38 Year Heritage of Service
Diversified Telecommunications Inc., (DTI) was founded in 1985, as a pay phone provider. Knowing the needs of the communities it served brought DTI early success. Because DTI was an independent payphone company with lower overhead, it was able to offer a much larger percentage of the phones’ revenues to retailers than bigger providers, such as Illinois Bell, could offer. With the proliferation of cell phones, the pay phone business began to dwindle. Looking ahead DTI had already begun exploring the information technology services arena and found two areas in which to expand their business.
Expanding into Network and IT Consulting
The first area of expansion was in network infrastructure. This included network cabling, which was a logical extension of the phone business. With the growth of business networks, it was a smart move. DTI has been offering network cabling, including network design, pre-project planning, structured cabling systems and on-site technicians, since 1994. Based on the success of the network infrastructure business, Diverse Technologies, Inc. was created in 2008 to provide network communication technicians from I.B.E.W. Local 134, project managers, project coordinators and of course account managers to offer an expanded set of Network Services to help ensure clients expectations were exceeded from beginning to end.
The second area of expansion is IT Consulting, including ERP implementations, software application design and development, computer programming, project management and supplemental staffing. DTI saw that a project often required additional sets of hands or skill sets our client did not have on staff. As opposed to hiring additional staff, they looked to DTI to fill their needs. The division, originally developed to support client needs for project assistance in 1996, grew into the establishment of Diversified Technology, Inc. in 2007.
Adjusting to a Changing Market
Into the 2000s, DTI grew at an incredible rate. It was recognized twice by the Inner City 100 as one of the fastest growing inner-city companies in America. DTI’s client list included some of the top organizations headquartered in Chicago, such as Amoco, Ameritech, and Quaker Oats. But a series of mergers and acquisitions, with corporate decisions now being made outside Chicago, resulted in DTI losing some of its large, long-term clients. Therefore, DTI transitioned once again, balancing its portfolio to include more clients in the government and education industries that aren’t susceptible to mergers and acquisitions by out-of-state corporations, developing strong relationships with some of the largest system integrators and software providers in the business, and providing its service offerings to organizations throughout the country.
Focusing on Specific Industries and Partners
Today, DTI has three services: IT Consulting, Advisory, and Network Services. Advisory is the newest offering, where DTI can provide advisory services for project management, quality assurance, and organizational change management that are software agnostic. While it supports many industries, DTI is focused on Energy, state and local government/education (SLED), and Financial Services. Its experience working with energy firms includes ERP systems, smart meters, and integrating systems to accommodate mergers and acquisitions. Its SLED practice supports state and local governments, including a specialization in transit authorities, along with the needs of K-12 as well as higher education. For financial services organizations, such as JP Morgan Chase, DTI provides IT Consulting and Advisory services.
DTI has built strong relationships with its clients, large system integrators such as Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, and IBM, and software providers such as Oracle, SAP and ServiceNow. DTI has realized significant growth over the last few years following this strategy.
DTI continues to innovate and adjust to the market. It provides its clients high quality services at a reasonable price by recruiting and retaining highly desirable talent, keeping its overhead costs low with a lean and agile infrastructure, and striving to exceed its clients’ expectations.
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