Invision Technologies, LLC Helps Power Local Job Creation
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
Small businesses with fewer than 500 employees accounted for 65 percent of the new jobs created in the U.S. between 1993 and 2009, according to the Small Business Administration. One of those small businesses is Invision Technologies in Albany, which has created nine jobs since its founding in 2007. Three of those jobs were added in 2012.
"We've grown every year since we opened, so much that we outgrew our original office and have moved to a new building twice its size. Our revenues are up significantly again this year," said Andrew Robinson, general manager for Invision Technologies, LLC.
Invision Technologies helps small and medium-size businesses manage their IT infrastructure and implement new technologies to take their operations to the next level. In particular, Invision specializes in serving the professional services industry, which includes doctors, attorneys, accountants, engineers and other professionals. Most clients are located within a 90-mile radius of Albany with about 75 percent in Albany.
"One of the biggest opportunities for us in the next three to five years is breaking into the region outside of the Albany area," Robinson said.
An Evolving industry
Robinson believes IT support is a critical service for most businesses. Yet 20 years ago most businesses didn't even have a computer support person. As a result, the IT services industry is still relatively new and continues to evolve as an industry.
"Most IT service providers work on an hourly basis, which means service providers want to be onsite as much as possible while the customer wants to hurry them out the door. I tell customers don't get hung up on how it's always been done. There are better ways to do it," Robinson said.
"We provide managed computer network services with an emphasis on "managed." We work on a fixed fee basis, which is unusual for IT support. But with a fixed fee, our incentives align with our clients' incentives."
Managed computer network services translate into whatever clients need from a technology standpoint to operate and grow their business. The four main components include management, support, security and maintenance. With its focus on the professional services industry, Invision can better assess and effectively meet the monthly service requirements of its clients.
"For example, if we are working with a new client that is law firm with 50 computers, then we know what it will take to service that client because we've worked with similar firms in the past. As a result, we can staff properly to deliver the quality of service that our clients expect," Robinson.
60 Percent Professionalism
The IT support industry is also evolving in terms of its professionalism. According to Robinson, most IT people believe technology is the way to differentiate their services in the marketplace.
"We believe that differentiation happens in the professionalism used to deliver IT services rather than technology. If we provide a 100 percent solution to our clients, 40 percent of it will be technology and 60 percent professionalism," Robinson said.
"We've done surveys asking businesses why they change vendors for any type of service, not just IT. What we found almost universally is that businesses change vendors when services are not delivered with professionalism such as fast response, follow up, keeping commitments or being on time. It's almost never due to a technical reason."
Not surprisingly, Invision sees its biggest challenge as managing its growth while maintaining its quality of service and customer relationships. The company has invested in hiring the right people to lead its growth and now hires mostly entry-level employees.
"Our policy is to growth from within. We hire people right out of college and then promote from within so that they have a career path with Invision," Robinson said.
More information on Invision Technologies, LLC is available online at www.automatedit.com.
