TTx Talk is a video podcast, with your host, Nate Petry – TTx VP of Sales. Nate has conversational interviews with experts in their respective fields. On today’s episode, Nate talks with one of our customers, Chagrin Valley Engineering. Nate is joined by Ryan Cummins, CVE Partner – and together, they walk through CVE’s buyer journey on becoming a TTx customer.
How did you find out about TTx and partner with us?
We brought you guys in just for the phone system before we even had email addresses, I mean we were working on PC’s, but there was no email at the time. You guys have been handling our phone stuff ever since.
What changed in your business to cause to consider TTx?
The growth of our business. I was doing almost everything myself with the help of some people here and there, but as we got bigger and bigger we just needed more help.
What has exceeded your expectations since working with us?
We got hit with a ransomware attack and you guys were all over it instantaneously. And really we were still down for a couple of days, but it was much, much better than it could have been.
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TTx Talk Episode 9 Transcript
Nate: Welcome to TTx Talks. I’m Nate Petry, VP of sales here at TTx. Today we’re doing a Zoom call, so this is a little bit unique for TTx Talks, but we’re very excited to have Ryan Cummins from Chagrin Valley Engineering. He’s a partner at the firm. So thanks for joining us here. Welcome.
Ryan: Glad to be here.
Nate: Yeah, well, we’ll get right into it. And I’m curious to share with the audience how you came to find out about TTx and partner with us.
Ryan: When we got started on our own, we brought you guys in just for the phone system before we even had email addresses, I mean we were working on PC’s, but there was no email at the time. This was the early 90’s, mid 90’s. I think you guys have been handling our phone stuff ever since.
Nate: Well, Ryan, you know, we started off with a voice relationship, with a phone system and, we’ve grown that tremendously over the last four or five, six years to being a full managed services company. What were the reasons for your organization that led you to make that change and give us more responsibility with your business?
Ryan: Well, it was really a function of our business growing. We started out with just a handful of guys with this company and having individual PCs on people’s desks back in the mid 1990s. And the PC’s got more complex and networking and then email and servers and printers and plotters. Initially I did pretty much all the IT for us when it was just PC’s on desks and did a lot as we were growing, but we had all sorts of scenarios where friends of mine who were in full-time in the IT business, would come and help me on the weekend, do things, or we had a consultant that we would pay a few hours if something broke. Like you said, we did finally get into a kind of a managed service scenario with another company, who were supplying our PC’s at the time. And that really started to see the benefit of managed service. We’re engineers, we’re dealing with roads and sewers and the like, and so on the IT side, I saw the benefit of having that type of technical expertise and relationship around for many reasons. That company decided to get out of the managed service business. And I think we were talking with TTx about phone systems about that same time as we had been doing for many years, cause you guys have maintained our phone system and came out of the conversation that that was something that you guys were starting to provide or could provide. And so we said, yeah, you’ve been great with the phones, so let’s give it a try. And it’s been nothing but positive since. And that’s probably been six, seven years ago.
Nate: And we’ve done a lot of projects, we’ve migrated you guys to O365 too, I believe. Correct?
Ryan: Yeah. Thankfully. We didn’t have a crystal ball, but we made that move about a year to a year and a half before COVID pandemic came along and thank God we did. During the shutdown of the pandemic, being already in Office 365 and people understanding how they could still work and be familiar with where things are, it really saved us. You guys helped us make that transition and helped us a little bit with some training with it. And so that turned out very well.
Nate: Good. Has there been any expectations that we’ve succeeded with you guys like gone above and beyond at all?
Ryan: One specific example is we got hit with a ransomware attack and you guys were all over it instantaneously. And really we were still down for a couple of days, but it was much, much better than it could have been, so we didn’t have to pay the rent. Definitely appreciate that.
Nate: Well, one thing that we want to do, you know, our vision, as I’m sure you’re aware with events and conversations that we’ve had is to be the most trusted partner in our space. And we have Four C’s that relate to that. One of the ones that I love is Consistency. As part of being the most trusted partner, have you found that we’re consistent, from everyone that you deal with?
Ryan: Yeah it’s been very consistent from the ticket system to response to those tickets, to implementing the larger projects when those come along I think consistent is a good word.
Nate: We strive for that. It’s nice that you mentioned the ticketing system and our responses to that. We’re trying to make technology as human as possible and as a business leader like yourself, you know, dealing with us from a technical standpoint, it’s nice for our guys to be able to communicate the way that you want to be communicated to. Thank you for all the Brightgauge responses, the SmileBack responses that you give to us, you know, those quick dialog boxes that really helps our guys understand that they’re doing a good job. Well, I thank you for your time today. I appreciate it so much, sharing with me and furthermore to the marketplace on how you cherish and trust TTx. And that’s what we long for, for the marketplace in general is relationships like we have with Ryan. The business relationships are great, we do good work as you’ve alluded to, but we also have a good personal relationship too, when we get time to spend together from time to time. So thanks for everything.
Ryan: No problem. Thanks for everything that you guys do. Keep it up,
Nate: Talk to you soon. See you next time on TTx Talk.