The Tech Dispatches

There’s never a good moment for the company computer system to crash.

At Fee Simple Title Agency in Fort Myers, it kept happening over several months until one day, the server and Internet connection seized up and wouldn’t recover. Six years’ worth of vital records had vanished into cyberspace.

Co-owner Kelli Wood almost had a breakdown of her own. "I was about ready to cry," she says.
So she did what countless small businesses do when they lack a tech-savvy person on staff. She summoned professional help. Entech Computer Services came and, in a few days, restored Fee Simple’s system, records and all.

Technology glitches frustrate companies of all sizes, but those that do not have IT specialists on staff might feel the strain even more. Entech and similar computer-related businesses have capitalized on the need for third-party, on-site support with a variety of service options.

Calls for help are typically for one of two reasons: system difficulties or user error, according to Entech CEO and president Martin Haas. In either case, Haas says, "[Businesses] get frustrated and call on us. That’s our bread and butter."

For $125 an hour—a one-hour minimum applies—and $25 for the service call, Entech will send out one of its eight technicians. After the first hour, the nine-year-old, Fort Myers-based company bills in 15-minute increments based on the hourly rate. The company also offers monthly service plans.

If a situation is too tricky for the responding tech, that’s where the other seven come in. "Not everyone can know everything," Haas says. "But between our eight people, they know everything."

Among the challenges Entech encounters are systems that have been assembled or repaired by an unqualified co-worker, friend or family member. "We are sometimes called in on a fiasco where someone with good intentions gets into deeper and deeper trouble," Haas says.

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