak of, we borrowed spare desks and chairs from our parents to furnish the space.  Now with a prime location we decided to branch out and became a US Cellular agent and setup a retail showroom selling cell phone plans.  In truth we were hungry for business and needed to pay the bills, so anything that might bring in foot traffic and customers was welcome! 

 

We slowly grew our IT business, but it was mostly from home-PC repair clients that would show up for virus repairs and system upgrades.  In 2003 we landed our first large client Sisters of Mercy (now Mercy Urgent Care).  We were the lowest bidder on a complete IT overhaul and support contract, and we are still incredibly grateful that they took a chance on a couple of 23-year-olds.  That contract was the catalyst for drastic improvements in processes, solutions and education.  Brian passed his CCNA (after the third attempt!) in the fall of 2003 and that experience laid the foundation for the core value of Passionate Learning. 

After a few years Ryan and Brian parted ways and Jason was brought in as a full partner.  Up until this point Jason was our lead bench-tech while he completed his Computer Science degree (also at UNCA).  Now graduated, he turned all his efforts to helping grow the business.  With new focus we began to realize that we were doing all sorts of tech services that were holding us back from being great at our core competency – business IT services.  So, we stopped peddling cell phones, dropped all website design clients and eventually dropped our home-PC repair business.  With the new available time to devote all efforts on our business clients we dramatically improved our services.  We invested in IT tools, starting by replacing our home-built ticketing system and then our home-brewed remote control setup.  New efficiencies brought further growth and we quickly outgrew our office (even after replacing the retail showroom with desks)!  In 2010 we moved into our current office, which we’ve remodeled a couple times to accommodate growth.  Our old office is now the The Wyvern’s Tale, a tabletop gamer shop. 

The teenage years 

Because of our focus on business IT services, we had a strong foundation in place that weathered the recession of 2008.  We saw very clearly that the future financial health of Advanced Data was based on our regular recurring contracts that we call “Flat Fee IT”.   During this time, we focused on our sales engine to further strengthen our position and began to consistently bring in strong clients.   For several years running we grew about 20% annually.  That growth was accompanied by many growing pains, and we made our fair share of mistakes! 

The entire tech industry went through rapid massive changes during the decade of 2010s.  In 2011 Microsoft announced Office 365, in 2014 Google announced Google Enterprise, and all during this time Amazon Web Services became the leading cloud hosting provider in the world.  The old ways of doing IT were numbered and we had to figure out where we fit in the new IT ecosystem. 

Many clients were hesitant to move to this new thing called “The Cloud”.  They were nervous about security, giving up control, and trusting a “faceless” cloud provider.  We decided to invest in our own network and server infrastructure so that we could allow our clients to start using the cloud with a local touch.  With our new capabilities we began hosting clients’ servers, phone systems, and other applications. 

Operational Maturity 

We eventually hit a plateau with our flat organization.  For a long time, everyone knew everything about every client, but this finally broke.  We lost a couple of important clients which caused us to take a hard look at how we operated.  Out of this introspection and research, we created the structure that is in place today: Service Team, Strategy Team, Project Team and Centralized Services.  We continue to fine-tune our processes and teams, and we hope that you will help us continue to improve and evolve Advanced Data going forward! 

Do IT Right 

Everyone working at Advanced Data represents the company. When a customer gets a response from Karen in dispatch, Karen is Advanced Data. When a customer reads a notice from Alex that there’s a system outage, Alex is Advanced Data. In those situations, all the other stuff we do to cultivate our best image is secondary. What’s right in front of someone in a time of need is what they’ll remember. 

It’s not overstated to say that marketing is everyone’s responsibility, and that it pays to spend the time to recognize that. It means taking the time to get the ticket notes right and consider how you’d feel if you were on the other side of the interaction.  This is an audience we’ve been serving for 20 years and counting, and your voice is now part of us, whether you like it or not! 

It’s also worth mentioning that joining Advanced Data can be overwhelming. We’ve seen it happen. Some feel great pressure to contribute and some feel like imposters. The people who work here are some of the best and brightest in our region, so the self-imposed burden to be exceptional is real. But here’s the thing: slow down, settle in and ask lots of questions.  We’re glad you love IT because we do too, but at the end of the day it’s a job. Do your best work, collaborate with your team, write, read, learn, and then turn off your computer and play with your kids or your pets. We’ll all be better for it.