By Kevin Hervert
Hub Staff Writer

KEARNEY – The most innovative idea at one Kearney tech business isn't technical at all. It's how it finds its employees.

Intellicom is an outsource technology service provider that works primarily with Sysco, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Enterprise.

"We don't write any software," founder Dan Shundoff said. "We're the IT department for our customers."

Shundoff started Intellicom in 1994. For several years it was just him working for a few small businesses and households.

Shundoff said what's really special about Intellicom isn't the technology it uses, but is how it finds and builds its people.

"What's really special is how we recruit, retain, and enhance employment and career opportunities," he said.

He said to grow Intellicom, he had to concentrate on expanding its customer and revenue base. He knew he had to hire more help.

"I started to build a plan for growth to insulate my customer base in the unlikely event that something happens to me," he said. "We had all our eggs in one basket and thought it was prudent and responsible to grow and add additional people and staffing."

By 1998 there were five employees, and Intellicom moved out of Shundoff's house to a business office.

He realized quickly that he would need to find more employees, and those employees should understand and perform technical tasks well.

He said his first step was to work with the internship program at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

FROM LEFT, Caleb Barth, Cody Mock, and Sam Noyes are help-desk technicians at Intellicom. They can troubleshoot remotely and work as an outsourced information technology department for Intellicom customers.

He then learned that instead of recruiting juniors and seniors who are already entertaining job offers after graduation, he could find students at the sophomore level.

That 120-hour internship program began with unpaid interns. Now, interns are paid in addition to earning college credit.

"If they stayed on for the next several years, after they graduated, this is where they wanted to work," he said. "They knew us, we knew them, and they knew our customers. They were growing roots."

He said that more than half of the current Intellicom staff members are products of that system. He said almost all the rest are working in information technology somewhere in Nebraska.

"The majority of them still built their career in central Nebraska," he said. "Their roots really take hold."

Shundoff now has 23 full-time employees at 1700 Second Ave. servicing more than 400 business customers between Lincoln and Denver.

Health care is a significant share of its business, as are manufacturing, retail and agriculture.

"We had 27 percent growth from the previous year last year," Shundoff said. "We're forecasting another 20 percent in 2011."


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kevin.hervert@hearneyhub.com

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