Humble Beginnings

Plenty of companies come from humble beginnings. Hewlett-Packard began in 1939 in a garage. Facebook was launched in 2004 from a Harvard dorm room. While PCS is nowhere near the size of these technology behemoths, it is light-years ahead of where its founders thought it could ever grow when it originally took shape in a basement in 1993.

Ed Waldroop started a part-time hobby/business called PC Solutions in 1993. Operating out of his basement, he sold, repaired, and networked computers for businesses and individuals in Maryville, TN. His office hours were “when he had time” and his only co-worker was an answering machine – a necessity because he worked a full-time job at Alcoa, Inc. as a power dispatcher. He had a small ad in the telephone book, a comprehensive set of “For Dummies” books, and the type of personality that made people trust and want to do business with him.

Journey out of the Basement

Within a couple of years, Ed began to compete for – and win – business from local school districts and governments. He developed a banking relationship based largely on a handshake and a promise that he would do whatever it took to ensure his customers were happy and the bank was paid on time. He rented a small office in town and hired a local college student to work part-time repairing computers; when class was in session, the office was closed.

Over time, having grown dissatisfied with the customer service he received from his largest supplier, Ed decided – with the help of his wife, Carol, who had a background in banking and accounting – to start the business that we know today as PCS. PCS opened for business in August 1996 and was staffed by six people. The focus of PCS was resellers and consultants – the guys who were doing what Ed himself had been doing with PC Solutions. Soon after opening, they brought on a seventh employee. One cubicle contained the entirety of the company’s inventory at that time; practically everything was ordered on a just-in-time basis.

Over the next year, two more stores like PC Solutions (one in Seymour and the other in Loudon) were opened, and the organization began more aggressive pursuit of education business.

Eventually, all three of the retail locations were rolled into PCS. Slowly but surely, staff members were added to the team. PCS purchased a cargo van, then a second. The tech department was split into production and service teams, the PCS delivery and service area was expanded, and the sales team was further developed and specialized. Still focused somewhat narrowly on PCs, components, and peripherals; PCS had grown to 40 employees in 2006.

Winning Business

In 2006, Promethean approached PCS with an offer to be its exclusive business partner in East Tennessee. It didn’t take long for the exclusive territory to expand to include the entire state of Tennessee. In relatively short order, PCS was invited to become the exclusive Promethean Premier Partner in the states of Kentucky and North Carolina as well. As a result of these partnerships, PCS now provides Promethean products and services, as well as Professional Development, to schools across all three states.

In 2008, PCS was approached about entering the Distance Learning/TelePresence market as well. In the time since then, PCS has become a model Cisco partner and been able to deliver high-quality distance learning solutions to schools throughout its service area.

Along the journey out of the basement and into a four-time Inc. 5000 awardee, PCS has grown in a number of areas and made a number of changes. The inventory management systems, fleet, remote workforce, professional development practice, networking expertise, service capabilities, and physical location have all grown. But the quality of people who are sought to join the PCS Team has remained the same. There is nothing magical about the way PCS has grown and succeeded. The company was started by two people who worked regular jobs, didn’t have a lot of money to pour into a business, and realized that the only way to be successful in business was to treat customers the way they wanted to be treated.