As our team continues to grow, we recently welcomed Ron Michael to the staff at UTG. Serving in the position of NOC Engineer, Ron brings 20+ years of IT support capabilities to help UTG’s clients. With two decades of experience, Ron has a vast repository of business and technology knowledge to rely upon when dealing with support challenges.

Ron was a small business owner for 10 years, providing IT support services to businesses throughout the southeast. He has held Microsoft certifications since 1999 and most recently attained the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert for Server Infrastructures on the Windows 2012 platform.

“One requirement to being a successful employee is working for successful and experienced managers,” said Ron. “I am very excited to be working with people that are not only excited about the growth of the company but also focus their energies on the growth of their employees.”

On a personal note, Ron loves restoring old cars and is currently returning a 1991 Nissan 300ZX to its original glory. He also has a dog that he claims is determined to “figure out ways to annoy me.”

Welcome to the team, Ron!

A group from UTG recently attended and facilitated  sessions at the ConnectWise User Group for the Southeast in Atlanta. This offered a chance for long-time Connectwise partners like UTG to learn about exciting new features, discover features that are on the horizon, share best practices, and network with other ConnectWise partners.  ConnectWise is a critical business application that UTG uses to actively manage and communicate with our clients.

The morning speaker, Brad Gross, delivered an in-depth look at Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, solutions and strategies.  Then we all enjoyed an incredible spread of make-your-own tacos, which were delicious and  provided a great break before the afternoon sessions.

The afternoon sessions were divided into Business and Technical roles. The two business sessions were about “partnering with other IT companies to do business” and Tracks.

The technical session was a hands-on reporting lab to learn about custom report creation using SQL and exports to Excel.

UTG CEO Eric Dykes presented an interactive afternoon session on ConnectWise Tracks – including setup, best practices, use cases for Tracks and Q&A. Look carefully in the image above and you’ll see Eric presenting with his photo on the big screens!

The UTG attendees found this to be a very rewarding experience, and we appreciate the opportunity to serve as leaders and active participants within the Connectwise User Group.

The UTG team recently gathered for our Q4 2012 Quarterly Growth Meeting, giving us an opportunity to review our performance over the last quarter and celebrate our achievements. UTG exists to serve as a catalyst for growth, and we take pride in doing everything we can to help our clients and employees grow. One of our favorite spots for these meetings is Ippolito’s Italian Restaurant, right down the road in Suwanee Town Center!

UTG CEO Eric Dykes provided a recap of the accomplishments and milestones from the past three months, which included:

• Analysis of our Q4 sales performance and areas of strength
• Celebrating 4 employee anniversaries: Eric Dykes (12 years), James Ilderton (11 years), Gina Thomoff (5 years), Michael Andrews (1 year)
• Welcoming our newest employee, Ron Michael
• Celebrating many birthdays that took place during the quarter
• Celebrating 100% positive ratings in the project satisfaction surveys that we’ve received from clients this year
• Reflecting on several community service projects, which is a core representation of our values and the idea of giving back

We also reflected on a very cool trip where the entire UTG staff and family members were treated to a mind-blowing performance of he Blue Man Group at the majestic Fox Theatre in Atlanta.

While we always celebrate recent employee anniversaries, the growth meeting happened to take place on the very day of Gina Thomoff’s 5th anniversary! Congrats Gina!

The team then engaged in our new tradition of passing of batons. At UTG, we have a core set of corporate values, or “rules to live by.”  We have a set of batons each emblazoned with one of these values. The recipients from the last meeting were asked to listen and observe throughout Q4 to see when a fellow team member would live by one of the rules.

At this meeting, the baton holders told the stories of the good actions throughout the quarter and presented the recipient with that baton. It’s always enlightening to hear these real-world examples of living by the rules, and it helps to keep our corporate values top of mind each and every day.

This group of well-deserving recipients of the batons will now be tasked with passing the company values batons forward in Q1 2013! Great job guys.

Finally, we select one employee every quarter that has exemplified personal or professional growth and award them with the Quarterly Growth Award. The Q4 recipient was Jennifer Martin, who went above and beyond last quarter in planning, arranging and executing the best Christmas party in our company’s history. She handled every aspect, from booking the venue, arranging the entertainment, decorating, and even cooking all the food!

Buzz Lightyear, the heartwarming character from Toy Story, has a personal motto: “To Infinity and Beyond.” Well, Jennifer did that and more, hence receiving this award PLUS her very own Buzz Lightyear doll. Jennifer, congratulations on a job well done!

