Reflecting on Seven Decades!
We recently celebrated our company’s 70th anniversary at our Schaumburg, IL headquarters. It was fun to catch up with some old friends, and meet some new ones too! It was a special night for us, as we looked back on our seven decades in business – and to take a look at what might lie ahead.
Times were different when our company founder, Vincent Miceli (father of current CEO Chip Miceli) first hung out a shingle in front of the garage at their home – and with that act, Des Plaines Office Equipment was born.
In 1955, a gallon of gasoline sold for twenty-three cents, houses cost around $10,000, and Dwight Eisenhower was the nation’s president. And the “state of the art” technology of the day, which Des Plaines Office Equipment sold, included typewriters and calculators, with a mix of office furniture.
Fast-forward for a moment: today Pulse Technology (re-named during a 2018 re-branding) operates from a 36,500 square foot state-of-the-art showroom in Schaumburg, with a similar-sized facility in Merrillville, IN. Today you won’t find a typewriter anywhere on the premises (we don’t have a “technology museum” on site, at least not yet); and as for calculators, possibly some for personal use. What you will find is the latest in state-of-the-art document generation equipment from the industry’s top manufacturers –copiers and multi-function printers – and the latest in video walls, and a Network Operating Center (NOC) to handle the IT needs of our clients.
A special thanks to all of our guests, and a “shout out” to our local, state and business leaders including:
- Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly
- State Senator Laura Murphy
- State Representative Michelle Mussman
- Schaumburg Director of Economic Development Matt Frank
- Schaumburg Business Association president Andrea Biwer
- Greater O’Hare Business Association president Shirlanne Lemm
- Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Alyssa Lombardo
- Michael Stramaglio, Stramaglio Consulting
- Bob Goldberg, former counsel to BTA
- Brent Hoskins, Business Technology Association
- Jennie Fisher, GreatAmerica
- Joe Gucwa, Kyocera
- Mark Vruno, The Cannata Report
- Ray Belanger, former president, Bay Copy
- Chris Johnson, SHARP Electronics
- Christin Turmail, SHARP Electronics
- Heather Pfundstein, Northwest Indiana Business Magazine
We were very pleased to hear the kind words from our guests and friends. And the occasion gave us the chance to pause and consider the many changes in our industry and our business since our founder first opened the doors 70 years ago this month:
- We have a third generation of Micelis actively involved in the business – although we do view our entire Pulse team as family also
- The company has expanded through acquisitions and the addition of new products and services
- We changed our name from Des Plaines Office Equipment to Pulse Technology, to reflect our broader mission and services
- Pulse expanded into Indiana with the acquisition of two businesses and the opening of a building to serve as the Indiana headquarters
- We have relocated our Illinois headquarters after a microburst destroyed our Elk Grove Village facility
- We have built a stand-alone A-V department
- We have greatly expanded our IT and cybersecurity offerings, and it has become a major part of what we provide to our customers throughout our three-state market
- We added furniture design and sales (which in a way brings us back to our roots, since office furniture was among the first offerings of Des Plaines Office Equipment)
- We have been designated as a “Best Places to Work” in Illinois for the last five years in a row
We’ve learned along the way that one key to success is being laser-focused on what customers want (and need), and of course staying on top of all of the latest industry trends and developments. We participate in a number of national industry groups as well as some local business organizations to be sure that our finger is on the pulse of what is going on.
It would be interesting to have a crystal ball and be able to see another 70 years into the future. What we do expect to happen over the next decade, though, is greater integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our technology, which means that the equipment we use to create and produce documents will become even more sophisticated – as will the technology to properly service and maintain it. We’ll no doubt see cybercriminals laboring to keep up with advances in technology so it will be more important than ever to be sure your networks are protected. We’ll see an increased reliance on electronic document storage as businesses and organizations look to be as environmentally friendly as possible. And we expect that new and interesting businesses will emerge as part of the landscape.
What the workplace will look like years in the future is anyone’s guess. Covid changed the way a lot of businesses looked at their office space. It’s likely that the hybrid element of the workplace will remain with us into the future, so again it makes sense to see that your technology is up to speed and that it is both serving you as needed, and protecting your information. And it’s likely that video walls, which have come into their own in recent years, will be an even more dominant part of the office scene.
We’re thankful and grateful for our seventy years in this business. Thank you for being part of our story – whether it’s been for a year, ten years, or longer – or even if you just happen to be surfing the web and located our blog. We appreciate you all. If we can help you with your technology, printing or A-V needs in any way, please give us a call at 847-879-6400 or visit https://pulsetechnology.com. Or visit the Pulse Technology LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulse-tech/
