Welcome to the Q2 2015 UCG Newsletter

Hello and happy Spring! We hit the ground running in Q1 and continue to build momentum, welcoming new clients and forming strategic partnerships. As well, we've made significant investments in equipment and staff to continue to deliver service excellence to meet and exceed the expectations of our clients. UCG has expanded its service offering beyond backup and recovery expertise, resulting in an IBM i customer base totaling more than 150 organizations. The new capabilities include services surrounding development, test, and production environments. Since 1987, UCG's unsurpassed commitment to providing an unsurpassed client experience has been the cornerstone of our company. We listen carefully to your business issues and pain points, and then work with you to solve them. It's a simple yet key core value that each of our team members embrace. As the year unfolds, we remain focused as we continue to evolve, innovate, and stay true to our tradition of engaged client relationships. Thank you for your continued interest in United Computer Group. Please enjoy this issue of the UCG newsletter and forward to colleagues within and outside your organization. Thank you for your friendship, your confidence, and your business.  Hot in Cleveland: UCG Sees Payoff from MSP Vision UCG is delighted and honored to be featured in IBM Midsize Insider. Many thanks to Paul Gillin for a great interview and for succinctly capturing UCG's journey. Please enjoy the article! James Kandrac founded United Computer Group, Inc. (UCG) In December 1987. He was 26 years old, married with a six-month old child. Having worked at IBM and a small leasing firm that he helped grow to $125 million and a public offering, he had a passion to run his own business. More than 27 years later, UCG – an IBM Advanced Business Partner – has 1,500 clients and a robust business providing backup, disaster recovery and systems integration and support services for a variety of IBM platforms. Never satisfied to rest on his laurels, Jim noticed several years ago that business was changing and that UCG would need to latch onto the cloud computing phenomenon that was rolling across the industry. UCG began building out a managed service provider (MSP) business in the days before it was fashionable. It was hard work at first, but the company is now reaping the rewards of its foresight. Jim tells what he has learned in this Midsize Insider Q&A interview. What convinced you to launch an MSP side to your business?​ Nearly 10 years ago UCG started to see an overall decline in annual hardware sales. ​Clients that would normally upgrade or replace systems every two or three years due to growth or obsolescence were stretching out to four and five years, mostly due to available capacity. We decided to provide solutions that were needed and would "stick" for long periods of time. The top two IT needs at that time were and continue to be security and disaster recovery. What MSP services do you provide and to what kind of customers?​ BaaS, or backup as a service, and remote hardware disaster recovery for IBM i and Intel-based systems. We also offer test, development and logical partitioning or LPARS. How has your experience launching this business differed from your expectations? Any surprises?​ I thought that within one year, we would reach a specific goal of X number of clients and revenue. It took seven years. Selling and supporting an MSP practice takes a large investment of time, money, and resources, while at the same time running the day-to-day operations side of the business. How well is the business performing and what do future growth prospects look like?​  The first two to three years were like any other start-up; slow and difficult. Since year four, however, UCG has grown the MSP business 25% per year on average.​ What’s different about running an MSP from running a more traditional systems integration company?​ You’re more involved on an ongoing basis. You need 7X24X365 support, and emergency calls can come at any time. You have to be committed to solve client problems and to be able to focus, execute and deliver.​ Are you serving the same customers or a whole new class of customers?​ It’s Marketing 101: Sell new products and services to an existing client base and then branch out. In 2007 most of our business was within 200 miles of our headquarters in Cleveland. Last year we had close to 150 MSP clients in 30 states in the U.S., Canada and Europe. That’s in addition to the more than 1,500 clients UCG has served regionally since our founding in 1987.​ What bumps in the road did you encounter along the way?​ Selling MSP services takes time. Prospects must be educated and you need the buy-in of both the IT team and the C-level executives. Initially, there is a significant capital investment and you must be focused and committed. MSP services are not a part-time offering. To do it right, you need to jump in with both feet. What advice would you have for integrators who are reluctant to adopt the MSP model? If you feel you have a service offering that is truly needed in the marketplace, do a survey or focus group with selected long-term clients and then be ready to work diligently to make the business successful. Solving client issues and pains is paramount; deliver an excellent client experience every time, without exception. You have one reputation. Once you've lost it, you can't get it back.​ CLIENT SPOTLIGHT: H-P Products, Inc. Congratulations to longtime client H-P Products, Inc. of Louisville, Ohio on 70 years of success! H-P was one of UCG's first clients in 1987 and has been a valued client and partner for nearly three decades. Back in 1987, H-P Controller Allen Green, now the President of H-P Products, purchased large Memorex-Telex Twinax terminals called the Memorex Telex 2051 from UCG. It must have been our attractive yellow marketing mailer that caught Allen's attention. Recently, UCG and H-P IT Director Robert Arnold migrated H-P to an IBM P8 server with an IBM V3700 SAN. H-P also subscribes to UCG's VAULT400 BaaS and DR solutions. Thank you for your continued business and loyalty to UCG for nearly 30 years. Congratulations to everyone at H-P Products on 70 years of success! About H-P Products h-pproducts.com H-P Products on YouTube Since 1945, H-P Products, Inc., premier manufacturer of central vacuums and tubing-related products, has established an internationally recognized operation developed on the genuine principles of producing high-quality products, while servicing the needs of a wide customer base. Superior service and performance practices that key executives have instilled in the company have positioned H-P as a leader in the tubular products and central vacuum industries. Today, H-P continues to grow as a result of its diversified product line, flexible fabrication capabilities, ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturing processes and quality products and services. H-P is committed to researching and formulating technologies to enhance the product line while pioneering the industry. To meet the intense demands of manufacturing, engineering and research and development, H-P has three state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Ohio totaling over 300,000 square feet. Extensive production capabilities, coupled with improved processes and operating efficiencies, contribute to a more flexible and responsive manufacturing environment designed to comply with ever-changing industry requirements and needs. H-P distributes its products to over 25 countries and continues to grow due to aggressive distribution channel expansion and partnering agreements. H-P’s commitment to satisfying customers has resulted in expansion efforts and enhanced production capabilities that have resulted in a steady increase of sales and market share, both internationally and domestically. Visit Our Resource Libraries Be sure to take advantage of the valuable information available for download in our VAULT400 and Enterprise Management Software Resource Libraries. United Computer Group, Inc. 7100 E. Pleasant Valley Road #250 Independence, OH 44131-5556 Toll Free: 800.211.8798 Main: 216.520.1333 Email: info@ucgrp.com  ucgrp.com | vault400.com James A. Kandrac, President Michael D. Powall, Vice President Socially connected! Connect with UCG on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Facebook, and on our UCG Blog. We make an effort to connect on social media with our clients, vendors, and business partners, so please reach out and let us know where we can find you. Speaking of social media, where have you found the most success connecting with other technology companies/ technology-minded individuals? Let us know what you think at info@ucgrp.com.

