Able and stable
By Don Dodson, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Hill, the company's chief technology officer, was a partner in a business selling modems while in high school. Later, the focus of that business changed to software.
His current company, Prominic.NET, provides managed hosting and cloud computing services for businesses, as well as an array of other computer-related services.
In 2012, the company _ which has data centers in
According to the magazine, Prominic.NET had
Today, Prominic.NET's core business is cloud hosting for
To that end, it's launching STARTcloud, a platform that helps customers lower virtualization costs and eliminate the risk of losing data.
The business is also focusing on hosting services for clients that need to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which requires businesses to guard the privacy of personal health data.
Both those moves into niche markets were calculated so Prominic.NET's sales wouldn't be gobbled up by big companies intent on making computer services a commodity.
At one time, Hill said, the company got many of its customers through
"There was once the illusion that everything (in forming business-client relationships) would be done online," he said. "But we find the most successful deals come from person-to-person contact."
Hill said 30 percent of Prominic.NET's clients are international and the rest are in
But Hill said most of Prominic.NET's business comes from companies with 100 to 300 employees.
Prominic.NET has about a dozen employees on its payroll, with most of them located at data centers in central
The company has four divisions: customer support, data center operations, software development and engineering, and sales.
Though Hill has a background in software engineering, he devotes a lot of time to sales. The 38-year-old Savoy resident said he divides time between
His partner in business _
Schultz, 35, was originally from the
Both got their bachelor's degrees from the
Prominic.NET spent its early days in the
Prominic.NET moved to Savoy in 1999, and two years later relocated to
Hill was only in his early 20s at the time, but his business experience extended much earlier.
He remembers that when he was 7 years old, a woman at a garage sale made the remark, "Aren't you the little entrepreneur?" _ to which he responded, "No, I'm not. What's that?"
By high school, he knew better. Hill and fellow student
When modems began to get "commoditized," the company moved into software, establishing a
Another company claimed that name was taken, so Hill and Trick sought the counsel of
They adopted the name Prominic Technologies and began building custom software for
Hill said his passion for business kept him from devoting enough attention to his UI studies.
"I didn't want to let the business go," he said.
Hill ended up transferring to
Later he adopted the Prominic.NET name for the hosting company. Recently, a separate company,
Hill said he once tried to convince a collaborator to stay in business with him.
"If you stick with me, by 30, we'd be millionaires," he said.
But Hill said that wasn't in the cards. To remain successful in business, he said, you have to continually adapt to changing business conditions and you have to reinvest in the company.
"You never have enough capital," he said.
Prominic.NET could have sought investors to bankroll the company, but Hill said he's determined to keep the business independent and "not beholden to investors."
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