What should I.T. security mean to you, the owner of a small business? Your computer network bears some similarities to the building that houses your business.
The two Directors, John Boggon and Scott Meagher, met at University in the nineties whilst studying IT as mature age students in their early thirties. In their own words, they reveal the way their relationship came about and how it works for them and the business.
John
I was a teenager when Dad brought home the family’s first computer. I think it was supposed to be his, but I soon took it over. Or perhaps I should say, it took over me for I had one of those “light bulb” moments when I intuitively glimpsed a small part of the big picture of what was to come. Although this was the beginning of my lifelong passion for computing, at this stage I saw it as a hobby and not a future vocation. Work became something I did to earn money, whilst computing was my life away from work; I spent my spare time filling the house with PCs and parts, buying computers at auctions, hunting down affordable components and fixing computers for friends and family.
My employment during this period was solely with small businesses, but I quickly determined that small business ownership was not for me. Here were people who were passionate about what they were doing, committed and focused, working long hours and not seeming to have a life. I simply did not get it. Or maybe I did and it scared the daylights out of me. My work ethic, in retrospect, was not what it is today!
It was not until I met up with Scott at University, at a time when I was acquiring knowledge and skills that would enable me to pursue a “safe” and stable career as a salaried IT professional, that I gradually realised that there was a future for me beyond the limited horizon I was envisaging at this time. And that future was small business. Not just owning my own business, but building a business dedicated to meeting and supporting the needs of other small businesses. Once again the light bulb flashed – my future path was laid out in front of me. The raison d’être of my business would be to make technology accessible to small business just as it was to big business. Now this was something I could get excited about. By providing small to medium businesses with the tools to work more efficiently and effectively I would increase the bottom line of my clients’ businesses. Also, by continuing to work with my clients in assisting them to more fully utilise the capability of their systems, and updating them as necessary, I would be enabling my clients to obtain greater value for money from their investment in their IT systems. The payoff for me would be the satisfaction to be gained from designing systems to enable small businesses to use, on a smaller scale, the systems that were increasingly becoming the engine of big business.
Scott was the catalyst for this realisation. Even though we were both studying IT, and even though Scott shared my passion for technology, he had previously studied business and approached IT from the perspective of what technology could do for a business. Through working together on group assignments, and sharing cups of coffee late into the night, we struck a deal. I would teach Scott how to program using Java; he would teach me how to play golf. As it turns out, Scott can still not program in Java (although he did pass the subject) and I can still not play golf. However, oak trees from little acorns grow. From a throw away aside to Scott that we should go into business together so that we could indulge his passion and my ineptitude for golf, the business concept for Stalient Systems evolved.
As with all good things, the business evolved over time. Our first client, whilst still at University, was a friend of Scott’s. This trend of Scott’s bringing in business continued, virtually spontaneously. I was more than happy to participate, primarily because IT is an expensive hobby and this sideline (as it was when we started out) funded my burgeoning interest in IT systems. It was therefore natural, once we formalised the business that Scott would take on the role of Account Manager, being the interface between Statlient Systems and customers whilst I focused on the technical side of the business. Besides, of the two of us, Scott is the better listener.