Dave is one of ACS’ longest-tenured employees, having joined the firm in 2006. He helps manage our project teams, which are responsible for onboarding new Managed IT clients to the ACS platform. This usually entails equipping them with new or upgraded technology solutions. It also can entail working with existing clients that are moving to replace old equipment and applications with new ones. According to Dave, he likes the challenge of helping a client get up and running on new technology so they can increase their productivity and cybersecurity preparedness and enhance their capacity to meet their organizational objectives. Within ACS, Dave is highly respected for his intellect, problem-solving skills and his low-key, “get the job done” approach to his work. Here is what he had to say during our recent interview.
Q: Can you give us a little background on yourself?
Dave: I grew up in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and other than a few short years in nearby Tiverton where my wife and I moved after getting married, I have lived in Portsmouth my entire life. My wife has, too. We were high school sweethearts. She lived right down the street and delivered newspapers in our neighborhood – so naturally I ended up following her around on her route. We became friends and I remember I had a beeper in high school and I thought it was a big step giving her the number so she could get in touch with me whenever she wanted! For the time, that was pretty cool technology. I also had my own car, which I think increased my “coolness” (laughs)! We eventually started dating and then got married. We have four great kids and I spend most of my free time going to their events and hanging out with them. In fact, I was just in my old middle school for our 11-year-old’s band concert and I found myself being amused by the fact that I am still in the same place where I started.
Q: It sounds like your family is the center for your universe.
Dave: It is. Family is very important to me and I prioritize the time we spend together. In addition to our 11-year-old, we have an adult child who is now out on their own. Between them, we also have two college-aged children, a son and a daughter. He is at American University in Washington, D.C., and is studying computer science, and she is at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and is in their pre-med program. We are very proud of all four of our kids. We particularly like visiting our son in Washington and we try to get down there a couple of times a year. In addition to spending time with him, we enjoy going to the Smithsonian Museums, which are great places to learn and experience new things – and we love the fact that they also are free (laughs)!
Q: How did you get involved in technology as a profession?
Dave: It is kind of long story, but it is not very different from those of others who work here at ACS. Most of us leveraged an interest in technology into having a career in the space. I was a good student, but I really did not enjoy school. I was fascinated by technology and my brother and I spent a lot of time building our own PCs and servers when we were teenagers. I also worked a lot and my jobs allowed me to be one of the first in my friend group to buy a car. As a result, I also spent a lot of time working on it to keep it running. I found that I enjoyed that, too. When I graduated from high school, I went to school to become an auto mechanic. Soon thereafter, I went to work and I eventually earned the certifications necessary to become a master mechanic. However, a few years into my career, I had a car fall off a lift and my arm was seriously injured in the accident. Unfortunately, my doctors told me my days working in garages and on vehicles were over. At the time, and this was in the early 2000s, my brother was working for ACS and he encouraged me to go into computers and technology. I used my workers’ compensation and time off to go back to school for computer training and in 2006 I started working for ACS as entry-level computer engineer. At that point, we had not quite evolved into becoming a full-fledged Managed IT provider (Managed Services Provider – MSP). We had some clients who used us as their outsourced IT department, but most engaged us simply to solve their IT problems and to keep their networks up and running. As a result, I spent a lot of time in the office and waiting for the phone to ring from clients who needed help. As we transitioned and made Managed-IT our primary business, the firm determined that my skills were more suited for project-related work than for technology troubleshooting and that’s how I ended up where I am today.
Q: How would you describe your current role with ACS?
Dave: My job is helping new clients who are being onboarded to our Managed IT platform get up and running. This often entails evaluating their current networks and IT infrastructure and working with them to upgrade their equipment and software. I also work with the other members of our Project Team, all of whom are highly experienced and have been with ACS for many years, to help existing clients modernize their systems. I enjoy this a lot more than I would if I was working on the help-desk responding to clients’ issues and challenges because my work is always different. It is different because of the wide array of businesses and organizations we support, all of which have unique needs and circumstances. To me, there is something very interesting about opening boxes of new computers and peripherals and figuring out how to set them up to ensure that a client can optimize its productivity, which is also something that has to be done very quickly and efficiently to limit their downtime. For me, when a client’s new computers, equipment and software arrive, it is almost like opening presents on Christmas morning! (See accompanying photo!) I get very excited and experience a lot of satisfaction from doing these jobs well and seeing clients become more confident in their IT strategies and solutions and, ultimately, more productive.
Q: Why is the work you do important to clients?
Dave: As I said earlier, our Project Team is staffed by our most experienced technology professionals – and this is intentional. I think of the people in this group as the “ACS A-Team.” When a new client chooses ACS, we want to inspire their confidence in our ability to make IT easy for them by immediately demonstrating our skills and competencies – and there is no better way to do this than ensuring that when we onboard them, things go fast and smoothly. In other words, I think we on the Project Team have a key role to play – not only in getting new and existing clients up to speed with their new technology – but in showing them what it means to be an ACS client by demonstrating how we add value. That helps clients and it also helps our firm.
Q: What is about ACS that makes it different and better than other providers of Managed-IT Services?
Dave: That’s simple. It is the personal and diligent attention clients receive from us and the fact that we are family owned and operated. If I have a problem addressing a client’s needs, I can walk down the hall to the office of our owner and President, Bill Adams, and share my observations and concerns – and he will not only listen and provide me and others with the resources we need to get things on track, he will roll up his own sleeves, rally the troops, and dive right into the problem with us to get it addressed and solved to the client’s satisfaction. We emphasize the importance of this over-and-over again in our marketing, sales and client relations efforts, but it merits increased emphasis because our peers do not operate this way. They are more corporate and bureaucratic, which means that rather than having a tech call a client back within minutes of receiving a call for help, which is what happens when you work with ACS, it often can take other Managed-IT providers hours and even days to engage on the clients’ behalf. To me, that is a huge source of differentiation for ACS and I am proud to be a part of it. The bottom line is, we are action oriented and focused on getting things done – essentially making technology easy for our clients. I have worked for big companies before and I think our approach is much better. Rather than having to push a problem up through a bureaucratic chain of command to get the answers and resources needed to meet a client’s needs, our process is more streamlined and efficient. To me, you cannot put a price on that.
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
Dave: Beyond hanging out with my wife and kids, I enjoy gaming, which is something I sometimes do with them, too. I also really enjoy action and adventure films – you know, real “popcorn crunching movies” that are exciting and that have you on the edge of your seat! It is how I distract myself and escape for a little while, which is something everyone needs to be able to do on occasion.
Meet the entire ACS leadership team at: https://acs.com/about/
