PCC Network Solutions has a client list of heavy-hitters — Walt Disney Pictures, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. The Chatsworth-based company has grown from a small structured cabling company, which CEO and Founder David Burr started in 1985 from his one-bedroom apartment in Canoga Park, into a network integrator with $14.2 million in revenues last year. PCC offers an array of structured cable, data, voice, wireless and security services and caters to clients in a variety of industries including entertainment, health care, academia and retail. When Burr started the company, the cabling industry was just being born, and there was virtually no education offered for training in his particular line of work. “I remember having to learn about scaffolding and how many porta-potties were required on construction sites,” Burr said. “Just about everything I’ve learned has been through trial and error.” He quickly learned that to grow a successful business he needed a solid and diverse leadership team, and he found that in Richard Harris, PCC’s corporate sales officer and James Wilmington, chief operating officer. Harris has a knack for strengthening and retaining relationships with clients, while Wilmington is the more technologically savvy partner, Burr said. Burr is the visionary in the group. “I look at the big picture,” he said. How PCC got started Burr said his business acumen has been prevalent since he was a kid mowing lawns and running his own Kool-Aid stand. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “I always enjoyed working hard, achieving a neighbor’s ‘atta boy’ and being paid in the process.” Never a gifted student, Burr said he withdrew from college after one year and decided to get into the cabling industry. In 1985, Burr left his position as Western regional manager of cabling operations for Micom Communications and made the decision to start his own business. In its early years, under the name Pacific Coast Cabling Systems, Burr worked out of his home. “The company was pretty primitive,” He said. “We had just a handful of people for the first five to six years.” PCC’s services were also limited in relation to the times, Burr said. The company’s installation process consisted of paying a visit to a customer’s home and stringing cables underneath a computer and plugging it into another piece of equipment. As local area networks and Ethernet became a reality in the mid-1980s, Burr said the nature of his business changed, as well. PCC’s roster of services went from simple structured cabling to a longer list that includes wireless, telephone and data networking. The company also has expanded to a staff of 80 with offices in California, Arizona, and Texas. FOUNDED: 1985 NUmber of Employees – August 2011: 80 NUmber of Employees – August 2010: 88 Revenues in 2010: $14.2 million Revenues in 2009: $14.1 million An ever-changing industry Mario Morales, senior electronic systems technician for Cerritos College in Norwalk has done business with PCC since the company was founded, when the company’s founders also happened to be its technicians. “I remember when Dave and Jim (Wilmington) would be the ones to come in and do the work,” Morales said. As the industry changed and projects with PCC became larger and more complex, the company always managed to keep up with the latest technologies and tackle the challenges, Morales said. Morales recalled a network installation project a couple years ago involving a new building on campus. The project was an extensive one, he said, noting it took about 18 months. “It was a big job that presented some challenges,” Morales said. “We had to figure out wall penetration and how to find access from above (the structure) to install the network.” Not only did PCC devise a way to figure out a solution, but the company also adhered to Morales’s installation guidelines and procedures, Morales said. And they’re tidy. “They always clean up after themselves,” Morales said. Burr said satisfying clients such as Morales has helped the company develop a good reputation in the business and attract new clients. “(Mario) demands excellence and was influential early on as we learned what it takes to satisfy a large customer with high performance standards,” Burr said. Facing Financial Hardships Although learning the latest technologies and software can present its challenges, Burr said financial hardships have been the toughest hurdles for PCC. In the 25 years that PCC has been in business, Burr said the company faced its most difficult period in the 2008-2009 fiscal year. That’s when the economy took a turn for the worst, and many of PCC’s clients faced financial hardships, which in turn led them to the cancel contracts with the cabling company. One contract in particular delivered a hard blow to the PCC team: Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial. Countrywide was one of PCC’s largest and longstanding clients, until the company’s failing financial state resulted in a canceled contract. “The Countrywide account was a big one,” Burr said. “When they were bought out by Bank of America a huge part of our revenue disappeared.” PCC’s business was basically cut in half, he said. PCC shut down their Florida office and “scaled down” the Arizona and California locations. But the company managed to survive. Despite the hardships, Burr said he and his counterparts expect the economy to recover in the next two to three years. As it does, he anticipates many of PCC’s core accounts to increase their IT spending. “We’re fortunate to be within an industry that is constantly innovating and creating productivity and efficiency improvements,” he said. In the immediate term, Burr said PCC plans on launching their new Web site in the fall. He said the new Web site is a “major overhaul” that will provide consumers access to an abundance of information related to the IT infrastructure. The company also will continue to strive towards finding new ways to better serve its customers. “People tend to support what they help to create,” Burr said. “People are the root of a successful enterprise.”
Wired for Success
