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Providing IT services to companies
Jairo Rugel founded ATC Tech in Middletown, RI, in 2002. Known as a managed service provider, the company provides a full range of IT services to small and medium-sized businesses, non-profits, and residential customers. ATC Tech offers cybersecurity, network design, software/hardware troubleshooting and repair, remote network management, and more. Additionally, those local to Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts can bring their devices to the company’s repair facility, Newport County Computers.
Rugel has always loved computers. “I wanted to be a hacker when I was 12 because TV made it seem exciting and mischievous. I quickly learned that I liked to fix things and help people and solve problems as opposed to being malicious. So that's pretty much how I got started in this industry. And then, one thing led to another, and I went into the Navy for 11 years. Post Navy, I worked in IT for two international firms and one national firm, which is when I decided to open my own IT consulting business in 2002, and it’s been 20-plus years now.”
Rugel shared that he got his first customers by contacting his network. “One of my clients at my previous firm heard that I left the company and hired me to consult on their IT needs.
And that basically snowballed into a business that grew enough to hire people to help me, and we’ve continually built out our customer base since then.”
In addition to Rugel, ATC Tech employs five technicians, and Rugel provided insight into the company’s business model. “We handle residential consumers, but we primarily focus on the business side—small to medium-sized businesses. People who work at those businesses often hire us for their personal computer needs. Sometimes we'll get a customer that comes in for a personal repair and asks us to take care of their business environment as well.”
When asked what advice he would give someone looking to start a business, the founder recommended beginning a business in an industry you enjoy. “It's got to be something you love. Otherwise, you're going to be at work, and it's going to feel like work, and it's going to feel like you're still working for somebody else. And you may not get the same satisfaction. I love doing what I'm doing. And to me, it's really just like the old adage—if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”
As the company’s founder, Rugel spends much of his time on sales. “I deal a lot with customers, keeping customer satisfaction high, finding and signing up new customers, finding new, more effective and efficient ways to service existing customers. I'm the guy who's always in the field getting referrals, talking to existing clients, addressing concerns, selling more services. I also design clients’ networks and do analyses. Our technicians handle the day-to-day things. For instance, two of them focus on nothing but our managed services clients. They support clients during business hours or even after hours. They're manning the phones. They're going on-site doing what they have to do for the clients.”
Rugel also shared that ATC Tech consults for clients, helping them figure out their IT needs and what equipment will work best for their situation. “We guide them throughout their technology trip. Most of the time, people will just Google something, and it's actually the wrong thing or the wrong direction, but they don't know that because they're just being sold something. So, we take the time to actually advise clients to get an understanding of what it is that they're trying to achieve through technology, their budget, and their level of tech knowledge.”
ATC Tech serves many clients in Rhode Island, of course, but it also works with businesses worldwide. “We've actually helped clients around the world, believe it or not. We've done a lot of remote work for clients worldwide. If they have an internet connection and they have a problem, they just give us a call. We remote in, we help them out, or we help them out over the phone. We do a lot of support pretty much everywhere. But most of our client base is in Rhode Island and surrounding areas, Connecticut, as well as Southern Mass.”
For more information about ATC Tech, Inc., check out their BBB Business Profile. To learn more about BBB and read more stories like this, visit Behind the Business Stories with BBB in Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT.
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