New president, new office for Tech Systems

ATLANTA—Tech Systems has completed its transition to an employee-owned company and has named Wayne Smith president. Plans are underway for the systems integrator to open a "FOCUS Fusion Center" nearby in Buford, Ga.

One year ago, Tech Systems CEO Darryl Keeler announced that his privately held company would move to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

Smith called the ESOP transition another reason for Tech System employees “to amp up the customer service [even more],” he added.

Smith said statistics show that employee-owned organizations such as [supermarket chain] Publix tend to have better customer service because employees are invested in the culture and philosophy.

Keeler “built the company around fanatical customer service. … The ESOP gives everyone a piece of the pie and a reason to continue to create that culture and elevate it,” Smith said.

Importantly, Tech Systems' customer satisfaction is measured in more ways than just financial metrics, he said.

Tech Systems' new FOCUS Fusion Center Buford, Ga.,“is being fitted out for managed services, professional services and monitoring,” Smith said. “We'll be enhancing our services and doing more of them.” The company will be hiring more network engineers as part of this initiative. It expects to have the center up and running by February 2016.

FOCUS is the name of Tech System's service program, which guarantees customers will have any problems resolved within four hours. The company misses that goal “less than 1 percent of the time,” Smith said.

As part of its strategic plan, Tech Systems is training and hiring more PMP-certified project managers. It's a program that Smith describes as “the gold standard for project managers. We're adding those guys and we use the PMP methodology to deliver more efficient services.”

Tech Systems, a PSA Security owner, had $49 million in revenue in 2014. Smith expects 2015 revenues to be $53 million.

Prior to joining Tech Systems, Smith held various senior leadership roles with Synovus Financial Corporation and TSYS in Columbus, Ga., and served as a military police officer with the U.S. Army. Smith received a bachelor's degree from Columbus State University and an MBA from Kennesaw State University. He currently holds a number of physical security professional and technical certifications.