Cameron Brister fondly remembers the early years of SquarePlanIT, which started as a “nights and weekends thing — kind of a side hustle,” while he was in college.
After earning a computer science degree in 2012, Brister worked in the IT department of a local community college. He then moved into enterprise, managing IT infrastructure and support for a division of a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. But he continued to build SquarePlanIT — pronounced “square planet” — and when it became more successful, Brister made it his full-time gig.
Today, the head of Louisiana-based SquarePlanIT has served clients nationwide since 2009. The company brings enterprise-grade technology to small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and municipalities.
“What drove me was the kind of passion behind what I do,” Brister explained. “I saw a need when I was working in the Fortune 500 world, where there’s a huge technology disparity.”
Along with traditional managed IT services, SquarePlanIT offers custom programming and app development. It provides customers with a diverse range of automation, scripting, consulting, and co-managed services.
“If you look at SMBs versus enterprise IT in terms of what’s available, a lot of the technology that’s progressed in the last four or five years has really started to close that gap in terms of what’s available to the small business,” he noted. “Five or 10 years ago, what was available in the enterprise world was not even a thought in most SMB’s minds.”
A Strategic Partner to Close the Gap
Enterprise organizations are not always efficient, but they have the budgets to make necessary technology accessible. That’s not an option for most SMBs, Brister pointed out.
“I saw there definitely was a gap in what the average SMB had access to compared to the enterprise space. I’ve always worked to try to close that gap through automation and efficiency.”
Brister recalled when IT service providers built white-box computers and customized all the hardware years ago. “We’ve moved out of the hardware space into the services space and out of the on-prem infrastructure into the cloud.”
Unfortunately, the commoditization of most IT managed services is driving a race to the bottom in terms of pricing and service quality, he added. “You’ve got to keep the lights on. But helping businesses drive efficiency, understanding the business needs, business goals, and aligning the technology to that — that’s where the differentiators will be for our industry. Being a strategic partner to your clients.”
Brister initially developed his approach as a virtual CIO offering. He evolved the CIO role from focusing more on information management and governance to bringing in innovative technology and game-changing ideas to solve some business problems.
“At the same time, it always has to be data security first,” he noted. “That’s somewhere all of our clients lean on us strategically.”
This is what drove him throughout the growth of SquarePlanIT. “If I can empower SMBs to have access to these types of tools and to gain these types of efficiencies through some basic improvements, it’s making a difference!”
Resolving the Pain of Onboarding
Brister noticed that while SMBs had much room for efficiency, they often didn’t have a dedicated IT person or trusted advisor to help carry that out. “It was almost an injustice to the SMB that they did not have access or did not have these tools in place.”
He recalled an example of this injustice in action. “We onboarded a CPA firm last year, and one of the pain points they found was what happened when a new or existing employee was given a new computer. They had to spend a whole day working on the phone to get it set up … and they kill an entire day’s worth of productivity before they can do anything.”
He offered SquarePlanIT’s alternative. “There’s a better way if you just leverage even a fraction of the automation and tools available. It should be, ‘Here’s your new computer, your credential to sign in, and everything’s installed and ready to go.’ We’ll come in and they think we’re magical because we’ve put some cool automation through tools like Microsoft Intune, making it really seamless.”
Most complaints about onboarding point at how hard it is to work with the company’s IT department. “I tell people all the time that we’re always looking for ways to make it easier to work with us,” he emphasized. He cited a product he started rolling out last year called the “Help Desk Button.” Once the user presses a USB button, the software agent grabs a screenshot of their desktop and opens a ticket on their behalf.
Looking Into the Future
Brister makes it clear that SquarePlanIT is not in that race to the bottom. Too many MSPs compete only on price, which makes it challenging for the other good services providers in the industry, he said.
Rather, it’s more important to be a strategic partner, Brister advised. “[Be] the business-minded partner who can understand the mind of a business owner or leader. Understand the challenges they’re facing and the goals that they have, and then align the technology to that.”
He also suggests joining peer organizations, like the National Society of IT Service Providers (NSITSP), which promotes professionalism in the industry. “There are so many providers out there that give people like us a bad name. The added value I found here is honestly the camaraderie, networking and the connections that I’ve been able to make, he shared.
“Our industry truly is a small world. It gets smaller by the day … which I like.”
CAMERON BRISTER
Founder and CEO
- Founded: 2009
- Location: Monroe, LA
- Website: squareplanit.com
- Company focus: Managed IT infrastructure solutions, application development, IT/OT convergence, operational technology, manufacturing technology, and cybersecurity
Senior Resultant Howard M. Cohen is a 35-plus-year executive veteran of the IT industry. He has been creating compelling content for and about the channel since 2009. He has served on numerous boards and advisory panels, including the Apple, Compaq, HP, IBM, and NEC Service Advisory Councils; the Ingram Micro Service Network board; and is on the marketing committee of the National Society of IT Service Providers (NSITSP).
Image: Cameron Brister