Stay tuned for the Q1 Company Growth Meeting details, which will inevitably be focused on steady, sustainable and positive growth.

Can we help your business grow through the leveraging of technology? Drop us a line.

We recently visited Jordan Outdoor Enterprises for the very first video shoot in our case study portfolio. Video provides a unique opportunity to truly bring our success stories to life—and they’re also a great way to showcase our clients’ personalities while sharing how UTG supports these growing companies through the use of technology.

For his part, UTG CEO Eric Dykes was proud to share his insights into what makes this client relationship successful. From transforming their infrastructure to securing the company’s intellectual property and more, UTG has leveraged technology to help Jordan Outdoor Enterprises grow to become the marketshare leader in their industry.

The parent company of RealTree, Jordan Outdoor Enterprises is the #1 licenser of camouflage designs—so it makes sense that the video shoot would take place on hundreds of acres of their beautiful private land near Pine Mountain, GA (just north of Columbus, GA).

The property includes many log cabin-style buildings that are also used for meeting space.

This picturesque property is no stranger to film—it’s also been used to film several hunting shows that appear on cable television.

Between takes, folks were able to take foosball and ping-pong breaks while many mounted animals watched over them! We also enjoyed a tasty BBQ lunch from Shorty’s BBQ.

Jordan Outdoor Enterprises’ IT Manager Scott Danford tells how UTG’s technology solutions have directly benefited the company and helped prepare them for the exponential growth in marketshare they’ve experienced. By leveraging UTG’s Managed Services, the client has been able to keep their numbers of full time employees low. As you’ll see when the video is completed, Scott and the team at Jordan Outdoor Enterprises greatly value their decade-long partnership with UTG and feel as if we are an extension of their company, rather than just a technology vendor.

Pictured here are Tennessee Lockman, UTG Sales Representative; Eric Dykes, UTG CEO; Scott Danford, Director of IT at Jordan Outdoor Enterprises and Brian Miller, UTG President and COO. Editing of the video is now in progress and we look forward to sharing the final cut soon!

In its continuing effort to give back to those less fortunate, UTG has teamed up with Hands of Love USA, an organization whose mission is to empower Uganda’s destitute orphans to live abundant lives in Christ through Hands of Love Foundation in Uganda.

Brian Miller, Chief Operating Officer at UTG, announced last week that UTG has committed to a monthly sponsorship in addition to sending refurbished computer equipment for the school’s staff and students. The company’s cash donation will cover the secondary educational and living expenses of approximately seven children. The donated equipment will at first help increase the school staff’s efficiency, and then establish a computer lab for the students.

“We greatly appreciate UTG’s contribution to the education and welfare of these children,” said Nora Charlesworth, Director of the Marietta, GA-based Hands of Love USA, which currently cares for more than 1,300 orphans in Uganda. “Nearly all of the students are doing quite well in our school, and one even scored 15th in the nation last year. UTG’s contribution will undoubtedly help many others reach this level of success.”

Hands of Love USA helps Ugandan orphans learn skills and develop the knowledge that will empower them to become successful participants in Ugandan society.

Hands of Love USA sponsorships typically start at $40 per child per month to provide food, clothing, medicine and an education through 6th grade. From grades 7-12, additional sponsorships of $45 per child per month are needed to supplement testing, lab, equipment and uniform fees. Since many individual sponsors are unable to afford the extra fees, that’s where larger organizations such as UTG step in to assist.

Mission volunteers from Hands of Love USA ensure that the Ugandan orphans receive nourishing meals every day.

UTG is proud of the fantastic work that Hands of Love USA is doing in Uganda and pleased to serve an important role in the lives of these beautiful children.

As part of our efforts to continually give back to our community, a group from UTG recently participated in a service project that is part of the Be Rich campaign. This holiday giving and serving initiative is sponsored by the five Metro Atlanta churches that make up North Point Ministries. During the campaign, the church asks members to “do more and give more” by being rich towards others.

The Be Rich campaign carefully chooses partner organizations that are doing great work in the community, and the UTG crew was chosen to assist at the North Gwinnett Co-op in Buford.

The group assembled at 9:30AM and were there to assist with the distribution of holiday meal bags to families in the area.  Above, UTG CEO Eric Dykes and UTG client Daryl Goard from Tomco CO2 Systems begin the work of filling bags for struggling families.

UTG President/COO Brian Miller was also on hand to pitch in with this community service project. Dozens of bags stuffed with food and other items were delivered to thankful families all across the area.

