A conversation with Dale Klein

Dale Klein is the President and CEO of Parallel Technologies, located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The company designs, implements and integrates networks and critical infrastructure for data centers and buildings.

What's your education and background, and how did you get started?

"I graduated with a degree in finance and accounting from Minnesota State University, followed by an MBA from the University of Dallas. My first job was with Burlington Northern, starting in their corporate management program, which included a stint in the IT group, where I found my home. From there, I joined a national consulting firm, and in 1996, along with a few colleagues, started a high-tech company, Javelin Technologies. In 2002, we sold the company to Perficient, where I remained with the company in an executive role until 2004."

"In 2005, I purchased Parallel Technologies, which at the time was a small cabling company. On the surface, it seemed odd to buy a low-voltage structured cabling company, but my interest in it was the fact that I could see how basic infrastructure was moving to a software application running on a network. I thought we could bring a unique perspective on this shift in the market because infrastructure was going to get very complicated, thereby opening up all kinds of new opportunities."

Where are you now with Parallel Technologies, and where do you want to be?

"Right now we're forecasting $33MM in revenue for 2013 and tracking to our $50MM goal in 2015. We are a company with a unique ability to unify IT and facility infrastructure in data centers and buildings, but honestly, we believe that we only have scratched the surface as to what we want to accomplish. We are still in the early stages of intelligent infrastructure, and I expect there will be several key technology shifts along the way. We are currently designing, implementing and managing IP-based infrastructures every day, but I look forward to when all the systems work together across the enterprise where data is collected, mined and analyzed to fundamentally change how buildings operate."

What's your outlook for the industry over the next few years?

"I'm very optimistic; it's a great time to be in the industry. Let's face it, data is exploding with many different sources, such as video communication, intelligent infrastructure, monitoring systems, surveillance cameras, social applications and mobile devices, all producing data at alarming rates. This data is traveling over the network and stored in the data center, which demands a robust infrastructure that cannot fail. The companies that understand how to best manage and analyze the data will have a significant competitive advantage. With "Big Data," we're talking about mining large volumes of data from a variety of sources all to gain business insight in near real time, and historical perspective. It's changing how people are thinking about their data center and network and infrastructure."

When you look at your customers, what should company CEOs or CIOs be focusing on in 2013?

"To be honest, from a business perspective, I wouldn't tell them anything differently than I probably would have told them a few years ago or even 10 years ago. I would ask, do you know what your vision is, do you have clarity, and do you have alignment with your people, your processes, and your technology? If you don't, you're going to have problems. Technology, including our services needs to be aligned with the client's business strategy."

What's driving your success?

"Data center consolidation continues, and what we're seeing is that companies want a partner that understands both the IT and facilities infrastructure. Both are different engineering disciplines, but are critically intertwined. Additionally, they are seeking more control, transparency and early detection across their data centers so they know exactly what's going on all the time to avoid unplanned downtime. This fits very well into our wheelhouse, because there is a fundamental requirement to fully understand both the facilities and IT infrastructure. Power and cooling are absolutely critical to meeting the changing requirements of a complex infrastructure. We can bring all those disparate infrastructure areas together into one resilient solution."

"We also see continued adoption of IP- based infrastructure in offices, industrial facilities and schools. Integration with other infrastructure is becoming much more of a factor for our customers. We're living in a world in which facility security is becoming critically important, and IP-based security is a far superior alternative to what's out there, as it allows integration into emergency response, video analytics, integration of software applications, etc. I can see businesses, schools and companies getting much more advanced with security requirements. We're also seeing a greater emphasis on federated security, which is how communities, police, fire, emergency responders and schools are integrated. This is an area where we can bring a lot of expertise to bear, where we see great opportunities."

When an IT services company's growth stalls or declines, what might they have done wrong?

"I think more than anything else, if you're a services company, it's all about your people. If you have the wrong vision but the right people, you can figure it out, and/or adjust to the right vision. If you've got the right vision and you've got the wrong people, you're not going to make it. In a services business, your intellectual property can walk out the door any time. So it's not just serving the customer; you're also serving your employees. During the down cycle we had, we were planning to come back swinging and to change and morph into something better, and we needed to have an energized and passionate team. We did, and with that amazing things began to happen."

What pieces of advice, what lessons learned, would you like to share?

"I guess first and foremost, you have to be passionate about what you do. Second, spend all the time you need to clearly articulate what your vision is for the company and keep focused on that vision. Third, hire the best people and be certain that they are aligned with your vision. Lastly, if you do these things right, and manage your cash flow wisely, you're going to succeed."

You may contact at Dale at dklein@ptnet.com or visit Parallel Technologies at www.ptnet.com.

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