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John Horton, president; and Ryan McCoy, vice president
John Horton, president; and Ryan McCoy, vice president

2014 Economic Impact Awards 6-15 Years in Operation Finalist: Layer 3 Technology

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“One of the hardest things to do is manage a technical person,” says John Horton, president of Layer 3 Technology. “If you’re a computer engineer, and you’re reporting to the owner or the CEO, at some level you’re talking in a language that they’re not 100 percent comfortable with.

“There has to be a level of trust there.”

Often if there’s not, or when an information technology job vacancy necessitates a deeper look at internal processes, Horton says Layer 3 can step in to provide total network solutions at the same or reduced cost, with lower downtime. Horton says his team can be both more proactive and more responsive to potential issues, due mainly to a broad depth of experience in network planning, building and maintenance, network security, IT infrastructure and integrated telecommunication services.

While much of that experience has been in Springfield’s banking, accounting and health care industries, Horton says it’s more about the client relationship than the downstream business product or service.

“With some clients, there’s already trust and a certain comfort level,” he says. “But from our standpoint, it really doesn’t matter what the industry is. The server is going to do certain things, a PC is going to do certain things, all regardless of the business. Our job is making sure that they’re up and running, all the time, whatever the application is.”    

Building on a client base evenly split between the full-service model – “where we are the IT department” – and on-call, incident-based clients, Layer 3 has grown an average of 15 to 20 percent annually during the past decade, hitting $2.5 million in 2013 revenue. Starting as a one-man operation in a basement, Layer 3’s local employee roster also has risen from 10 in 2011 to an expected peak of 17 this year, representing three-year staff growth of 70 percent.

Horton says the biggest driver is an increase in companies hiring Layer 3 in a full-service capacity. In recent years, a cadre of fast-growing companies have turned to Horton and co-owner Ryan McCoy to assess, build and maintain their systems, including DeWitt and Associates Inc., Integrity Home Care Inc., Marlin Network and Springfield First Community Bank.

IT management often is a major executive distraction, and Horton says the ability for leaders to focus on their business helps foster a productive economy in Springfield.

As broader IT needs shift across all industries toward more hybrid solutions and what Horton calls “right-sizing,” he says Layer 3 will continue to provide the most sensible solutions, regardless of convention. Horton sites an informal partnership with Pearson-Kelly Office Products LLC undertaken in the interest of providing a total focused solution for clients.

“When we encounter a company that needs both printer and copier solutions, we’ll partner with them, because we think they’re the best in town,” Horton says, of Pearson-Kelly. “Depending on who owns the account, we’ll take their calls for copier service, or vice-versa for printers. It’s just a way to make it easy for the customers to have one number to call.”[[In-content Ad]]

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