TOILING OUT OF SIGHT
Behind that online maintenance message, a computer consultant is fixing what’s broken
Part of a series
Someone like Steven Hutton is working behind the pop-up dialogue box on a bank’s webpage, telling customers they won’t be able to log on between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. due to maintenance.
Users may grumble a bit, and then head off to do some other chore. That’s when Mr. Hutton, 46, of Gibsonia, is in repair mode.
A self-proclaimed “project guy,” he juggles two or three contracts with third-party companies at a time. Sometimes, he’s providing support to a company’s information technology department; other times, he dives straight into the debugging or updating himself.
“You kind of need to know, at a deep level, all of the technologies,” said Mr. Hutton, a technology consultant at AEC Group in Oakdale. “Because when you go into implementing something, you have to know how it’s going to tie in, what else might break.”
About 6,660 people work in Mr. Hutton’s field in the Pittsburgh region.
Employment in computer systems design services rose 59.3 percent between 2013 and 2017, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures.
“If you look across the skyline of the city of Pittsburgh, we’ve probably worked with 90 percent of them,” said Ken Rindt, senior vice president of sales and strategic alliances at AEC Group.
Mr. Rindt calls the company an “end-to-end” technology solutions provider, meaning that the firm can handle all parts of a client’s technology solution, from design to support to hardware needs.
For example, while Mr. Hutton said about 50 percent of his time is spent building and fixing systems — providing software support and design services — AEC can also physically host and manage pertinent data to those systems at its small data center in the Oakdale office.
The company, which last year had $58 million in revenue, employs 115 to 130 workers — the exact number fluctuates due to the nature of the firm’s electrical unit. That segment actually spearheaded the company in 1992 as a commercial and industrial electrical contracting firm in McKeesport.
Between 1999 and 2001, AEC acquired systems integration firm Threshold Technologies Inc. and business consulting firm Structure Solutions LP. The acquisitions shifted its technical focus to include not only structured cabling — or the process used to assemble the hardware used in telecommunications services — but also software.
Since then, its services have grown to encompass system design; consulting in data centers, mobility and system health checks; and offerings in new trends, like cloud computing. Working in software as a service, AEC and similar firms must stay abreast of shifts in the tech field to keep up with the competition.
“We learn the customers’ environment. We learn what the business is about and where they experience pains,” Mr. Rindt said. While the company’s consultants work in all sectors, it has a notable presence in health care, legal, manufacturing and distribution, he added. And AEC markets its services to customers within a 100mile radius of the city but performs work in 20-25 states.
The employees are encouraged to participate in continuing education. Mr. Rindt said the company pays for classes and other forms of training. Certifications, for example, are required from “top tier” partners to keep the company in good standing. AEC is a partner of software providers like Citrix, Cisco and VMware, among others.
The level of expertise required