by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
Oday Mickel said he started working for IBM when he was four years old. The point of the joke, of course, is that Big Blue raised him and taught him everything he knows — at least about business. His son, Damon, who started working for his dad a year ago, is currently benefiting from the trickle-down knowledge, absorbing the concepts of converging technology consulting and management consulting, which lies at the core of the family business — Omsys Services.
Mickel spent 18 years with IBM before starting Omsys in 1995. His last job for the computer giant was as a consultant for the southeastern United States, wherever IBM was engaged. It was during a time when IBM, seeing that computer hardware had become a commodity, and that selling PCs would never generate the kind of profit margins it wanted in a growing, highly competitive market, decided to parlay their brand into a consulting services enterprise that would guarantee long term relationships with major clients. Besides, consulting got you in the door with the CEO, not just the purchaser.
IBM began to train subject matter experts in various disciplines, one being mobile technology.
“I began to learn the methodology and stages of consulting,” said Mickel, who incidentally was there when the first IBM personal computer was announced in the 1970s. “It was the perfect compliment to my experience with technology.”
Mickel gained valuable industry expertise in distribution, education, advanced manufacturing and state and local government. Starting as a marketing representative, Mickel moved quickly through the ranks to system engineer, specialist manager, program manager and even chief information officer for North Florida. He was a mobility consultant advising clients on how to best implement technology to solve overall business objectives when he left to start Omsys.
“What we offer that is different from other technology consultants is that we can actually have a strategic planning session about the entire enterprise,” said Mickel. “We understand how businesses grow and how technology works in tandem with that.”
One of Omsys’ first projects was to install the telephone and Internet wiring for the entire building that houses its offices on St. Johns Bluff Road. Today, Omsys provides end-to-end consulting for companies of all sizes.
“Basically, we come in and evaluate the whole business operation,” said Mickel. “The most strategic way to implement technology is to understand the overall goals and processes of the company and tweak them if we need to.”
Mickel wants to equip smaller companies with the features that large companies have. That could mean taking advantage of next generation mobile technology that can connect sales teams to management and suppliers to customers quickly and seamlessly. What Omsys does beyond that is provide the on-going support staff that may be needed to implement a program.
“What that does not do is contribute to greater human resources overhead for the client,” said Mickel. “It becomes part of the basic technology expenditure.” In a time when outsourcing is in, Omsys can provide the extra tech people a company needs without the headaches of benefit plans.
Omsys has done work for the City, JEA, CSX, Bacardi Bottling, the Florida Department of Transportation, doctor’s offices and other smaller, emerging companies.
According to Mickel, one of the reasons technology and management consultants are so critical to today’s business applications is because companies rarely understand the entire cost of ownership that comes with technology.
“A lot of companies don’t realize that enterprise licensing for software and renewing and updating costs money,” said Mickel. “And that when certain software is embedded in a network, it’s difficult — and costly — to take out.”
So Omsys will do a sweep of the enterprise to evaluate what’s there and what the cost is going to be to grow in the future. It will then evaluate what systems are needed to implement the company’s growth strategies. Whether that be application development, web design, PC support, system networking, or client server application. And all of that revolves around front-end strategic planning to determine what makes the most sense.
Even before IBM, Mickel was an accountant with the City of Rock Hill, S.C. — the same place where he received a master’s degree from Winthrop College. He understands that at the nexus of every business decision is the bottom line.
“Part of the early conversation is usually about accounting,” he said. “Not only does accounting have a major technology component, but it’s important to understand the way money goes in and out before you can talk about a lot of other things.”
One of Omsys’ major projects was on the technical plan for the City’’s Global Information Systems efforts in combination with national engineering firms.
“What they were doing is taking a detailed survey of a cross-section of the earth to find out everything from the location of water, sewer and telephone lines to where to install fiber-optic cables,” recalled Mickel. “They needed all the information quickly linked to property appraisers and government data centers.”
As someone who sees the resumes for technology experts come across his desk regularly, Mickel said that Jacksonville is finally getting to the point where companies don’t have to leave town to recruit top talent.
One recent recruit, his son Damon, has a bachelor’s degree in business from Boston University.
The younger Mickel, whose title is marketing representative, said his main focus is spreading the Omsys message and meeting with the technology point people in companies all over town to discuss business opportunities.
“Certainly, it’s a pretty tough climate for technology right now,” said Damon Mickel, 25. “But we know that all companies realize that it’s a vital part of their business whether they make the jump now or later.”
But the father-and-son team are confident in their business model, one cobbled together from sources that have certainly made a major impact on the global technology landscape — namely IBM, but others as well.
Like any good techie, Mickel has a high-tech Compaq Ipaq — a portable computer, like a Palm Pilot — connected to his PC that is full-color and talks. It can even run Microsoft applications like Powerpoint.
Every 15 minutes, it announces upcoming meetings or announcements that may have been prompted by Mickel.
“One day, every mobile worker will be sending instructions in real time back to the office and to distributors and suppliers all over the world,” he said. “And we want to be here to help them do it.”