United Computer Group, Inc. April 2015 Q2 Newsletter UCG in the News: Q2 2015 Highlights It Jungle: UCG And Expedient Partner For Expanded IBM i Hosted Services United Computer Group built a trustworthy reputation alongside its growing IBM midrange customer base by offering online backup services. It also offered disaster recovery services to organizations that have figured out the limitations of their downtime survival endurance. UCG has made the investments in equipment and staff to deliver service that meets high expectations, and now it's taking the next step. Expedient, a company with 11 data centers in seven markets from Chicago eastward, including the northeast regions of the United States, and UCG decided they could use one another's help, so they formed a partnership. Read full story in IT Jungle. Read Press Release: UCG Expansion Requirements Sparks Partnership with Expedient TAB Products Takes Data Protection to the Next Level with UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS “We selected VAULT400 because it runs natively on the iSeries and gives us off-site storage automatically, reducing the transporting of tapes off-site to a minimum." - Terry Vilter, IT Manager, TAB Business Systems Infor XA User Group Conference May 27-28 IBM Conference Center, Rochester, MN UCG is pleased to be a sponsor the Infor XA User Group (IXAUG) System i (XA, LX, System21) User Conference. The IXAUG is committed to providing education, training, and problem-solving solutions to its rapidly growing membership, as well as positively influencing the ecosystem direction in a constructive partnership for success and long-term growth. Register today! For more information, contact Rad Yates, Chairman, Infor XA User Group at 440.463.5805. We look forward to seeing you at the conference. UCG is now accepting electronic signatures with DocuSign.  UCG is pleased to offer a safe, efficient method for our clients to sign documents with DocuSign. What are the benefits of electronic signature? Time and money saved. Eliminate the need to print, fax, scan, email or ship documents. Faster results. Send documents for signature and get a response in minutes, not days. Increased efficiency. Store and access all documents from your secure cloud account. Legally binding documents. Get a complete audit trail and tamper-proof virtual seal of the signed documents. Flexibility to work on the go. Sign, send, and track documents from anywhere on any Internet-enabled device. "DocuSign worked well! I completed the agreement during a jury duty break. Convenient." - Marc Masters, Wheeling Lake Erie Railway Your DR Strategy Guide for IBM i Available for Download Now! Thank you for taking time to read the DR Strategy Guide for IBM i, brought to you by Maxava and United Computer Group. If you or your team are responsible for the ongoing health and protection of your IBM i systems and data, this guide is for you! Click here to download your DR Strategy Guide. United Computer Group, Inc. (UCG) was founded in 1987 by James A. Kandrac. UCG has been an IBM Business Partner since 1989 and an IBM Advanced Business Partner since 1991. Customers have rated UCG in the top 1% of IBM Business Partners nationwide. UCG offers VAULT400 BaaS and IBM Power Systems, in addition to a wide range of related products and services. United Computer Group, Inc. and Maxava have been business partners since 2008. Maxava HA is the solution of choice when UCG clients need RTO and RPO of less than 1 hour. Read more. Become a UCG Partner United Computer Group partners enjoy collaborative, rewarding, and mutually beneficial arrangements to bring industry-leading technology solutions to the mid-market. Our core business philosophies ensure that our clients have an excellent experience. We are focused on delivering solutions to help them solve their most complex technology challenges. As an IBM Advanced Business Partner, UCG has been actively marketing Power Systems-based enterprise solutions since 1987. We place great value in finding the right partner to provide a high level of sales, marketing, and technological support to our clients. Interested? Click here to fill out a brief form and we will contact you within 24 hours. We look forward to working with you.

