Celebrating 10 Years, MSP ComputerSupport.com Takes Aim At The Midmarket To Drive Future Growth

In 2006, Kirill Bensonoff and Alexandric Ho -- two immigrants, from Belarus and Vietnam respectively -- decided to leave their jobs and chase their American dream by starting their own IT services company, ComputerSupport.com.

And now, 10 years later, the Framingham, Mass.-based managed service provider is celebrating not only its 10th anniversary but also its 10th consecutive year of growth, which its owners attribute to the company's focus on education, hard work and a personal touch. The company landed at No 70 on CRN's 2016 Fast Growth list of North America's fastest-growing solution providers.

"It is the classic American dream," Bensonoff said, adding that he remembers coming to the U.S. when he was young with his parents, who held only a few hundred dollars in-hand. Now, he said, his American dream is realized as he celebrates his own company's first successful decade in business.

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Bensonoff and Ho first met each other over a decade ago, when the two were both engineers for solution provider Insight Enterprises, No. 15 on CRN's 2016 Solution Provider 500.

While working there, the two mused about starting a company of their own that would offer their top-level knowledge and cutting-edge technology to end-users with a personal touch that other companies weren't giving.

"We felt there was a void in the marketplace back then. There weren't so many providers focusing in on SMBs and bringing in Fortune 500-level consulting and IT operations management to these folks, and that is how we came to be," Bensonoff said.

In the beginning, ComputerSupport.com was a company with only two employees and one customer, offering network care. Now it has about 50 employees, over 100 clients and has grown an average of 10 percent to 15 percent annually with aspirations to grow as much as 30 percent annually as it expands into the midmarket and opens its offerings to larger clients, Bensonoff said.

Its portfolio has expanded too, including remote on-site support, proactive IT support and a managed services suite that includes their own cloud hosting offering and cloud-migration assistance. The company also provides professional services and project-based consulting.

Recently, to facilitate a focus on larger clients, the company also added its own Network Operations Center, which was opened last month.

But, according to both founders, ComputerSupport.com's most important offering is a very serious focus of their attention to their clients' needs.

It was that focus, Bensonoff said, that got the company its first client, Scott Cubellis, CEO of Whareham, Mass.-based medical billing company APS, who, ten years later is still a staunch supporter and loyal customer.

"I have been a customer since this company was started because I know if I had a problem at two in the morning, these guys would be there," Cubellis told CRN last week during a casino-themed celebration event held at The House of Blues in Boston that brought 125 employees and customers together to commemorate CustomerSupport.com's anniversary.

That feeling, Ho said, is exactly the emotion ComupterSupport.com hopes to cultivate in its clients.

"Even now, I still stay up at night working on solutions for customers or issues, and that is the value we bring, the customers want that relationship. We focus on our customers; they are not just a number," Ho said. "At the end of the day, if they know we have their back, and know that we know how to take care of their technology, that is the relationship that has kept us going through our first 10 years."

And now, after 10 years, Bensonoff said he is looking forward to the future, and although he doesn't think there is a single answer to why ComputerSuppport.com has been successful, he said the company will continue to focus on improving its internal capabilities, educating its employees and focusing on the personal touch that has gotten them through their first decade of life.