He Ended Up With A Trusted Business Advisor And Friend In CW IT Support’s CEO Brian Satz
Company Name: Rulmeca Corporation
Name & Title: Mike Gawinski, CEO
Location: Wilmington, NC
Website: RulmecaCorp.com
Industry: Conveyor Manufacturing Components
When you think of the creation of some of your favorite products, you might pause for a moment to ponder the manufacturing process, but do you ever consider the items needed to make manufacturing possible? If your answer is “no,” you’re not alone. Luckily, there are some businesses that specialize in that train of thought.
On a global scale, Rulmeca Group has been providing innovative material handling components for conveyers since 1962. Motorized Pulleys, conveyor rollers, and other components make manufacturing possible. When Mike Gawinski opened up a new Rulmeca Group branch, Rulmeca Corporation, in the United States in 2003, he and his partner were working from a shipping container. They weren’t an established, well-connected organization, but because of demand for their products, they had to figure things out quickly.
“After we outgrew one shipping container, we bought another shipping container. But it quickly became clear that they weren’t going to cut it. We moved into a new building and began hiring staff,” Mike explained. “We couldn’t afford an IT person, so at the time, our only IT support came from a major national chain computer store. We had a friend who worked there, and the only support we got was from him.” While this worked for a while, Mike knew this setup wasn’t sustainable.
Once Rulmeca Corporation grew to a team of five people and a 5,000-sq.-ft. warehouse that was bringing in millions of dollars in revenue each year, Mike started looking for a new approach to IT support. “Our controller at the time saw a van in the parking lot with a wraparound sticker on it. She wrote down the number, brought it to me, and we called Brian Satz at CW IT Support.” Since that phone call over 10 years ago, Brian and Mike have grown their businesses alongside one another, leaned on each other as business leaders, and of course, built a new IT solution for Rulmeca Corporation.
Answering the Call
Even 10 or 20 years ago, most companies were much less dependent on computers than they are today. If computer systems go down, even for a matter of hours, companies can face serious challenges in recovering. At one point, before working with CW IT Support, Mike’s hard drive went out. Even though it was one single machine, the sense of panic that the incident brought pushed him to do whatever it took to never experience a computer problem without the support required to fix it.
“There’s a story that just illustrates perfectly the type of company CW IT is,” Mike shared. “It was 2018 and we had just moved into the 30,000-sq.-ft. building we are in now. We were getting ready to host guests from our international company for the annual sales budget meeting. Representatives from 20 different countries were going to be in attendance. A massive hurricane swept through, knocking out power in our building and closing down the hotel people were supposed to stay at.” With the roof leaking, no power for days, and the entire city crippled, Mike wasn’t sure the event was going to happen at all.
Just in the nick of time, the utility company said it would be able to restore power. “I called Brian, and he came out here himself at 6:30 in the morning. He and I started up the server that same morning, and I just wanted to hug him. It was very difficult for us, but CW IT helped us get through it. Since then, if there’s ever an issue—which is rare—I call Brian’s cell phone and he gets it worked out.”
Growing Together
Both Rulmeca Corporation and CW IT Support were much smaller companies when they started working together. When Mike found Brian at CW IT Support, he found more than an IT service provider; he found a business leader and friend who was at a similar stage in his career. “Both of our companies were very young, and he and I would not only do work, but we’d talk about growing our businesses, share marketing tips, and connect each other to other people in our networks,” Mike said.
The two men grew as leaders and their businesses grew as well. The partnership has transformed as Mike’s IT needs grew. “Brian now provides us with a whole suite of services, updated storage capabilities, and perhaps the most important thing—cybersecurity measures,” he said. Being able to go to a professional expert, ask questions, and trust that they are making decisions that are truly in the best nature of your organization isn’t always the norm in this space, but with CW IT, Mike doesn’t have to question it.
Sharing Success
Recommending CW IT Support to other business leaders in the area isn’t something that Mike ever thinks twice about; it’s almost a reflex at this point. He knows that the best MSP in the area is CW IT Support, and he wants other businesses to reap the same benefits that he has seen from working with Brian and his team. He promotes CW IT Support any chance he gets. “There’s a local manufacturing association, and we have more than 50 companies involved now. I told the person that runs it that he needs to invite Brian to join because I want other companies to be able to access his services.”
At Rulmeca Corporation, there’s a running joke that working with CW IT Support is the best way to get instant gratification. Mike’s staff know that anytime they make a call or put in a ticket, they’re getting a response—and usually a solution—within the hour. Reiterating his ambassadorship for CW IT Support, Mike continued, “I’m not doing it to get brownie points or commission or anything. It’s just the right thing to do. If he was mediocre, I wouldn’t be doing it. But the service level is so high, and the care of the owner is so intense, that it’s only fair to let other businesses in on the secret of working with Brian and his team.”