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Centre Technologies |
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January 8, 2013 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Leading IT Company with Certified Technical Consultants with Decades of Experience in Design, Implementing and Maintaining Technology Infrastructure, Centre Technologies is providing Technology Solutions for Mid to Enterprise Level Businesses |
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Based out of
Houston, Texas, Centre Technologies is the leading IT
Company in network support for mid to enterprise
level businesses. In 2005, Centre was established to bring an exceptional
level of service by forming true business partnerships with our clients.
This partnership approach is very different from the traditional 'break/fix'
methodology of other IT consulting companies. At Centre, we understand that each client is unique, as are their goals.
Therefore, we specialize in
creating services and solutions that are customized to any business
environment. All of our clients benefit from this holistic approach, and
this will enhance any client’s business operations and bottom line. We
recognize that business value is obtained from services completed on time
and on budget. In order for Centre to guarantee these results, we carefully
match each client with a skilled internal consultant that can assess
enterprise consulting, managed services, hosting services and co-location.
Our consultants are
unmatched and bring decades of experience in evaluating, designing,
implementing and maintaining technology infrastructure. In addition, Centre
utilizes only the highest quality products from trusted names like Dell,
Cisco, Compellent, Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, HP and
Brocade.
Experience the Centre
difference. We provide more than technology, we deliver value. Chris Pace graduated from Texas A&M in 2001 with a degree in business administration. For the next several years Chris worked for several large IT Support companies integrating enterprise infrastructure’s (High Availability Microsoft Exchange, SAN’s, Server clusters, etc.) and gaining the experience to build highly stable environments that are required to support any business.
In 2005, Chris started building a team to deliver outstanding IT support for mid-sized businesses in Texas. The goal was to avoid being just another computer reseller, and to become a trusted advisor, technology resource and business partner with each of their clients. The overall goal was to re-establish the term "VAR” in the market as “Value added Reseller” instead of “Volume added Reseller” and help businesses utilize technology to drive business goals. We develop strong relationships with all of our customers to ensure we are providing true and measureable value to their bottom line.
With over 12+ years’ experience in the industry of IT Infrastructure, Chris has demonstrated a strong ability to lead high-performance teams in both large and small business environments. Since the start of Centre Technologies he has successfully grown the business, with the help of his employees, by more than 100% every year. Centre offers a full suite of professional services including: IT Infrastructure, Managed Services, Staff Augmentation, Consulting Services and much more.
Centre Technologies has since enjoyed great success and growth, and now has 65 employees and more than 120 clients across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. |
IT
Centre Technologies
Houston, TX 77060 |
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Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – January 8, 2013
Mr. Pace: Our vision is to enable organizations or companies to accomplish their business goals with the use of technology.
CEOCFO: What do you do on a day-to-day basis to help your clients? Mr. Pace: We provide technology solutions but not necessarily technology products with anybody with a name on their product, but it is more about what the business is doing and how can we provide a solution to help the business accomplish our goals.
CEOCFO: Are there particular types of businesses or industries where you have a greater focus? Mr. Pace: No, because one of the interesting aspects of Centre as an organization is we look at the fact that all companies need technology, so they need some form of technology to be able to operate their business. The IT department is the only department that touches every piece of the business, so we do not focus on certain verticals. What we are more focused on is the infrastructure as a whole to be able to provide that perfect tool for the business. The business cares about the tools, so they can accomplish their job whether it is software or hardware, it does not matter, at the end of the day it is the tool. We focused on the infrastructure to be able to provide that tool.
CEOCFO: There are many companies in your space; what is your approach? Why are people choosing to work with Centre? Mr. Pace: One of the things that we do that is a unique approach in the bar market is we are very services centric, so for us it is all about executing the solution for the client. We do not really go out there and give them a bunch feeds about Dell’s events or HP’s events or Cisco’s events, it is more about taking all these products that exists and providing the perfect solution, which we do through our services team from an execution model. If you look at many different organizations, they probably only utilize about 50% to 60% of the technologies that they actually purchase. We want to understand their business, we want to understand their goals and we want to take that technology that we presented to them and design it and customize it to meet their business needs. We have a unique approach that we do not just go in and install something; we go in as true business consultants and design the solution to meet their needs. We do that by not partnering with anybody and everybody out there. We look at the IT department and say what we would buy as an organization to build a perfect IT department. Our DNA is our clients, our employees, and our partners so we have a strong focus into all three that really drive our success.
