Pyron Technologies
Best Buy can have its Geek Squad.
Why? Here’s why: because Missoula-based
Pyron Technologies has a lead programmer who is actually the
frontman for the best indie band in town, a mindful, savvy
Marketing Director who promotes the company with a grace
that surpasses other local-area and national partners, and a
CEO who speaks intelligently and passionately on scores of
diverse subjects including international soccer, orthopedic
medicine, world economic indicators, Radiohead, and, of
course, all matters concerning technology. The whole
operation at Pyron Technologies radiates know-how and class.
“We’ve developed a culture here where everyone knows they
are contributing to our success,” says Kevin Leavell,
Director of Sales.
The truth of Leavell’s remark is
obvious to anyone who steps through the doors of the Pyron
office. Success hangs in the air. Located on West Main St.
in downtown Missoula, Pyron Technologies, Inc. has over 30
employees, all of whom approach their work as if they’re in
on something big. Indeed, they are in on something big.
Primarily serving small to medium-sized clients (ten to 100
employees), the company enters its tenth year having secured
a national reputation as a leading provider of technology
solutions to orthopedic clinics throughout the United
States. Pyron also offers web development and network
services to local and regional businesses. In each of these
three areas, Pyron makes certain that its technology does
what it’s supposed to do: make life EASIER for the client.
To make life easier for web site
clients John Brownell, lead programmer by day and rock star
by night, and the rest of the web programmers developed a
tool called LiveEdit. This software allows customers to make
changes (to load new text and graphics) and to add new pages
to their web sites in-house without ever calling their
service provider. Anyone proficient with Microsoft Word can
use LiveEdit to post information on their web site. It’s
easier than changing a light bulb. “Everyone who uses the
system loves it and loves us,” says Dave Pyron, Owner and
CEO of the company.
 Testimonials
from satisfied customers bear this out. Just ask Cathy
Tortorelli, the Office Manager for the Missoula
International Airport. Pyron developed
www.flymissoula.com with the LiveEdit system so that the
folks at the airport could offer up-to-the-minute
information on flight arrivals and departures, weather, and
the general state of affairs about town. According to
Tortorelli, the airport’s previous web site often went as
long as six months without an update. “We used to have to
call someone every time we needed to make a change. Now we
make our own changes and it’s really easy,” she said.
LiveEdit also allows airport administrators to write and
distribute an e-newsletter to their partners in the aviation
community. “Compared to the rest of the industry, I think
our web site ranks right up there,” adds Chris Hart, who
manages the airport site and plans to use LiveEdit to add
more to it. “We’ve only just scratched the surface.”
The upgrade has not gone unnoticed. Web
traffic at flymissoula.com is through the roof. According to
the exhaustive statistical reports, which all Pyron web
clients receive for their sites, flymissoula.com averages
over 800 page views a day, with each visit to the site
lasting over four minutes. There are 160 new visitors a day,
and, in total, there have been 35,000 new hits on the site.
In effect, Pyron’s LiveEdit transformed a bumpy dirt road in
cyberspace into a sleek eight-lane super highway.
Pyron did the same thing for the
Missoula Organization of Realtors (www.MissoulaRealEstate.com).
Fifteen months after launch, the site was averaging 500 new
visitors per day, and these people were taking a good long
look around: each visitor averaged 18 pages per session.
This means that between the airport site and the county’s
most comprehensive real estate web site, many people
encountering Missoula for the first time do so through a web
experience authored by Pyron Technologies. The company has
established itself as the town’s most important
cyber-ambassador.
In addition to the web, Pyron offers a
wide range of network solutions including the installation
and management of computer systems, Internet connectivity,
and tech support. Here again, the company has found a way to
make things easy for clients. If most web partners require
the ability to update their sites, network clients need
reliable tech-support. Nothing will put a stranglehold on a
business like computer failure. To keep clients up and
running, Pyron has developed a system that fixes problems
often before the customer even knows there’s trouble. It’s
called Managed Services, and it’s a pro-active form of
tech-support that requires no phone calls. With this plan,
when something is amiss the client’s system sends a signal
to Pyron, where a technician can log into the network
remotely and fix the problem. This is like having your
shrink resolve all your issues before you open your mouth or
having a prayer answered without even knowing you were in
need of divine intervention—the techno version of manna from
heaven.
Perhaps the young company’s greatest
accomplishments are its feats in the orthopedic sector.
Clinics from places as diverse and faraway as Nebraska,
Chicago, Ohio, Idaho, New York, and North Carolina have
contacted Pyron for a full range of technology solutions.
What can these practices get in the bargain? They can get a
web site with one of the most comprehensive, user-friendly
patient-education packages available. They can also get a
computer network that allows them to store and transfer
highly sensitive patient data while maintaining
confidentiality. And, in Dave Pyron, they get a partner who
knows as much about orthopedics as any layman around. With
his level of expertise, there is no better architect for a
computer environment that allows orthopedists to give the
best possible care to their patients, the real winners in
this arrangement.
Thus, good things happen when a
business makes technology simple for its clients. Ease of
use means happy customers, and happy customers mean growth.
The pattern’s held true from the get-go. Ten years back
there were three people working out of Dave’s basement, and
shortly thereafter there were ten people in a tiny office by
the Union Club. Now the staff has tripled and occupies two
floors of a major downtown building. They’re no Geek Squad,
that’s certain, but they sure get their name out around
town—and around the country.
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