UCG And Expedient Partner For Expanded IBM i Hosted Services

By Dan Burger, IT Jungle

United Computer Group built a trustworthy reputation alongside its growing IBM midrange customer base by offering online backup services. It also offered disaster recovery services to organizations that have figured out the limitations of their downtime survival endurance. UCG has made the investments in equipment and staff to deliver service that meets high expectations, and now it's taking the next step.

Expedient, a company with 11 data centers in seven markets from Chicago eastward, including the northeast regions of the United States, and UCG decided they could use one another's help, so they formed a partnership.

Expedient provides colocation services--rack, power, and pipe--along with utility processing, backup as a service (BaaS), and disaster recovery primarily for X86 servers. The company has some IBM i on Power in their data center, business that has come along with some X86 customers, but the IBM i servers remain managed by the customers. When more companies wanted the option of having their IBM i servers managed as a service, Expedient brought in UCG to handle that business.

"Expedient's foot-print in the Midwest and on the East Coast is 'significant,'" says Jim Kandrac, president of UCG. "We have worked on getting to know one another over the past several years and things just progressed naturally."

Kandrac explained that IBM i customers with servers in Expedient's data centers are doing tape backups, but UCG's BaaS will be a cost effective alternative that is expected to have a high adoption rate. Expedient expects to expand it backup and recovery business for X86 servers and that will bring some additional IBM i business with it. With UCG onboard, Expedient can provide service for both platforms when its customers are looking for an all-in-one service provider.

