WNY computing evolves with its industry

PITTSFORD -- Evolution. The survival of the fittest, where nature rewards organisms that have the optimum characteristics for their environment.

In the computer industry, the characteristics that the business environment rewards have changed many times in the last 25 years, but Western New York Computing Systems, headquartered in PITTSFORD, with offices in Syracuse, Buffalo, and Penfield, is still in business and, in fact, thriving.

Looking at the company and its business over the course of its 25-year history -- a long one by computer-industry standards -- it appears that the attribute that has carried it to where it is today is foresight. WNY Computing has consistently seen changes coming in the nature of the computer business and moved to add the capabilities and services that were going to be needed.

Moving from the computer time-sharing and custom-applications needs of the early 1970s...to running its own mainframe computers and linking them to customers' desktops...to serving as an outside source for computing services...to personal-computer networking and support...the company has grown steadily through the years, and it has grown especially quickly in the last 10 years. Its growth has been rapid enough to earn WNY Computing place on the list of the Rochester area's fastest growing companies every year from 1987 through 1996. It topped the list in 1993 and 1994.

President and CEO Ray Hutch founded the company after leaving General Electric's time-sharing operation.

"We started the time-sharing operation for GE, but I found that we were doing mostly 'canned' applications --applications for electronic-circuit analysis and applications for cash-flow analysis, and that sort of thing. I was more interested in custom applications for a wider variety of businesses," Hutch recalls.

Leasing access to mainframe computers at Rochester Institute of Technology and Alfred University, Hutch's company lined up a number of clients in the Rochester area and installed telephone lines and data modems to provide clients with access to the universities' computers. Hutch and his staff used existing software programs for some clients and developed custom applications for others.

That aspect of the business really hasn't changed for WNY Computing. It is still a matter of finding the right solution to a client's need. "We looked at what our clients needed to do and what they wanted to accomplish, and then put together the best solution that we could," Hutch explains.

"Really, we were an outsourcer for the client's computer needs, but we did, and still do, it differently than some computer outsourcers. We did it the way our clients wanted us to, in such a way that they were still directly involved -- partially outsourcing really," Hutch says.

In addition to designing the systems and maintaining them for its clients, WNY Computing also trained its clients' staff to work on the system. "At the time, this was really the only way to bring computing to the desktop of the individuals," Hutch notes.

While the company has always had a diverse client base, WNY Computing did develop a strong niche in credit unions in the Rochester area.

In 1974, WNY Computing developed an on-line Credit Union Accounting System that recorded. transactions and generated the documents and reports that these membership organizations needed. While the system has evolved over the years, WNY Computing has continually updated the service and today serves more than 20 credit unions in the Rochester area, Hutch reports.

That approach to serving clients also served WNY Computing well until the mid-1980s, when Hutch and others in the company saw the potential impact of personal computers on the time-sharing business. By 1987, WNY Computing had remade itself, adding the staff and expertise necessary to guide clients in selecting personal computers and other related equipment for their companies.

Meeting client needs in the personal-computer market, however, also meant being able to get clients the equipment needed to implement the plan that WNY had helped them develop, so the company affiliated with MicroAge, a national computer-products distributor. Now, the company is the largest supplier in Western New York of personal computers for the workplace.

Hutch adds that the company took much the same approach to its personal-computer clients that it did to its time-sharing business -- identifying needs and then developing the hardware and software packages to meet those needs.

"What it really comes down to," Hutch says, "is having the client pay for the resources he needs and not pay for a lot of extra capabilities and equipment that he doesn't need."

Hutch stresses, however, that adding the capabilities to serve the PC market did not mean that WNY Computing abandoned its original client base. Indeed, the company is still serving many of its first clients.

As the computer industry and marketplace evolved, many companies' needs for service and support changed.

Many companies in the 1970s and 1980s had invested in mainframe networks, but found themselves needing to shift to a PC-based system by the mid- to late 1980s. Few, however, were in a position -- either financially or logistically -- to shift to a completely PC-based system to meet their computer needs. They needed to link the PC networks with the existing mainframe system.

That led to the next step in WNY Computing's evolution -- the launch of its Systems Support Group in 1988. That group has grown both in numbers and in capabilities over the last eight years, according to Hutch. Today it includes network engineers, systems-support personnel, and project managers.

Members of the Systems Support Group are stationed in each of WNY Computing's offices and at client facilities, where they provide dedicated systems support.

Hutch expects the company to continue to grow, not by expanding its geographic reach, but rather by adding more clients in Western and Central New York. "We try to take a holistic approach to helping our clients. We are able to be more valuable to them if we see them and talk with them regularly so that we know what they are doing. There is value in proximity because we can bring in the products they need and then stay with our clients to help them implement the changes that they need to make."

And by maintaining that close relationship, literally and figuratively, with the clients, Hutch thinks that WNY Computing is well positioned to continue its evolution to compete in the ever-changing environment of the business-computing market.

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Nov 25, 1996
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