Jeff Cason This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. wisbusiness

   www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml? - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/20/2006   Last Visited: 8/22/2006

   Sales could increase again by 40 percent again in 2006, according to owner Jeff Cason. The company was cited by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing privately held firms in the United States last year.
   
   Cason, 34, said he expects his company's business to surge in coming years - if restrictions that limit independent companies' ability to service UPS equipment are removed.
   
   The market is huge, Cason said, and the need for UPS systems in growing. According to researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, power outages and blackouts cost the U.S. businesses about $80 billion annually.
   
   WisBusiness.com editor Brian Clark interviewed Cason recently in his company's Verona headquarters.
   ...
   Jeff Cason: I moved to Madison from Adams-Friendship near the Dells while my friends were going to college.
   ...
   Cason: No.
   ...
   Cason: They are backup battery systems that keep the power on when there is some sort of power outage, like from a tornado or big storm.
   ...
   Cason: Yes.
   ...
   Cason: Yes.
   ...
   Cason: It is primarily through the manufacturers.
   ...
   Cason: Yes.
   ...
   Cason: While it was neat and unique on the sales side, that system was not scalable as a long-term model on the sourcing side for an overall business plan.
   ...
   Cason: Yeah.
   ...
   Cason: Around 230 employees and we self-deliver service with them to nearly all of our customers.
   ...
   Cason: We are in 39 states.
   ...
   Cason: About two years ago.
   ...
   Cason: There are about 25 other independent service providers.
   ...
   Cason: We are the exclusive contractor for MCI and Verizon.
   ...
   Cason: Yes, but there wasn't a whole lot we could do proactively.
   ...
   Cason: One of the things I've done strategically - and we're not publicly held - is push a lot of money back into the company. We're profitable.
   ...
   Cason: We still have a lot of areas to improve and we try to keep a level head.
   ...
   Cason: The UPS manufacturers all have their own service divisions - which are big profit centers.
   ...
   Cason: Once the initial warranty is up, it is time for UPS owners to consider who they will buy their maintenance agreement from for a year or five years.
   ...
   Cason: Two of the biggest manufacturers - and this is probably our biggest challenge today - have in the past couple of years decided to go after more service work to increase profits.
   ...
   Cason: Unfortunately, the Justice Department shut down the investigation for resource reasons, even though it said there was merit.
   ...
   Cason: We are comfortable where we think this will end up.
   ...
   Cason: Yep, yep.
   ...
   Cason: No.
   ...
   Cason: Not really.
   ...
   Cason: Oh yeah.
   ...
   Cason: No, but some day I might. I've gotten a great education here, though.
   ...
   Cason: I don't think so.
   ...
   Cason: Hmmm.
   ...
   Cason: Our research shows, based on what happened with Kodak when the service playing field was leveled, that for independents who had been locked out, their business increased 10 times.
   ...
   Cason: I can still be very passionate and involved.
   ...
   Cason: That's probably the most frequent question we get.
   ...
   Cason: My wife and I just had a baby two months ago. It's our first child and that has changed things. Definitely for the better.
   ...
   Cason: Our last office was in Fitchburg and I lived in Verona at the time.