The Be Rich campaign defines specific goals each year. Here is a breakdown of the program’s success in 2012.

Give more time:
Goal: 20,000 hours
Actual: 32,584 hours

Give more food:
Goal: 50+ tons
Actual: 87.4 tons

Give more gifts:
Goal: 15,000 boxes of gifts
Actual: 20,332 boxes of gifts

Give more money:
Goal: $1.5 million
Actual: $5 million

At UTG, we’re very proud that we brightened the holidays for local families and played a role in helping North Point Ministries and the Be Rich campaign impressively exceed their goals.

With 2012 drawing to a close, the team at UTG recently took some time to celebrate our company holiday party. We decided to shake things up this year by having a casino night!

Held at Tabby’s Irish Pub in historic downtown Buford, the evening started with some tasty food and socializing.

The menu included shrimp cocktail, meatballs, sliced meats and cheeses, and more…

At 8PM, it was time to get gambling! All attendees received an envelope stuffed with $20,000 in custom UTG-branded cash which they could use to buy chips.

It was a true casino experience with professional dealers and games including roulette, poker, blackjack and craps.

Once the chips were counted, the major winners all received raffle tickets based on their chip counts. Then we drew raffle tickets for some great prizes and gift cards.

Interestingly, most of the winners came from our Augusta office! Todd O’Black was the big winner, followed by Becky Westphall and Will Sasser. Will recently moved to our Atlanta location, but apparently his Augusta roots helped him take home a nice prize!

Afterwards, a group headed to the nearby pizza place for Karaoke and fun.

Oh, one more thing: local legend says that Tabby’s Irish Pub is supposedly haunted. While we were cleaning up afterwards, Eric Dykes’ wife Amy accidentally slammed the door and gave everyone a holiday fright!

For a full album of photos from the holiday party, check out our Facebook page. (and ‘Like’ us while you’re there!)

Merry Christmas from UTG!

GPS Hospitality, a new Atlanta-based restaurant management group, recently acquired 42 BURGER KING ® restaurants in the Metro Atlanta. With these new acquisitions spread over a fairly large geographic area and 13 full time employees directly involved with the management of these resources, they needed a rapid deployment of technology to support this new entrepreneurial adventure.

The principles that recently formed GPS Hospitality have a long history with UTG, based on the previous experience of UTG supporting The Wendy’s/Arby’s Group. “I found a partner in UTG who was willing to take a risk with a startup company based on a handshake,” said Tom Garrett, former CEO of The Wendy’s/Arby’s Group. “Because we had some history with UTG, we were able to begin a partnership and had an infrastructure in place even before I had an office and the ability to cut a check to UTG.”

“Because of that, GPS will stand by UTG for a long time. They took a risk to believe in us and we recognize that. Despite the challenges of this quick rollout, UTG was able to provide custom solutions that were tailored to our needs. They didn’t try to force a square peg into round hole, but instead they let us drive our business. That is what a partnership is all about.”

The initial IT solutions provided by UTG have included a cloud datacenter solution, corporate infrastructure, networking services between all of their sites and the BURGER KING ® corporate network, setting up Microsoft Office 365 for their messaging platform, and the ongoing managed services needed for active monitoring and support of this suite of technology.

GPS has an aggressive growth strategy with a goal of reaching 100 restaurants over the next 5 years. In addition, the company will focus on remodeling 29 of its BURGER KING ® restaurants over the next three years. The solutions that UTG has provided are meeting the challenges of today and will also evolve with the growing technology needs of GPS Hospitality.

On November 3, UTG CEO Eric Dykes participated in the Ironman Florida event to help kids attend Camp TBI, a camp that offers a safe and fun experience for children and young adults between the ages of 8 and 21 with traumatic brain injury. During the grueling 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run, Eric was inspired by the generous support of so many clients, employees, friends and family. This network of generosity was able to raise an amazing $8,055 to help send more kids to camp.

Last week, Eric was able to present this check at a special luncheon. Attendees included our local UTG employees, Volunteers for Camp TBI, Board Members for Walton Foundation (operators of Camp TBI), and one of our clients, SRP.

SRP has enabled us to come into the Augusta market and be successful, and they have been generous supporters of our Camp TBI fund raisers. The luncheon was a really neat convergence of all of these groups behind a common cause of supporting these special kids.

