Keyed Up - New Information Technology Business is Data-driven
By Jaclyn Stevenson
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| Photo: Insight Photography www.insightphotograph.com |
Jason Turcotte, owner of Turcotte Data and Designs in Ware, said he’s had an interest in computer-based work since the early ’80s, and still marvels at the vast difference in the field today compared to two decades ago.
“When I started getting involved with computers as a hobby, they had less memory than our cell phones do today,” he remembers.
Even his course of study at Smith Vocational High School in Northampton had a name that’s now antiquated: data processing, which was the computer technology track at the school in the 1980s and 1990s.
But Turcotte said his interest in the field only grew as computer technology began to expand and improve, and he remained active as both a hobbyist and a part-time networking, software, and Web design specialist even while working full-time in the very different arena of law enforcement.
“I worked as a dispatcher and as a detention attendant, and I enjoyed the work,” he said. “I figured eventually, I could become a cop, and I started looking in that direction career-wise.”
But a chance meeting with staff members at a company that provided software for his employer, the Southampton Police Department, led Turcotte more deeply into the information technology sector. He interviewed with the company and later took a job in technical support, advancing a year later to the role technical support director.
Five years later, Turcotte had gained solid experience in software programming and technology and management, and decided to strike out on his own.
“I work with the knowledge that technology doesn’t always come easily to those who use it,” he explained. “People want to know how to use their systems, but also how to avoid or fix problems, without feeling like they don’t know what they’re doing.
“So basically,” he added, “I’ve marketed myself as ‘everyone’s IT guy.’”
Keying for the Cops
Today, after a year in business, Turcotte offers a wide range of services, including network design, troubleshooting, Web site design, and graphic design.
He still works closely with the law enforcement community, completing projects such as a mobile data program with the Northampton Police Department, and has an ongoing contract with his former employer, the Southampton Police Department developing what he terms as “a proactive support method to prevent small problems from evolving into large ones.”
“Each month I go into the department and perform proactive maintenance steps on all their computers and technology systems,” he explained. “Police operations are mission-critical, and computer downtime is not an option for them. We’ve developed methods we use to help achieve that goal.”
Turcotte has also begun to develop a niche working with other small businesses like his own. His clients include a photographer, a power-tool vendor, a personal shopping and errand service, a massage therapist, an airbrushing service, and a software company, among others, and he said smaller, unique businesses are quickly becoming his forte.
“People who are just starting a business are often times scared and unsure of what’s around the corner,” he explained. “I’ve been there, and I can understand what they’re going through, so it has become a strength of mine to work with other small business owners to address their needs.”
An Expanding Network
His customer base is also wide, stretching from Greenfield to Worcester County, prompting him to get two phone numbers – one with a 413 area code, and one with 508.
“As I began to develop relationships with small businesses, I noticed that they are especially hesitant to go with someone who’s not local,” he said. “Even though I am not far away from Worcester County in Ware, people see that 413 in front of a phone number and to them, I might as well be in another country.”
Overall, though, Turcotte said business has been steady, if not at times daunting. As a one-person company (he hopes to add additional staff this year) specializing in the same work as many multi-million-dollar IT firms, developing that small business niche was essential, he said. But he still addresses many of the same issues when working with clients than other larger or more well-heeled IT businesses.
“It’s been exciting and terrifying all at once,” he said. “I work with single computers and whole networks – cluster environments, or multiple servers – and solve technology problems for people who often have larger problems than they realize. That makes for some steady work, but I’ve also made several new relationships with clients that I hope to see continue.”
IT Trends
He said one of the biggest challenges any information technology firm faces is staying current in a field that advances at a break-neck pace. To do that, he regularly researches the work that larger firms have completed online, and translates new trends and technology to his customers. And recently, he’s seen several of his Web design clients, as they search for new upgrades to existing sites.
“We hear the term ‘Web 2.0’ bantered around,” he offered as an example. “Basically, that means sites are becoming more interactive, based on user feedback, and there is a big shift to things happening behind the scenes – Web pages don’t need to reload every time an application is completed anymore.”
He said business owners who use the Web frequently have noticed those changes, but don’t always know how to achieve it, and that’s where he comes in.
“The style is different,” Turcotte said. “It’s a softer, cleaner, simpler look that gets the user the information they need more quickly. I’ll work with all types of clients to get them that look and feel, and that puts their whole company’s Web presence on a new level.”
In this, his second year in business, he said he’ll focus on those changes and how to implement them for his diverse client base, while still maintaining close ties to those clients, providing services within a reasonable price range, and also providing ongoing support services.
“The main goal is to take the time to explain what the problem is in terms that the average user can understand, and what is needed to resolve it,” he said. “That way, I hope I’m developing a great client base, a strong network of professionals with which to work, and a name for myself as ‘the guy you go to for help.’”
Article reprinted with permission from the September 18, 2006 edition of Business West magazine (www.businesswest.com)
