Last month, Inc. Magazine announced its 2018 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America. Wisconsin-based, Information Technology Professionals, who provides managed IT services and strategy for small to mid-sized businesses, was featured on the list for the fourth consecutive year, reporting 101% growth and a revenue of $8.1 million over the past three years.
This high level of success can largely be attributed to Paul Hager, president, CEO and owner of Information Technology professionals.
Hager, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, began his professional career at a Madison area law firm with visions of becoming a patent attorney. Upon learning of the struggles his firm was having with the transcription of incoming voice messages, Hager took it upon himself to find a solution. He eventually developed and sold a patent for a voice-to-text technology platform to a subsidiary of Microsoft. It was at this time that Hager left the firm to take the next step in his career, purchasing Information Technology Professionals.
When Hager bought ITP in 2014, it offered IT and cloud computing services to approximately 40 clients in the professional services category and operated out of one office in Milwaukee. Their revenue was around $400,000 a year.
Today, ITP occupies offices in Milwaukee, Madison and Appleton and manages a list of over 290 clients across the professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, state and local government, and nonprofit sectors. Aside from a few projects that Microsoft leans on ITP for, almost all of their clients are headquartered in Wisconsin. Hager sees the most room for growth in the manufacturing industry.
In 2017, Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry accounted for more than 18 percent of its gross domestic product and contributed over $56 billion to the state’s economic growth, according to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.
“Manufacturing is taking over as the largest vertical that we serve,” said Hager. “The market cap on manufacturing in Wisconsin is hundreds of millions of dollars so there is more available market share there.”
What is it that makes ITP stand out amongst the competitors? Companies are eager to work with Information Technology Professionals as a result of its down-to-earth communication methods that focus on translating complex IT vocabulary into terms that are understandable and approachable for their clients, Hager said.
“We see ourselves as the translators of technology,” said Hager. “We are [foremost] a customer service company and believe in supporting our clients both on-site and through remote call-in support on a consistent basis,” said Hager.
ITP’s ultimate goal is to build ongoing business relationships, ensuring that they deliver reoccurring services at all times. They hire staff of all levels and allow their clients to pick and choose who will best supplement their internal expertise and fill in the gaps.
In the last 18 months, Hager has seen more and more small and mid-sized businesses, that were initially resistant or reluctant, reach out for help in adopting cloud-based technology for important workloads.
“Clients are challenged to find a balance between accessibility and security,” said Hager. “Being able to deliver on cloud-based projects and demonstrating to small businesses that they can [indeed] see a world in which they can give their employees phones and laptops and be able to access everything they need at any time, is really fun for my team.”
Hager also stressed the importance of having internal experts dedicated to security. His team continues to focus on providing security consulting and modern infrastructure solutions like hyperconverged technology to its clients. ITP doesn’t rely on one single vendor to help clients but rather helps them pick the best solutions and software for their individual cases.
When asked how he personally measures success, Hager expressed that he takes a great deal of personal passion in the growth and happiness of his employees. He breaks down long-term goals into smaller, tangible campaigns that are more personal and show employees how their contributions are making a direct impact on the business. This past quarter, IFT ran an internal marketing campaign with a James Bond 007 theme where every employee was given a mission to accomplish. The missions encouraged employees to work with their teammates to achieve smaller goals, all adding up to acquisition new customers.
“We have over 60 employees working with us now,” said Hager. “It is fun for me to see our evolution and grow along with them. The two original ITP employees I began working with [in 2013] are also still a part of the business and are very much a part of our growth story.”
