‘Think of it as the Oscars of our industry’

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

December 30, 2024

SHEBOYGAN FALLS – A Northeast Wisconsin-based IT service provider was recently honored at the inaugural MSP (managed service provider) Titans of Industry Awards.

Bill Prusow, president and founder of Pros 4 Technology, said the international awards event – held at the beginning of December at the Beverly Hills Hilton in California – was established to “give praise to managed service providers, like we are.”

“They developed these different categories, and then they nominated the people who specialize in (different industries),” he said, adding that Pros 4 Technology was nominated for its work with government municipalities and private sector businesses.

Within the eight established categories, Prusow said roughly 2,000 different managed service providers from across the world were nominated.

“Think of it as the Oscars of our industry,” he said. “They had Jay Leno and Magic Johnson there – it was a five-star event.”

In the government and private sector category, Prusow said his company faced off against around eight other service providers – with Pros 4 Technology ultimately prevailing as the winner.

“We were even going up against people from different countries,” he said. “That’s why I was really shocked when we won.”

After receiving notice of its nomination, Prusow said he had to write an essay explaining why Pros 4 Technology deserved the award and provided both financial records and customer feedback to help the panel of judges determine a winner.

“We do things a lot different(ly) than a lot of other IT providers,” he said. “But I think the biggest thing that probably pushed us over the edge is I provided a lot of customer feedback.”

Prusow said the award reflects the hard work and commitment of the entire Pros 4 Technology team.

“We are dedicated to driving innovation and providing the highest level of service to our clients,” he said. “It’s an honor to be acknowledged among such a distinguished group of industry leaders.”

Clientele testimonials

With very little governmental oversight and regulation in the IT industry, Prusow said customer testimonials are key to demonstrating the capabilities of his company – not just to the judging panel, but to prospective clients as well.

Having personally worked with local municipalities for roughly 30 years, Prusow said he ensures his team at Pros 4 Technology is sensitive to the budgetary struggles of small governments.

“A lot of them just struggle so badly with budgets,” he said. “I think they all want to do the right thing, but a lot of these municipalities – especially local ones – just don’t have any money in their budget to do so.”

Prusow said he’s witnessed Pros 4 Technology’s larger competitors taking advantage of the vulnerable positions businesses and municipalities often find themselves in because of their lack of funding for necessary IT infrastructure.

Recalling a story to exemplify his point, Prusow said one municipality the company did work for fell victim to its “painful” monetary shortfalls.

“We did an assessment for them (and) found all these things that were wrong from their current provider,” he said. “They kind of chose (their) budget over what we were offering, and they went with another provider.”

A year later, Prusow said he received a call from that municipality saying “things got 10-times worse, because they went with a (larger) IT provider.”

“They got in a position where now we had to start over and clean it all up,” he said. “They were probably a few steps away from having a ransom attack just because things were done so poorly – the police department couldn’t function.”

Prusow said because businesses and municipalities lack the knowledge to make effective and informed IT decisions, larger providers sometimes sell them things “just to sell them things.”

One specific industry Prusow said he’s seen get “ripped off” by larger IT companies is the nonprofit sector, because providers don’t always inform them of assistance programs that could help pay for necessary equipment.

“They get ripped off so bad from a lot of these IT companies because they’re selling them things they just don’t need,” he said. “Or not even educating them on what’s available for nonprofits, because a lot of these nonprofits can get products for almost nothing.”

Hands-on customer care

Unlike its larger competitors, Prusow said Pros 4 Technology provides in-person, on-site customer support.

“We’re not small anymore – we’re a larger company now, but we still have regular on-site visits,” he said. “We don’t just do all remote support. It’s a lot of hands-on (support) and promised response times and things that other people just don’t offer.”

Headquartered in Sheboygan Falls (160 Vision Parkway), Prusow said Pros 4 Technology provides services to both in-state and nationwide clients – but added if the company is doing work for a municipality, the Pros 4 team ensures it’s within a reasonable range so they can deliver timely support.

“We have a two-hour range (for) drive time, because that’s our promised response time,” he said. “If we have to come on site, we’ll be there within two hours.”

As an IT entrepreneur with decades of experience, Prusow said he’s retained clients throughout his career.

“I’ve had different business, adventures and things like that, and (clients have) always followed me – they’re still with us today,” he said.

Since establishing the company in 2009, Prusow said Pros 4 Technology has grown to a team of roughly 21 employees who service the IT needs of 144 managed clients.

That growth and longevity, Prusow said, is maintained by limiting the type of work Pros 4 Technology takes on to ensure its high level of customer service never wanes.

“MSPs take on a lot of project work, and we don’t do that,” he said. “We only work for customers that have agreements in place with us.”

Prusow said that system prevents the Pros 4 Technology staff from becoming too busy to take care of its managed clients.

“That’s how we can respond fast, that’s how we can be attentive to them,” he said. “They’re paying us to be available and take care of all these things.”

Prusow said the system also protects the company’s reputation because it’s not involved in work it doesn’t have quality control over.

“We don’t want our name on something that we’re not going to maintain and do it properly, because that’s where things go south,” he said. “People think they can just set it and forget it, and that’s where you find a lot of bad things happening.”

To help educate not only his clients but the general public as well, Prusow said he teamed up with a few other people to write a book titled “Exposed to Secure” – which he said was the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon two days after its release.

“(In) my chapter… I focused on (teaching people) how (to) choose someone like us (and the) questions that they need to ask,” Prusow said. “Do you really want them touching your system if they do something wrong, then they have no insurance to help you recover from that? Just simple things like that. Ask for testimonials. Ask to talk to other people.”

For more information on Pros 4 Technology, visit pros4technology.com or find it on social media.