Focusing to improve customers’ lives with full-scope solutions to the technical problems of micro-enterprises, Matt Kahle founded Real IT Solutions in 2006. Adam Peterson joined the company in 2007. Together they have grown to over ten people, continuing with their mission.
Real IT Solutions offers a host of managed IT services, with its flagship RealCare™ Service as the headliner. It partners with small manufacturers as either a wholly outsourced or fully integrated co-managed IT department. Matt asserts, “A key focus area for us the last few years has been cybersecurity. We have seen too many small businesses get attacked – few of which make the news, but it happens every day. Most of these attacks are preventable. There are many basic protections we can implement that most companies aren’t even aware of and don’t break the bank.”
Name You Can Trust
Real IT Solutions is the preferred choice for local, small, manufacturing, and engineering companies because of their commitment to their industry. They have delivered IT services and solutions for small manufacturers for over 16 years. Matt says, “We feel like we do a better job than anyone else at understanding and meeting the needs and challenges of these businesses.”
Real IT Solutions’ core values are structured around two key areas related to its core focus. It wants to improve the lives of its customers with Extraordinary Customer Service, Impeccable Quality, Integrity, and Accountability.
The second focus area is improving the lives of its team with collaborative Teamwork, Ongoing Learning, and remembering to have fun. It hires, measures, manages, and rewards based on those six Core Values and constantly strives to find new ways to improve those key areas.
Hurdles Along the Way
Matt thinks that the impact of the pandemic on the technology services sector has been muted. However, it accelerated the move to more decentralization and more remote work, but Real IT Solutions was on that trajectory already. Matt shares, “I do think it’s had a large impact on other industries. The vast and rapid enablement of remote workers was a sea change. It forced many people to evaluate how they were spending their time and maybe reset their priorities a bit. I think we saw that with the so-called Great Resignation, and I think we continue to see it as companies are having to raise wages and benefits to attract and retain talent.”
Matt states that the decentralization and remote work trends affecting the manufacturing industry are less pronounced than in many other industries. Manufactures are very heavily facilities dependent and require local IT infrastructure. One other issue that has come to the forefront for this industry is the need for better, more pervasive broadband internet. Most manufacturing plants are not in city centers and aren’t typically close to existing fiber infrastructure
Going Above and Beyond
Real IT Solutions continues to grow and provide additional expertise to its customers. Matt thinks the company will continue to expand beyond traditional managed IT services and security services. Matt notes, “We always try to listen to the customers and address their pain and concerns, and if I’m hearing them correctly, these are some areas of concern.”
“One key area I think you’ll see us focus on is helping our clients learn more and get smarter about their operations through data collection and analysis. By modernizing shop floor equipment, we are getting good data from a huge variety of sources. We want to help them to make sense of that data and turn it into actionable intelligence. Part of this effort will also involve automation wherever it’s pragmatic to do so. We see increased investment in augmenting the workforce with robotics and other automation systems to promote workplace safety and improve productivity,” clarifies Matt.
Matt feels that cloud and remote enablement will continue to be a focus. Better broadband, unified communication, collaboration platforms – huge investments are being made in these areas, and Real IT Solutions needs to continue evaluating, recommending, and deploying these solutions to its customers.
“Overall, I think the future is incredibly bright for Real IT Solutions. We have an amazing team of really smart people, and I’m excited to see what the future holds,” Matt concludes
