Milestones of Service

This spring, we passed a major milestone in the life of our business: We celebrated the 25th anniversary of our founding! Also, as readers of this newsletter know, we recently moved into new, expanded offices right up the street from our former location, and we are up and running! To mark both occasions, we were honored to host the Chamber of Commerce last month for a celebration and ribbon cutting. 

I’ve been reflecting on the history of our business and all that we owe to our clients. We see ourselves as partners with the businesses we serve to help their teams become more efficient and skilled with technology. One of our biggest rewards is seeing how our clients have grown and prospered. Seeing them succeed means a lot to us.

I’m sometimes asked how we have stayed ahead of all the vast changes in IT over the last quarter-century. The answer is easy: We listen to our clients. We meet with our customers quarterly to ask them what’s happening in their businesses and how we can support their growth. What we have learned from them has equipped us to stay on top of major milestones in the evolution of technology. Here are a few milestones.

Creating Unique Email 

Back in 1999, when I started Christo IT, people used the internet primarily for one-way communication. Clients would ask us for help switching from an aol.com email address to one unique to their business or giving each employee their own address. We also helped clients
with cybersecurity, which was already an issue. In 1999, the Melissa virus hit Outlook and Microsoft Word systems, and 2000 brought the ILOVEYOU computer worm that infected more than 10 million personal computers.

The Laptop Age 

In the first decade of the 2000s, laptops became more affordable, and laptop sales surpassed desktop computers. Our clients began talking about taking their work home or on the road. Beyond that, videoconferencing enabled people to meet with someone in another city or country without getting on a plane. Within the next few years, software as a service and cloud-based apps assumed center stage as businesses moved onto the cloud. We heard more clients talking about “this new Salesforce app that has really become a thing now.

The Pandemic Shock 

The pandemic was a unique challenge that really changed the landscape. In about two weeks, we had to help a couple thousand people move from the office to working from home. Some clients unplugged their desktops from under their desks and took them home. Others would call us and say, “Hey, I have my home PC. Can I work on that?” It was quite a scramble. My team rose to the occasion. If we had to go to a client’s location, we had all the medicalgrade wipes, gloves, and masks. We did what we had to do, and we did it well. I would never want to do it again, but I’m proud of our accomplishments.

Managing Cybersecurity Risk 

During the pandemic years, we developed a standard set of cybersecurity services as a core offering to protect our clients against hacking, phishing, denial of service, and other cyberattacks. As awareness of these risks has grown, insurance companies have begun requiring businesses to purchase Cyber Security Specific Policies instead of relying on traditional Umbrella Policies. Fortunately, our clients can show underwriters they already have state-of-the-art protection.

As we begin our second quarter-century of service, one of our core values is to keep the trust of our clients and employees. We have a poster on our office wall that reads, “Keep The Trust: Trust is the first, last, and only thing in IT.” The trust our clients place in us and our work is unbelievable. It is absolutely an honor. Our goal in the coming years is to maintain that trust. And we want to thank our clients, friends, and families who have supported us over the years.

We could never have done it without you.

Chris Schalleur
CEO & Founder, Christo IT