Kandrac points out that UCG also does backup and recovery for X86, but it doesn't seek that business. UCG does it for IBM i shops that want to bring X86 along with the i-centric services UCG provides. Colocation services has not been part of the UCG offerings, but now when IBM i shops mention it, UCG has an answer.

UCG has its operations in Cleveland in a data center owned by BlueBridge Networks, a company that, like Expedient, does most of its business in the X86 arena, according to Kandrac. UCG also makes use of a second data center in Marietta, Georgia.

Expedient also has data centers in Cleveland. UCG will have servers in data centers owned by both Expedient and BlueBridge.

The two data centers Expedient operates in Cleveland are connected to the other nine data centers the company owns. One of the Cleveland data centers will provide redundancy for the IBM i and storage area networks (SANs) UCG has at BlueBridge Networks.

UCG is also expanding its services beyond the backup and recovery expertise that has resulted in an IBM i customer base totaling 150 organizations. The new capabilities include services surrounding development, test, and production environments.

Kandrac says his company has slowly grown into hosting those environments. It has developed as the client-vendor relationship has developed dependability and trust. In the managed services business, it's nearly impossible to overestimate the value of trust.

"Customer demand is pushing this," Kandrac says. The journey began with BaaS. Then the DR element became important and the recovery time decreased to 24 hours and 12-hours and we also became a managed high availability service provider.

"Over the past three years, UCG has invested significantly in staffing and systems and we are poised to continue to have a 'controlled growth' of 25 percent to 35 percent per year in the managed services arena."

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UCG Alumni Success Stories: Margie Martyn, Ph.D.

One of the greatest benefits of LinkedIn and other social media platforms is that it gives us the opportunity to stay in touch and follow the success of individuals who began their careers at United Computer Group:  our interns and alumni. These individuals joined UCG full of potential and energy. It wasn't long before they became strong contributors bringing fresh ideas and building client relationships, all the while learning business strategies that would eventually support their growth into successful careers.

As business owners, of course we would prefer to keep our best employees forever, like UCG VP Mike Powall with over 20 years, and 12+ year veteran Vladimir Capitanov. Still, we encourage our employees to go after their dreams and find their true passion in life, whether here at UCG or in a different industry. Today's article is the first in a series of interviews, UCG Alumni Success Stories, conducted by our marketing consultant, Francine Ciaccia, of MoMo Companies Ltd. We are pleased and honored to introduce Margie Martyn, Ph.D. Margie, thank you for being a part of UCG's success!

Margie Martyn, Ph.D.

President at Harold Washington College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago

Margie Martyn, Ph.D.

Margie has been an educator and administrator in higher education for eighteen years. She is experienced in the areas of strategic planning, budgeting, accreditation, assessment, international programs, curriculum development, online learning and leveraging technology in teaching and learning, information services and adult learning.

Margie specializes in strategic planning, enrollment management and student retention, accreditation, assessment, online learning, and international programs.

Margie, when did you meet Jim Kandrac and how did it come to be that he offered you ​employment at UCG​?

It was 1992 and I was working for the owners of the building where his company was located doing some clerical and bookkeeping work. I think he noticed that I had some good "customer service skills" and saw potential in me, so he offered me ​a position in marketing and business development. ​ He told me that "my voice smiled on the phone" and it's funny because I wrote that in a cover letter for my next job and that is how I was able to enter the world of higher education. 

That’s fantastic; you were being interviewed by Jim all the while and didn't realized it! Please tell me about some of the most satisfying responsibilities and tasks you were involved with.

Margie Martyn, 1992

The most important thing that I learned was how significant excellent customer service is, and how critical it is to take care of each and every customer. Jim taught me and I quote, "people don't buy products from people, they buy the products and the service that comes with those products." Jim helped me understand by his example the importance of listening very closely to what customers need, excellent follow up skills, remembering personal information about our clients so that they knew we really cared about them (and we really did), etc.

