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Successful consulting career proved good preparation for small business ownership

Novatech custom-designs computer networks integrating industry-specific software while ensuring adequate security

BY ANNE STRAUB
Brevard Technical Journal

Dean and Fran Newberger had worked for some of the biggest names in corporate America. But when the opportunity arose to buy a small computer store in Titusville, the prospect proved irresistible.

The couple has been operating Novatech since 1999, offering sales and service to business and individual customers. The lifestyle is a welcomed change after years of traveling for consulting jobs.

The two met while working for Phillips Petroleum Co. in Oklahoma in 1980, after Fran had graduated from that state’s Northeastern State University with a degrees in accounting and math, and a minor in computer science. Dean is self-taught, having worked in the computer industry since 1968. “I’ve been doing it so long that I don’t remember what I used to know,” he said with a laugh.

Their resume includes heavy hitters such as Dial Corp., Compaq, Westinghouse Electric Co. and DuPont Co. Dean describes the couple’s forte as consultants: “If people are having nightmares about productivity and cost savings, we go in and fix it.”

One job took them to Visa-MasterCard during the early 1980s. The company was spending 15 cents for every credit card transaction, and credit card customers were having to wait 60 to 90 seconds for authorization at the cash register every time they used their credit card. The Newbergers helped get the transaction cost down to 6 cents and wait times to 10 seconds. And instead of customers charging an item and then not having the ability to see the transaction posted for days, the transaction would be posted that night.

At Dial, they worked in the transportation group for a division that built buses. The variety of clients has given them a broad range of business experience.

“We’ve learned to wear different hats depending on what business we were in,” Dean Newberger said.

Their last consulting job was software contract for International Paper in Savannah, Ga.

Brevard County wasn’t a random choice for relocation. Dean Newberger’s parents live in Cocoa Beach, and he worked for Melbourne-based Harris Corp. during the 1970s.

Consulting proved good preparation to the many aspects of running their own company. “It didn’t scare us because we’d already seen different facets of many businesses,” Fran Newberger said.

They continue to hold to the same tenets that drove them while doing software consulting. “What’s always made us successful is we listened to our end user for what they wanted. We made it their system and wrote it to them,” Dean Newberger said.

“ So many people today write software, and then you have to change your business to fit it,” Fran Newberger said.

Today, when a customer enters the shop and expresses interest in a PC, their first question is, What are you going to do with it? That will steer the conversation toward the right system, so the customer doesn’t spend too much for a system that does more than he needs, or cut corners and leave with an inadequate product.

The process worked for the Michael Gaich Co., a Merritt Island real estate firm. Novatech outfitted the business’s computer network, integrating industry-specific software and ensuring adequate security. Gaich has been impressed with Novatech’s responsive follow-up service. “Generally speaking, when you’re running more than one type of software, one person blames the other person when problems arise,” he said. Novatech has helped work through all those issues.

Most of that work has fallen to Kurt Clark, the Newbergers’s first hire when they bought the business. Clark worked with them at a previous company. “I can’t say enough about Kurt,” Gaich said.

The company’s fourth employee is technician Jim Griffith. Novatech expects to hire a couple more technicians this year and put more service vans on the road. They’ll try to limit their area to Central and North Brevard, however, so they’re still able to offer quick service.

Their new location has helped spark more business. The company moved into its new facility at 4320 S. Hopkins Ave. in November 2004. The move increased its space from 1,000 to 2,500 square feet, with room to grow.

The building garnered a Building a More Beautiful Brevard award this year for most attractive new structure in North Brevard. Fran Newberger likes what the modern space says about the business. “Most computer shops look like a dirty, dark back room. We’re very open and honest,” she said.

Annual growth has been about 35 percent a year, and the company estimates 2005 sales at or near $500,000. Service makes up the biggest portion of their revenue, and they’re seeing a growing business in website design.

“ We’d like to become Brevard’s one-stop shop,” Dean Newberger said.