“Support of those around us is invaluable,” said Eric. “The motto of Ironman is ‘Anything is possible’, and while it may be true that anything is possible on our own, all I know after testing my limits like this is that it sure is a lot easier with support from those around us.”

“I had incredible support from friends and family. With over 20 hours per week training and sessions before dawn and after dark, understanding and encouragement from those close to me were critical to the process. On race day the people around me helped me keep going when I was not sure if I could: my family (who was there), friends (some where there but so many were following along over www.ironman.com and social media) and fellow racers.”

“There are two very poignant examples of this support from family and friends. First, at mile 13 of the run I really started to struggle. At that time I saw my family in the crowd and they were all so excited and supportive. Right before I left them for the final 13 mile loop my son ran up to me and said “Dad, just remember this, ‘Finish Strong!’” That was my training motto and hearing those words from him made me realize that I was going to finish.

“Then, with about 6 miles left, my body was done. My stomach was a wreck and my legs were shot. A friend who I had trained with caught up with me. It was dark and lonely out there and he stayed with me the rest of the race. I wanted so badly to stop moving forward but Dan wouldn’t hear of it. Again, I have no idea if I would have been able to keep moving forward for that last hour but I do know that support from a fiend like that made it easier.”

“Another key area of this race was technical support. In preparing for the Ironman, I had so many technical questions. Having support from the right trainers and equipment experts is a must to complete this distance triathlon. Having Allen Heaton of Kinetix Training as my bike fitter helped me with the most gear-intensive portion of the race. It is amazing how much the proper equipment and fitting affect your performance in biking. Similarly, The Big Peach Running Company in Suwanee, GA was very helpful with my running. They spent a lot of time watching me run in countless pairs of shoes to find the right fit. Last but not least, the coaches at Swim Atlanta have helped me to transform my swimming from a frantic and tiring effort to a semblance of a repeatable and efficient stroke.”

“Finally, I enjoyed the support of fellow athletes. I was lucky enough this year to meet some people who were doing this same event. These folks were terrific during training providing accountability, encouragement, advice, etc. In the days, hours, and even minutes before the race, it was really encouraging to have friends that were undertaking the same challenge with you.”

“I have emerged from this experience with a great understanding of how precise, careful planning and the right kind of support can help you reach a major and seemingly insurmountable goal. So many of the kids that attend the camp have goals that might seem commonplace or easy to you and me. Meanwhile, they may spend the better part of a summer working hard to meet those seemingly simple goals. The volunteers and staff at Camp TBI are the support network that help these kids achieve new heights in inspirational ways. Looking back on this experience and the donations that poured in, I feel an immense amount of pride and satisfaction after helping to raise awareness about the camp.”

A special thanks to every one of you that supported this effort.

Two members of UTG’s leadership team recently joined over 2,000 other enthusiastic managed service providers, resellers and vendors at Connectwise IT Nation 2012, a major technology conference in Orlando. At the core of this event was a focus on business acumen and professional delivery of technology services and products. Brian Miller, UTG President/COO, and Rebecca Goard, UTG Director of Sales and Marketing, were both in attendance at this important IT industry event.

The keynote speaker for IT Nation 2012 was Jim Collins, the author of legendary business books including “Built to Last”, “Good to Great” and “How the Mighty Fall”. His books have sold more than ten million copies worldwide. In an electrifying speech, Jim defined the principles for building and sustaining a truly great enterprise in unpredictable and fast-moving times. All attendees definitely left his speech with some great food for thought.

For example, What defines a great company? According to Jim, a great company delivers superior results, makes a distinctive impact and achieves lasting endurance. As UTG continues to focus on the growth of our people, our clients and our relationships, these are key items that will help us keep focus on our longterm goals.

Here are some instant reactions to the keynote speech from impressed attendees:

UTG was also a key contributor to an embedded event at IT Nation, the HTG Peer Group meeting. The business owners of the HTG group have realized the need for sales managers to have the opportunity to have their own peer group where they can collaborate and strategize on ideas related directly to their organization’s sales strategy.

Based on Rebecca’s extensive sales experience, she was asked to facilitate and lead this group of talented sales managers from around the country. Topics such as team structure, compensation plans, account management and sales strategies were all discussed, reviewed and challenged.

“I am always impressed with the amount of knowledge and new ideas we gain from being a member of this sales group and being part of an amazing business peer group such as HTG, ” said Rebecca.

At UTG, we’re proud to participate in these major technology events and play active leadership roles within the industry, as this helps us continue to deliver world-class, cutting-edge technology services to our clients across the region.