I spent a lot of time on sales too. It's a great lesson for every single person to learn. I recommend that everyone work in sales at least for two to three years. You learn the value of persistence, of being told no, and how to turn a no into yes. During my time at UCG, I worked ​diligently, formed a relationship and closed a partnership deal with a ​very large​ ​global company​ that sold computer​s, parts and accessories​.  It made me realize that persistence is often rewarded with success!

You definitely began by learning the most valuable lesson: it’s all about the relationships. At the time, UCG was a five-year old tech company. What did you learn about the world of technology?

During that time I learned so much about the power of computers and how they can be used for communication and marketing. Jim had me write a newsletter about our products in Microsoft Word and I had never really used computers much before. I remember him showing me how to use one of the original Web search tools, Mosaic. I also learned a lot about the products that we sold (I/O devices) which allowed PC printers to connect to IBM AS400s and System 36 mainframe computers. I didn't even know what a mainframe computer was, never dreaming that in the future,  I would share with my students many examples about their use in business.

Jim sent me and another employee​ ​on our first business trip to Salt Lake City to visit I-O Corporation. I had never traveled for business and it was a wonderful experience to meet the vendor, learn about our products, and better understand how important vendor relationships were as well.

It sounds like you had a very fulfilling work and life experience at UCG. What did you enjoy most about ​working there?

The thing I liked best was learning from Jim. He is a bundle of energy, and is so focused. Each day he would come in excited to sell our products and to see how UCG could improve. He expected 120% from us all of the time and we loved delivering it. He was a lot of fun too. There were many times that we would laugh and have fun while we problem solved on how to increase our sales.

I learned the value of being part of a team and how much we needed each other, and how much we could accomplish together. I learned what a great leader looks like (Jim). He or she is driven, competitive, tough and kind. Jim expected a lot of us, but he rewarded us too. We got a percentage of our sales and it taught us that if we worked hard and helped the company do well, we did well too. He cared about our growth as employees and as people.  

It occurs to me that at the time, Jim was only in his early 30’s. Some people are just born leaders!

That was so impressive to me as well. I also want to mention that after I left UCG, Jim kept in touch with me over the years. He wrote a very kind recommendation letter which I used in my application for the
Baldwin-Wallace University  MBA program. He also took the time to present to some of my classes at Baldwin-Wallace University years later.

What was your most valuable take-away when you left UCG to ​join ​Baldwin-Wallace College?

I started ​at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, OH as an Internship Coordinator in the Career Services department. ​ ​ ​My​ biggest takeaway was that you can't be afraid to learn new things and the only way to get ahead is by being a quick learner and through hard work. This reminds me of a saying that my current supervisor says (Chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago) which is that "You need to work hard. And if that doesn't work, work harder."

What advice do you have for ​individuals looking to set or adjust their career path? 

The best advice is to cast your net far and wide.  Check with your ​college to see if there is a career services department.  If so, go there and make sure that they know you ​what you are looking for. Add your resume to their ​resume ​database. Go to as many networking events that you can.  A lot of schools have them at their ​colleges, where companies come and meet students either formally or informally. Ask for business cards and then send a professionally written email thanking the person for their time and reminding him or her that you are looking for an internship. Attend free career fairs in your city and network there.

Create a professional LinkedIn account that shows your experience and background. Check all of your social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and take down anything that does not reflect a professional persona.

Do research on companies in your area to understand their mission, values, and goals. Take these names to your Career Services Department to see if there are relationships with the companies or see if they would be willing to reach out to them. Do volunteer work in the meantime to show that you are willing to work hard. Bottom line:  Don't wait for the ​opportunity​ to come to you;  go out and get it! 

Margie lives in Chicago with her husband Scott, who also works at the City Colleges of Chicago at the District Office in the Office of Strategy and Center of Excellence. They have three children, one  grandchild and two more on the way. In their spare time, they enjoy participating in Chicago 5k running races and the Chicago triathlon.

Learn more about Margie Martyn by visiting her LinkedIn profile.

Learn more about United Computer Group,  Inc. and its Founder & President, James A. Kandrac.

 +City Colleges of Chicago