The IT Couple

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Batman & Robin, Han Solo & Chewbacca, but perhaps the most comparable dynamic duo might just be Marty McFly and Doc Brown – you’ll see what I mean shortly. I recently sat down with the Daniel Munk and Raffi Simci (the partners of Fencecore) to discuss their unique relationship and their company, Fencecore Solutions, a full service IT provider in Montreal. Without further ado, here’s the interview:

1.     WHAT IS FENCECORE SOLUTIONS AND WHEN WAS IT FOUNDED?

Dan: Founded in June of 2013, Fencecore is a full-service IT firm based out of Montreal.

2.     FOR PEOPLE THAT DON’T KNOW YOU GUYS, IT MAY SEEM LIKE AN ODD MATCH ON THE SURFACE BUT IT APPEARS TO WORK QUITE WELL. WHAT’S THE WORKING DYNAMIC LIKE BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU?

Dan: Firstly, I’ve known Raffi for twenty some odd years and he’s known the Munk family for decades. Back to the question though, sales and operations has always been my main area of focus and on the other hand, Raffi is extremely technical and great at managing a team so I feel like our skill-sets complement each other well.

Raffi: Where agility and dynamism meets experience. Dan has a tremendous amount of energy and is great at creating new opportunities. I’m more conservative but I really do believe it’s a great balance. I think you need both in order to succeed, because without the agility and dynamism that Dan has, Fencecore wouldn’t be where it is today.

3.     WHAT SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS DOES FENCECORE OFFER?

Dan: Product sourcing, technical services, maintenance services, support services and much more. Our website does a pretty good job at explaining our services and solutions in greater detail.

4.     WHAT DIFFERENTIATES FENCECORE FROM ITS COMPETITORS WHEN IT COMES TO BEING AN IT PROVIDER?

Raffi: Behind every business transaction, trust plays a big role. Our thing has always been to maintain long-term relationships with our clients, suppliers and employees. We believe that if you combine trust with those three facets, you’ll end up with a successful business.

Dan: Also, many other companies will just try to make a hardware sale, where we are more focused on creating value beyond the initial sale. There are very few full-service IT firms, and Fencecore is one of them. With every client we ask ourselves, “how can IT help streamline their operation?”

5.     ANY INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES ON THE HORIZON?

Dan: Hyper-converged solutions, hybrid-cloud vs. full-cloud, connectivity… now that everything is on the internet it all becomes a matter of how quickly you can access your data.

6.     WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES YOU SEE COMPANIES MAKE WHEN IT COMES TO IT?

Dan: The “Band Aid Effect,” often times people try to fix problems quickly and just put a band-aid on things, however, there’s usually fundamental issues with their infrastructure that aren’t being addressed. Companies wind up spending more on a “break-fix” approach than actually fixing the the root of the issue. It’s always cheaper in the long-run to create a stable foundation than to continuously repair and troubleshoot the same, ongoing issues.

Raffi: For me, I see a lot of small-medium size businesses typically think that by hiring an internal IT resource, they will have everything covered. It’s unreasonable to believe that one person can handle hardware, operating systems, applications, data base systems, networks, exchange, firewall, security… What happens is, a company then becomes limited to the capability of that specific individual and then, when new challenges arise they become more vulnerable than they should be. An IT provider will always be able to provide more support.

7. WHERE DOES THE PASSION FOR IT STEM FROM?

Dan: Well Raffi has an engineering background…

Raffi interrupts: When you look at our company, we are a group of people who are passionate about helping others. IT is just the vehicle that fulfills that desire for us. At our core, IT allows us to solve problems and we love that, that’s why its called Fencecore Solutions.

8. ANY INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF IT? WHERE IS YOUR TIME SPENT WHEN YOU’RE NOT AT THE OFFICE?

Dan: My wife & hockey. My wife obviously comes first though, I hope she sees this… and some TV, I’m currently watching Money Heist on Netflix.

Raffi: For me, it’s my family, reading, learning, politics, equality in the workplace…

Dan: no TV Raff?

Raffi: no no, no TV for me.

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