MicroTech Systems August Edition

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AUG 2017 EDITION

From Typewriters to Servers

Microtech’s 47 Years in the Treasure Valley

to be my long term career, looked at my dad’s predicament, and figured I’d take a crack at it and see how it went. I joined the team in 1998.

My dad and his business partner started Microtech Systems way back in 1970, right here in Boise, Idaho. As you can imagine, technology was pretty primitive by our current standards back then. The company mainly dealt with typewriters and clunky mechanical adding machines, the kinds of things your kids probably wouldn’t recognize if they saw them in the bargain bin at a local thrift store. Years later, I was majoring in business administration and marketing at BSU. I enjoyed the intricacies of business, especially when it came to the granular aspects of finance. I graduated from school looking for work in that vein, but at the time, the only job a finance focus could get you was “stockbroker,” and that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. Instead, I found

My father and I immediately made a push to update our services, moving into computer networking and more complicated technical fields. At first, it was the classic school of hard knocks situation, learning the ins and outs of the technology as we went. I took a bunch of Microsoft classes, striving to master the technology at every level. When my current business partner, Stuart, joined on in 2004, we had come a long way, but with his efforts, we were able to fully renovate the company. For years, we both wore every hat we possibly could in the company. We were technicians, sales reps, administrators, working all day and night for years to make Microtech the best IT company in the Treasure Valley. These days, with our full team of friendly IT experts, Stuart and I have moved to primarily management roles, but I can look at what we’ve built so far and say we continue striving to accomplish our goals. We know when it comes to IT, every company provides basically the same solutions. The difference comes in the way we deliver that service. With Microtech, you’re working with a company that’s been in the Treasure Valley for nearly double that of our competitors. We take a never-say-die approach, going far above and beyond for our clients, doing what’s right regardless of the short-term cost. It’s been a long, winding road to managing Microtech, but I have to say, when I take a look at all we’ve accomplished, all the clients we’ve helped throughout the years, I’m proud. I truly couldn’t ask for a better, more professional team to work with.

a job doing marketing research for a local company. It was a great first job, granting me the stability I needed to start a family with my wife, whom I met in our junior year at Centennial High.

“We take a never- say-die approach, going far above and beyond for our clients,

Really, though, the Marketing Research Job wasn’t a long term interest, and I began to look elsewhere.

doing what’s right regardless of the short-term cost.”

In the late ’90’s my father’s business had begun to struggle.

The company was, in many respects, still in the dark, repairing printers and

providing other relatively low-tech solutions. He had done a great job providing valuable services for many years, with a level of customer care that you just don’t see often in the field, but was thinking that it was time to hand off the reins to somebody new. I took a hard look at my own circumstances, working a marketing research job that I knew wasn’t going

Randy Amorebieta

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Sorting Food at the Idaho Foodbank Giving Back to Our Idaho Community

all across Idaho every day. According to one staff member, the foodbank can provide four meals for only a dollar, solely from the donations and time everybody gives to the organization. It was eye-opening to see the sheer need of the community for an organization like the foodbank, the thousands of pounds of food they provide to those who have no other option. Then they put us all to work, sorting frozen meat into different categories for shipment. We were all on what essentially amounted to a production line, with everyone chipping in and working together to get the food out at a rapid pace. As we continue looking for ways to serve the community we are making serving it a quarterly, or even monthly event. It felt good to give back to the community that has served us for so long.

All of us at Microtech are constantly looking for new ways to serve our Treasure Valley community. We’ve been in Boise for nearly 50 years. It’s only right that we seek to aid our fellow Idahoans as we can. That’s why, on June 24, we gathered to volunteer at the Idaho Foodbank to help organize outgoing food shipments, sorting over 5,500 pounds of food in total. The outpouring of support from our staff and their families was incredible. Spouses, kids, and friends showed up to help. Everyone banded together to get the job done. It was encouraging to see not only our employees, but the young kids from age 8 to 14, really understanding the necessity of the work that organizations like the Idaho Foodbank provide. We started off with a tour of the facility, jam-packed with donations from throughout the area. Though it’s not the biggest building — the Foodbank has been trying to move into a larger building for some time now — the entire process is incredibly streamlined, shipping huge quantities of food

Thank you to Idaho Foodbank, who showed us the ropes and let us help out for a couple hours. Hopefully we’ll see you again soon!

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Should I Use Cloud Services for My Small Business?

The Cloud Is Here to Stay.

Companies that use cloud services leverage the huge infrastructure of the cloud providers, getting 99.9 percent uptime, system redundancy, access from anywhere, and lower ongoing maintenance costs. In deciding whether or not the cloud is right for your business, we recommend evaluating whether or not you need a server. For example, if your industry-specific application doesn’t offer its software in the cloud and requires you to have a server, then you already need a server and should take advantage of it. You probably don’t need the cloud. Another thing to take into account is whether you’ll be storing very large >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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