Our Founder, Mark Bowman
TCMS – 40 years of studying telecom technologies and sharing that knowledge with my customers. Educating companies on the various new technologies and how they can be used to reduce costs and increase overall productivity. Proposing designs for tomorrow’s vision with the tools available today.
The Early Years
40 years of Technology started in 1981 as an Electrical Engineer for a then fortune 500 Specialty Steel producer. I specialized in process control networks and data acquisition and transfer. Divestiture happened and I was given the opportunity to design a network and infrastructure from the ground up. It took 10 years to complete and serviced 15 diverse plant locations and two – One Million Dollar a day sales offices. It offered a 4 digit dialing plan to all locations and a centralized voicemail platform. Private fiber optics was purchased when leasing fiber was not the norm. This network for the most part remains in tack today. I have also assisted their present IT team in the design of their new WAN fiber connections complete with Colocation to pick up their other Vendors in a shared space reducing local loop costs and cost justifying the network build.
The Next Phase
I honed my skills here and developed a design methodology that included cost justification for all projects by savings recovered with the utilization of new technologies. Today those new technologies include SDWan, Cloud or Hybrid Voip solutions and a host of other cloud services and security.
I felt the need to take this skill to other companies, so in 1996 I joined MCI, the second largest Telecom provider in the world at that time and one of the most progressive technology companies of their time. I worked as a network design engineer for the mid markets and assisted 10 reps to deliver designs to hundreds of customers. At the same time, I was earning my Masters Degree in Telecom from Southern Methodist University. I also designed a pricing tool that became the Mid-Atlantic standard for creating customer proposals. This saved MCI thousands of dollars and ensured that any sales representative could pick up any account at any time. Sales engineers could use other components to complete orders with a greater amount of accuracy. These same skills are used in every engagement. Data collection is key to understanding all services that are being paid for by the customer and tools created for new services are helpful for accurate pricing proposals and carrier orders that are right the first time.
Personal Learning
MCI was being sold. I became aware of an opening with another company that I felt was full of potential and fresh new product offerings. I took a position as a national account sales engineer with Qwest. I was assigned to work with two sales people and we presented service offering to some of the largest organizations in Pittsburgh. A few years in, Qwest started down a path similar to that of MCI and I decided to move on.
What was left to round out my skill set? I still needed the experience of working for a hardware vendor. I took a position as a sales engineer with General Data Comm. GDC was one of the largest data hardware providers in the country with hundreds of patents on new technology including the emergence of video for distance education and broadcast over fiber. I gained experience on the pricing, delivery and implementation and more importantly the money that can be saved when a competitive technology is being presented to the customer. That meant with the introduction of a competitor, most hardware vendors were permitted to offer an additional 10 – 15 % off of our standard discounts. I put that in my pocket as lessons learned and use it when applicable.
A year or so with GDC and then I moved on to working full time as a Telecom consultant. I worked with companies of all sizes and partnered with a few huge integrators. I assisted with the designs of networks for Giant Eagle Corp, Sheetz Corp, DDI International, Dicks Sporting Goods, RMU and several others. I was working with the University of Pittsburgh as a consultant for three days a week. The economy started to go south rapidly so I talked them into hiring me based on several savings opportunities that I uncovered as their consultant.
TCMS ORIGINAL LOGO
TCMS IS FORMED
So what does all of that mean to you? You as my customer will have access to what I have been able to learn over the past 40 plus years. I will assist you always in looking forward and providing you with a vision of what can be over your next five years. If you need assistance in any other areas including IT, security, layer 1 cabling, E911 compliance, cloud services, database design etc. etc. give me a call as my resource pool is endless. I am absolutely confident in the team of people that I have become friends with over the years. These people are among the best of the best. They have learned by doing and not by an online class or two.
You may think your current IT providers should have all the answers for you. Sadly, it has been my experience that many of the people knocking on doors lack the overall understanding of the products in their toolbox. Many will give you the solution of the month or if you are lucky exactly what you ask for. What they needed to do was take the time to understand your current environment, future needs, present challenges and budgetary outlook. In many cases when the above is done properly a 5 year vision for you company can be created and sometimes implemented with no additional increase in your communications budget.
If you and your team are looking to get the most out of your IT dollars then please give me an opportunity to assist you with that plan. If I don’t know the answer, I will tell you and do my best to find someone to connect you with that will.
Get In Touch with Us
I thank you for taking the time to read this introduction and for doing so I offer you an hour of my time for free. I will review your current telecom spend if you will forward it to me. Just mention that you read it on the BIO.
Headquarters
126 Grant Ave
Vandergrift PA 15690.
Phone Number
724-448-6281
Mark.bowman @comcast.net
