Technology firm finds the going is actually OK

The recession has actually been good — relatively speaking — to Joe Brachle, founder of CSI Networks, an IT and Web development firm.

The company grew annual revenues 15% in 2009 over 2008, to $1.2 million. Brachle predicts even more double-digit growth this year, to at least $1.6 million in revenues. Moreover, the Sarasota-based company hired one person last month and has plans for two new hires this month.

But more than just sheer growth, Brachle says the downturn has allowed his 12-employee company to learn a valuable business lesson: “It's not just automatic,” says Brachle. “Just because we've been in business for 18 years doesn't mean we will always get customers.”

That in turn has forced Brachle and his employees to reevaluate how they do business, from expenses to customer service. It has been a worthy evaluation, says Brachle.

Past that, CSI has also found a new product to sell clients, many of which are small- and medium-sized businesses on the Gulf Coast. The firm is one of several local IT firms to push a digital, modernized version of an IT-back up system, known in the industry as backup and disaster recovery (BDR.)

A digital BDR system, says Brachle, is big improvement over past tape-based backup systems because it uses better technology and costs less. “This is exactly the kind of thing that is a perfect fit for our customers,” Brachle says. “People have a hard time saying 'no' to this.”