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Barry Kelly

By: Barry Kelly on August 18, 2021

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Hartford Business Journal Profiles Kelser in its 40th Anniversary Year

In the Media | News

This summer marks 40 years in business for Kelser. I’m immensely proud of our sustained success. But to be honest, I almost hesitate to bring up the milestone.

The IT industry changes constantly and the rate of change is increasing. To be a leader in this space, you have to be nimble and always looking ahead to the future.

Our clients hire us to help them compete and stay at the forefront of technology. For the most part, they don’t really care that we’ve been doing this since 1981. They care more about where we can help them go by 2025.

But I suppose it’s our unwavering commitment to that very mindset that has carried us through the decades. It has also nourished our client relationships, some of which date back almost to the founding of the company.

The road from ‘IT guys’ to business enabler

To mark our 40th anniversary, The Hartford Business Journal recently published a Company Profile about Kelser. My favorite line is the last, a quote from Pete Schauster, president of Empire Industries: “We’re experts in manufacturing stuff, we’re not specialists in IT.”

The article says that Kelser provides “a variety of managed services, including cybersecurity, data center maintenance and monitoring, and business continuity and disaster recovery.” What Pete hits on in that last quote is the experience of all those pieces working together.

When you have an IT partner engaged on a proactive basis to get ahead of problems rather than react to them and to think strategically about how technology can enable your business, it allows you to focus on what you do in a powerful new way. 

This is one of the biggest shifts I’ve seen in IT over the last 40 years. As technology has become better and familiarity with it has increased, smart companies have moved from a break/fix model to viewing IT as a business enabler.

It’s a two-way street. Our clients benefit from our expertise and making IT part of their business strategy, and we take every opportunity to learn from our clients. If you have an idea of something you’d like to achieve or a way to improve the process, we see it as a chance to innovate.

A community with deep roots

One major advantage of 40 years in business is the strong connections with clients, partners, and vendors that enable us to have an impact in the community. Without these long-running relationships, we wouldn’t be able to host a golf tournament fundraiser that helped launch the Center for Cognitive Health at the Hospital for Special Care.

It’s amazing how many clients and partners return year after year to play in and sponsor this tournament (which, by the way, is coming up on September 14, 2021). Even when the pandemic canceled the event last year, our community came through to support the cause.

In addition, the fact that we’ve been in business for 40 years I think communicates a level of stability that is hard to find in the technology field. Many Kelser employees stay with us for decades. Our longevity enables us to hire and keep top talent. 

This is the kind of place you can build a career — as long as reinvention is in your DNA.

About Barry Kelly

Barry has built a business on advancing technology. But he’ll be the first to show you – not just tell you – how important his Kelser family is. In his role as CEO, Barry is known for his continuous drive to uncover promising new evolutions in technology and to develop services that will position his clients for success.

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