CEOCFO: When you first talk with a potential customer, when is the ‘aha’ moment? Mr. Pace: That is challenging because you walk before you run, so when we are talking with a prospect, what we are looking for is the opportunity to be able to work with them. Many different VARS will go in there and give a similar pitch, our goal is to build relationships and work with them long-term. Much of what they are doing is looking for challenges, opportunities to be able to quote something. We flat out tell the client that our goal is not to sell them this piece of technology, but our goal is more long-term. Many clients typically get it from us when we look at them and they say they want to buy X, Y, and Z servers or buy X, Y, and Z technology and we ask them why. We start asking the question to try to understand what they are trying to do so that we can maximize the investment that they are making.
CEOCFO: Where are you geographically? Mr. Pace: Geographically right now we have physical offices in New Orleans, Dallas and Houston. In the future, we will be expanding into the Austin and San Antonio market, actually physical offices. Beyond that, it is where we see opportunity. Our initial business goal when we started was six sites. We have operations up and running in Austin, so we will be expanding into two more sites within the next couple of years but I am not sure where that will be. It will all depend on the opportunities that exist.
CEOCFO:
What surprised you most as the business has developed?
CEOCFO: When you are looking at adding people, what do you look for above the technical skills? Mr. Pace: It is the person. Our DNA is made up of our clients, our employees, and our partners. Personality is going to be key; it is about how we can be the best of the best. Our people are the one aspect that makes us the best of the best. What we look for in many people is whether they have business sense and understand the goal, what the business is trying to accomplish and whether or not they can work as an extension of that team. We are constantly looking for people but it has to be the right people, so it has to be the technical/business mindset, which does not always exist out there.
CEOCFO: Are there services that you would like to offer? Mr. Pace: No, we have four lines of our business and we want to be the best at all four of those lines out there within the industry. We are looking to expand our own capabilities with what we have.
CEOCFO: How do you keep on top of all the new ideas, products and services? Mr. Pace: One is research. From a technology practice, we partner with the best of breed and our goal is to build the perfect infrastructure. If you look at many of our competitors, they are going to be really good in one area and that is their niche and that is their focus. We want to be good in the entire infrastructure, so part of the investment that we make back into our clients as well as our partners is we do that research upfront so that we are choosing the right technology to build that perfect infrastructure to be able to give to the client. We evaluate products on an everyday basis. That is some of our ‘secret sauce’ which we feel as a VAP; we actually have an R&D department.
CEOCFO: You have recognition by the Houston Business Journal, so it seems your business is doing well, how do you maintain the quality? Mr. Pace: It is all about the people, we continue to invest into our employees, and we continue to invest in our clients and our partners. We look at our core strengths and maximize by investing.
CEOCFO: How do you reach potential customers? Mr. Pace: Much of it is going to be word of mouth. We have loyal partners that are going to bring us into opportunity because of our ability to be able to execute. We have a strong sales force that is out hunting opportunities. We do a great deal of marketing as well as far as campaigns, etc.
CEOCFO: Why should the business and investment community pay attention to Centre Technologies?
Mr. Pace:
We are different. Technology will drive organizations success. It is
important for organizations to choose a good partner, to get the most for
their money. A technology partner that is like Centre, where we feel we are
an extension of our clients’ team. We are focusing on the technology aspect
while allowing our clients to focus on their core competency from their
business to accomplish their goals and allowing us to be an extension of
their team from a technology perspective. |
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Technology will drive organizations success. It is important for organizations to choose a good partner, to get the most for their money. A technology partner that is like Centre, where we feel we are an extension of our clients’ team. - Chris Pace |
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Technology Solutions for Mid to Enterprise Level Businesses, Centre Technologies, CEO Interviews 2012, Design, Implementation, Maintaining Technology Infrastructure, Business Services Companies, IT Company, Recent CEO Interviews, Business Services Stock, Technology Stocks, network support for mid to enterprise level businesses, Centre Technologies Press Releases, News, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, business services companies seeking investors, IT companies needing investment capital |
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