Bringing clients the whole tech package: Founder envisions letting employees work from home
'In the near future, all that we do on our desktop will be possible on our phones.'
Dave Pyron, Pyron Technologies
"It's great to specialize," says Dave Pyron of Pyron Technologies, "but our purpose is to specialize in the entire gestalt and organism of computers and computer technology."
TOM BAUER/Missoulian
By LORI GRANNIS of the Missoulian
hen it comes to information technology, having a seamless one-stop shop for business solutions is the wave of the future.
Dave Pyron sits at the helm of a Missoula company that brings a complete set of technological services to western Montana and beyond.
Pyron Technologies is at the forefront of what industry specialists call unified communications handling everything from Web site creation and management to Internet, telecommunications and networking, as well as hardware and software procurement.
"It's great to specialize," Pyron said, "but our purpose is to specialize in the entire gestalt and organism of computers and computer technology."
Pyron insists that customers in small- to medium-sized businesses don't want five different companies managing their information technology, but rather want a total-package company handling everything from Internet to telecommunications to Web services.
"We are the most comprehensive provider of computer technology, telecommunications and network services in Missoula," Pyron said. Unified communications is essential to a local market with rapidly growing technology needs, he said.
While Pyron stays ahead of the competitive curve, the company also seems intent on staying ahead of the technological curve by adopting and offering cutting-edge technologies. One way they are doing that is by focusing on the convergence of communication systems.
Pyron said the IT market is seeing the merging of video communications, chat and digital systems in products such as Apple's iPhone.
Convergence is also creating unique possibilities for a new frontier in work environments, he said.
There was a time when dressing for work and going to the office was the only way to collect a paycheck. But according to Pyron, those days will soon become obsolete when companies begin sending employees home to do business.
"People will begin to work at home more and more," Pyron said. "In the near future, all that we do on our desktop will be possible on our phones."
That means employees will be able to work out of their home, have access to all of the information they would have at work, and still be able to provide customers with good service, he said.
For small- to medium-sized businesses, that means saving money on space, and providing employees a way to watch their kids, putter in the garden or work in their pajamas.
"Of course, working at home means learning a new kind of discipline," he said, "but it also means that employee satisfaction will soar for those people who can manage their time."
By year's end, Pyron said, he will not only have local employees on the payroll, but will have people in other areas those who maybe had a spouse relocate but can still provide good customer service via phone and computer.
But while Pyron is working hard to send employees home, those who still drive to work and use computers benefit from another of Pyron's specialties: server virtualization technology.
Server virtualization technology allows companies with more than one server to have almost 100 percent up-time no matter what catastrophe may befall a mainframe.
Patching servers and making updates is one thing, said Pyron, "but the unplanned outages can be a nightmare."
Servers are mission critical, he explained, and an unplanned outage can cripple productivity and customer service.
"Medical information servers are a good example of what a narrow margin for error can mean," said Pyron. "With server virtualization technology, if one server fails, it's an instant cut over to another server and to all of the information the employee needs they never even know there's been a failure."
That sort of technology means that medical clinics and companies with a large work force have fewer headaches, Pyron said.
Reporter Lori Grannis can be reached at 523-5251 or lori.grannis@missoulian.com.