Jeff King doesn’t consider himself to be an entrepreneur. Yet AT-NET Services, a ten-year-old firm that was recently named to the Inc. 500/5000 list of growing companies, isn’t the first endeavor King has founded. He established AT-NET after selling a company that produced interactive videos for universities on CD-ROMs, because, he says, he needed to make a living.
“There was no genius in it,” King says. Still, it was one of several pretty smart decisions. King’s interactive video company filled a need for academic institutions in the time between the mailing of heavy college catalogs and before the web became the place to go for college facts and information.
King sold the company in 2001, perfect timing considering the changes that were coming. Again, he says, it wasn’t that he saw the handwriting on the wall. He got an offer, it was a good one, and he took it.
Once the deal was done, customers continued calling King, who had served as the “technical guy” in a company of graphic artists. His next venture, he says, just kind of grew from there.
It’s continued to grow. AT-NET Services takes business needs, finds the products needed to plug into them, and configures systems from there. A network systems integrator, AT-NET sells Cisco, EMC, VMware, Citrix and other technology solutions designed to drive productivity. The company’s seven disciplines include application development; collaboration such as video conferencing; data center virtualization – the storage cloud of computing; infrastructure and security including door access, controls and security cameras; network infrastructure and its switches, routers, firewalls, and servers; managed services, which can include all technical resources as AT-NET does for some fifty companies; and unified facilities.
The last discipline – unified facilities – was a factor in the Inc. recognition as AT-NET is seen as an emerging leader in this field. AT-NET provides owners of apartment complexes with television, telephone, and Internet access. This allows them to provide services for residents as soon as they move in while creating a recurring revenue stream. It’s a sizable stream, too. If the apartment owner holds 400 units, and the typical customer pays about $133 a month for TV, telephone and Internet, the service allows the owner to make about $40 a month for those services. Multiply that by 400 units, and that’s $16,000 a month additional income to the owner.
Along with Greenville, AT-NET is located in Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston, Knoxville, and Washington, D.C. At most times, all offices are staffed by 65 to 80 employees. Right now, the company is trying to hire a few people, but not just any people. “We’re in the people business even though we work on technology, and so we have to have individuals who can deal with customers and communicate properly. Generally speaking, for technicians it’s a little hard for them to communication well. They get along with computers just fine,” King says.
The company’s Greenville office is located on Antrim Drive in the former SDI Networks building. Though many people assume that AT-NET purchased SDI, in fact, King says, AT-NET acquired only assets including customer lists, some employees, and computer equipment. Local client services include the entire network infrastructure at Cascades Verdae and a wireless storage area network for White Oak. Though finding good employees can be a challenge, retaining them is a bit easier thanks to a workplace in which people remember to have fun. Shared activities include camping and barbecues. “From a corporate manage structure, we call that team building,” King says. “For us, we just call that having a good time together.”
While a portion of AT-NET’s growth has been organic, the majority of it has taken place through acquisitions. With these acquisitions come additional skill sets. Though the company has always been fairly well rounded, acquiring knowledgeable technicians allows AT-NET to do more. The company, King says, has the ability to solve almost any technological need that a customer may have and to work closely with the customer through every step of the process.
What will the future hold? AT-NET is poised for additional growth in the years ahead. “We are lining up lots of deals,” King says. “We have a tremendous number in the pipeline. I think the commercial sector will do quite well, but I see lots of issues in the public sector.” Today’s business climate is challenging. There’s enough business out there at the present time, King says, but he’s also seeing margin erosion as people watch their dollars carefully. And though he’s enjoying himself, he hopes for better days. “It’s very difficult at the present time given what the world is doing,” he says. “It comes with a lot of worries nowadays as most companies have. So it is as fun as it used to be? No. Will it be fun again? That’s what everyone’s counting on.”