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Nehring Technology LLC |
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August 29, 2016 Issue |
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CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
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Enterprise Level IT Support for Small Businesses providing Managed IT Services, Cloud Computing, Network Security Audits, Mobile Device Management, Backup and Disaster Recover Solutions |
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Chief Executive Officer
Nehring Technology LLC
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published - August 29, 2016
CEOCFO: Ms. Nehring, would you tell us about Nehring Technology? Ms. Nehring: We concentrate on providing enterprise level IT to small businesses that are at the point where maybe they need to hire an IT person on staff and maybe it is not the best solution for them. We take our knowledge and stack of technology that we provide across the board and we standardize that solution. We can provide that solution to small businesses for a monthly fee. We provide fixed-fee IT and we become their outsourced IT department. We focus on their security, their operations, their efficiencies. We become their partner and learn their business so that we can take care of them.
CEOCFO: Is it becoming increasingly common for people to look at an MSP or is the world not there yet? Ms. Nehring: I think it depends on the market that you are in and I think it is becoming more prevalent. IT providers are seeing the benefit of monthly recurring revenue and small businesses are seeing the benefit of proactive IT services. One big driving force is definitely the need for security in small business. As small business owners realize that securing their network is a constantly moving target, they see a real need to have a trusted source to manage all aspects of their IT. When they realize that their IT requires constant management and vigilance to stay compliant and secure an MSP makes sense for them. Small business owners are coming to the realization that their IT is an investment in their company that makes them perform better and keeps their data safe rather than an expense line item.
CEOCFO: How do you work with a company to understand what they truly need and not just what they may think they need? Ms. Nehring: When we sit down with a business owner or a decision maker, we have in depth conversations to determine what the goal is for their business. We have to know how to frame questions in order to get answers that focus on the destination and not the path that gets there. Then we use our expertise to determine how their technology can be best implemented to achieve that goal and what path needs to be taken to get there. Our focus with our client is the result. We want to have the client talk to us about the pain they are experiencing in technology, business process, communication, etc. so that we can determine what technology stack can achieve their goals at the best price while maintaining security and standardized processes. They don’t need to be able to explain to us what their IT solution looks like to them. They just need to be able to express what the end result looks like to them and it is our job to get them from where they are today to where they want to be.
CEOCFO: What is your geographic range? Ms. Nehring: We service Central Texas and North Texas. We have clients as far out in west Texas as Abilene and then down near Houston, up to the Dallas Metroplex. Because of our toolset, we can provide service remotely to anyone within the state and beyond for the most part. We even have a client with a user in Montana that we are able to provide service for. We can provide quite a bit of service and support without having to be onsite.
CEOCFO: Does it make a difference to clients that you are located in Texas? Ms. Nehring: I think it makes a difference especially for people that have businesses here and work and live here. There is a lot of pride for people that come from Texas and they like Texas based businesses. They like speaking with people that speak their language and they know that if they need somebody, that we can get to them. We have an offsite datacenter located within Texas as well. They like to know where their data is held. Not all customers understand the “mysterious cloud” and they like to know it is local.
CEOCFO: How have you accumulated the knowledge of the different sectors? Ms. Nehring: It is a challenge every day. The compliance and regulatory environment is constantly changing. We research a lot, we go out and get publications and try to familiarize ourselves with needs of our focus sectors. We also train our staff in different levels of security as well as making sure they know the standards and why those standards are in place. When certain regulatory compliance issues come out that are specific to us like HIPAA and GLB it is just a matter of getting in the middle of it and getting it figured out. We are also involved in peer groups and we make sure that we follow those things and pay attention to what has and has not worked for them.
CEOCFO: How do you know what is best for a company when there are so many choices available in technology? Ms. Nehring: We have a wide variety of industries on which we focus. Each industry has their own type of software or compliance requirements that they may have. We have our standard security stack, we have our standard operations and processes that we do. For a lot of people, that standard works but there are times we can have to adapt to the requirements that a particular client or industry have. In those cases we can customize a solution, always keeping in mind our internal requirements such as: “can the solution scale?”, “is it secure?” and “can it be easily managed?”.
CEOCFO: What surprised you along the way and what have you drawn on to become a successful MSP? Ms. Nehring: We started as time and materials company with an element of recurring revenue. We provided a block time agreement to our customers so they paid in advance for the block of time and we fixed their problems as needed. We understood the benefit of getting monthly recurring revenue. The MSP idea appealed to us because in addition to recurring revenue, the IT provider and customer both had the same goal: Reduce problems and downtime. We are a small market and a small town and we did not know how well that would work here but we went ahead and took the plunge to do it. It surprised me that we had quite a large customer base that was on board with the fixed fee MSP approach. I felt that whenever we were taking that huge step that we would have a lot more push- back. It turned out that our biggest competitor was ourselves as what we used to be for our existing customers. We essentially changed overnight into becoming something completely different. When people are used to a break-fix mentality to try to get them into a proactive, automated mind-set, is often a difficult thing to do. However, the majority of our customers understood what we were trying to do and could see that as an MSP we would work to keep them up and running rather than rejoice when they had a problem as a break-fix shop would do.
One thing that helps Nehring Technology be successful is realizing that this is a relationship business. Our model only works when we have a trusted relationship and good communication with our clients. When that breaks down, even with outstanding IT implementation, the partnership with that client will likely be short lived.
CEOCFO: Why is Nehring Technology an outstanding company? Ms. Nehring: I think the things that make us a great company is that we are results oriented. We work to have a very personal relationship with our clients. Then beyond that relationship we consistently produce the results they expect. We can be their one source for their IT needs. We effectively handle their security, BDR, co-location, network, Office 365, VOIP, vendor management, patching and support. We see it as all of those components that make up our IT stack, but to our clients it results in IT that works. They are not concerned so much about all the moving parts as long as at the end of the day are things working the way they expect. We are able to do that in a way that is cost effective for them. I think that it is important that they can see beyond the bits and pieces and see the process and solution and how closely we work with them and the level of talent that our technicians bring to the table. We learn their business and customize a solution for them and still maintain an industry standard across their technology. |
“One thing that helps Nehring Technology be successful is realizing that this is a relationship business.”- Kris Nehring
Nehring Technology LLC
Contact: Kris Nehring 254-434-4084
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