Bill Young and Buzz Kaas of Pattillo industrial real estate
How the Right Technology Helps Pattillo Industrial Real Estate Outperform Its Competitors
“A lot of folks that we meet are shocked to learn that we do what we do with only 22 people,” said Bill Young, IT manager of the largest privately owned industrial developer in the Southeast. “And that’s because of technology. I’ve talked to people in other companies that have two to three times the number of employees we do yet they do half the business we do.”
Pattillo Industrial Real Estate owns and manages Class A industrial buildings throughout Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina. It owns thousands of acres of strategically located land along key transportation corridors which enables it to provide optimal real estate solutions for its impressive list of clients.
Because of Pattillo’s leadership, who values and believes in equipping its team with cutting-edge technology, Young and Buzz Kaas, director of IT, have been able to adopt strategies that keep the company well ahead of other developers in the region. “We have leadership that really believes in technology. And that’s huge because it makes everybody’s job a little easier and allows us to do so much,” said Young.
Young joined the Pattillo group of companies in 2001 as a web developer and has been fortunate to witness the company’s growth and evolution through the years. When the group split into five separate companies in 2015, Young and Kaas were tasked with finding a new IT partner who could co-manage their network and provide the knowledge and manpower needed to continue helping the development group grow and evolve.
Why Co-managed IT Solution Makes Sense for Pattillo Industrial Real Estate
Organizations seeking an IT partner to co-manage their technology are usually looking for supplemental support for one or two areas of their technology. For example, some have internal staff members who can handle the day-to-day tasks, such as troubleshooting and helpdesk services, but want support with network management such as software upgrades, server maintenance, patches, data backup, etc.
Others might need helpdesk support to take the burden off their IT department’s shoulders so they can focus on other more high-level, strategic issues. Still others are looking for a managed services provider who can fill in the knowledge gap on new technologies, trends and strategies to help keep ahead of the competition.
“Finding a company that could co-manage our technology was important to us because our group is a highly productive and technologically advanced group of users who require support that only onsite support can provide,” Young explained. “We choose to lean on the expertise of MIS for our backend IT systems and security such as networking and servers while in-house we can focus on the day-to-day end-user support issues and developing new or improving existing systems that further improve our productivity and efficiencies.”
The Big Payoff of Co-Managed
Perhaps the biggest benefit to having a co-managed provider is the deep bench of expertise and knowledge it brings to the table. “When you support 2,000 or more users like MIS does, you tend to know what works and what doesn’t. We’d rather not spin our wheels trying to figure that out. Instead, we would rather just look to Lliam (Holmes) and MIS for guidance and advice,” said Young. “Usually a quick conversation with MIS can save us countless hours researching things on our own.”
Having an IT partner who invests considerable time and resources in ongoing training and education in emerging technology comes in handy when you’re ready to explore new or different options. It gives you a good sounding board to be sure you’re investing in the right equipment and software.
For years, Pattillo’s technology environment had been entrenched in one particular manufacturer’s hardware because their previous IT provider had recommended it and was comfortable with it. “It was fine – unless you had to make any changes in configurations. Then it was a nightmare,” said Young. “When we were looking for a new IT company, we knew we needed one that could provide guidance in making the changes to our networking equipment and infrastructure.”
Pattillo recently relocated its headquarters from the Perimeter area to the newly completed Trackside-Chamblee office building, an 80,000-square-foot development adjacent to the Chamblee MARTA station. “The move to the new office went remarkably smooth, and I know for a fact that was because we had better equipment,” said Young. “MIS’s sage advice on that equipment helped make our move very uneventful from a technology standpoint.”
The Co-Managed Icing on the Cake
There are other perks associated with having an IT provider co-manage a company’s network. For instance 24/7/365 support offers assurance that any issue that pops up is going to be addressed even if the internal IT team is away from the office or unavailable. “It’s important to have that backup support,” said Young. “We want our folks to have someone they can call if Buzz or I are not accessible by phone.” And because MIS is a local company with in-house field engineers, onsite support is close by if needed.
“Working with MIS has been a positive experience. Everybody has been topnotch and seems to exhibit the same core values that they say they do,” said Young. “I feel like MIS truly wants to provide a better product for their customers and they’re always seeking to improve. That’s huge.”