A Change of Tune
From Music Major
to Major Player
Janice Pellar, president of Baton Rouge, La.-based EMCO
Technologies, has come a long way from her beginnings as a music education
major. After completing her student teaching experience Pellar went to lunch
with her parents to tell them of her decision that a career in music education
was not for her. Her dad started EMCO as a licensed Motorola dealership, so
the three of them mapped out her career on the back of a napkin at the
restaurant.
Pellar started full-time in the company and did everything from
billing to repairing radios. Then she went into sales. The turning point for
her was when she made a sale to a grizzled old Mississippi tugboat captain for
marine radios. It was the kernel that started her credibility; and, later, it
was Pellar who decided to change the direction of the company by pursuing
national contracts. And the rest is history, as they say.
Doubling the size of your company virtually overnight is only a
dream for most business owners. But when Pellar learned that her company had
been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract as a subcontractor to a prime
contractor servicing a large federal agency, she knew she wasn’t dreaming.
Having Administaff as EMCO’s human resources (HR) department was
instrumental in landing the three-year contract to supply desktop and network
support, help desk assistance and asset management services, Pellar said. “In
our bid specifications, we included information about Administaff, and I
believe that gave us added credibility,” Pellar said. “Because of our
relationship – and Administaff’s presence throughout the United States – we
could be national in scope.”
When the company submitted its bid, Pellar assumed the prime
contractor would consolidate its existing eight contractors into two or
three. Instead, EMCO was selected as the sole provider for all of the
agency’s locations. EMCO would expand from Louisiana and Texas into Alabama,
California, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Virginia and
Washington, D.C., as well.
Pellar knew she had to move incredibly quickly. Because the prime
contractor wanted EMCO to retain all of the existing contractors’ employees,
the company would have to hire 185 employees within two weeks and another 50
in the 45 days after that.
She immediately called Administaff, and Administaff assembled a
customized client service team designed to help the Baton Rouge company hire a
large number of workers in a short period of time. It was Nov. 16, 2004. “We
got the official notice on a Tuesday,” recalled Pellar, about the 43-year-old
company, which is one of the largest providers of PC desktop and network
services in Louisiana and Texas.
“By Wednesday, we were all on planes to different parts of the
country,” Pellar said. “By the next week, Administaff teams had visited the
various locations, each with an EMCO manager.” EMCO and Administaff wanted the
transition to be seamless for the employees – a challenge considering the
differences in location size and benefits from state to state. “We had to
complete all the paperwork, orientation, benefits enrollment and
administration work for almost 200 people at 10 sites across the country,” she
added.
“Within a week, all of our new employees had been through
orientation with an Administaff team member. That kind of commitment and extra
effort on Administaff’s part made it possible for us to achieve this.”
Since EMCO – one of the largest providers of PC desktop and
network services in Louisiana and Texas – won that first national contract,
the 43-year-old company has seen more rapid growth, including a FEMA contract
after Hurricane Katrina. EMCO’s capacity and capabilities have a higher
profile, and the company is pursuing more business in the federal contract
market. In addition, using Administaff’s services has allowed EMCO to continue
to increase its workforce as it has been awarded more contracts.
