Kent State University

They were putting the fear of God in them. Dick Treacle and Tony Gunter sat at the far end of the large conference table in the board room at Kent State University's Lowry Hall and office of the university architect.

After having successfully completed a $52,000 project for the university at their East Liverpool campus, this meeting was not what they had expected. NaCom was the apparent low bidder on a half million plus dollar project involving seven buildings at the main campus and Dick and Tony were being put through the ringer by three engineers from the consulting firm the university had contracted for the project, three university department heads, and the university architect's electrical engineer.

After hearing about a thousand questions that began with "Do you understand?..." and ended with "you will do so at your own risk and peril". Then repeatedly hearing about how every cubic inch of their work would be visually inspected throughout the project, Dick and Tony started looking at each other in wonder. "Do we really want this job?" It was somewhat apparent that these gentlemen had either been burned many times in the past by other technology contractors or that this simply was not their contractor of choice. Despite their apprehension after this meeting, they were able to exceed their expectations and successfully complete the project.

With a proud 94 year history and eight campuses, Kent State University in Kent, OH is a dynamic and diverse "city within a city" - complete with its own sophisticated computer and communications network. Every university unit operates in accordance with Kent State's educational and public-service mission and thoughtful plans for continuously improving the environment for all who live, study, and work on its campuses. Kent State University, regarded as one of the nation's top 90 public research universities, serves more than 36,000 students and consistently ranks among Yahoo's list of 100 "most wired colleges and universities."

Soon after completion of the half million dollar project, the university had plans to replace the PBX on the main campus in Kent. A large part of this project included 1.4 million dollars in re-cabling 42 existing buildings for voice and data. At this point, the university made it known to NEC, their PBX vendor, that NaCom was their contractor of choice. NaCom rented an apartment on campus to use as a field office where technicians could stay and key staff would be accessible to university staff on an as needed basis. This project was completed within a year and was even more successful than the first.

NaCom, now doing business in Northeast Ohio as Echo 24, has never left campus. They have performed telecommunications cabling work in over 135 of the university's buildings whether new construction or renovation. To date they have installed nearly 20,000 horizontal links, over 30,000 copper backbone pairs, and over 26,000 strands of fiber optic cabling.

The Division of Information Services at Kent State University is dedicated to providing and empowering systems and technological environment that enables the University to meet the competitive challenges of the future. This would not be possible without the help of Echo 24, Inc., who is always ready to consult as a "partner" in any way to the university.

A retired Electrical Engineer (PE) of the Office of the Architect was quoted as saying "We have contracted over 12 million dollars of voice, data, and fiber optic cabling work in more than 100 buildings. As several of these projects progressed we found our needs had changes since the initial bid. NaCom (Echo 24) has …..been very flexible in customizing solutions to our changing needs. My experience in this field has taught me the difference between a completed project and a finished project. Both the visible portion of their projects and the hidden portions are finished with care and good workmanship."