Public Relations

Feb 10, 2006
Wynncom has a record year in 2005
By VIKKI BROUGHTON HODGES
The Dispatch

Jimmy Wynn, president of Wynncom, said he never would have dreamed that what started as a two-man telephone installation team in 1984 would become a major telecommunications equipment and service provider across the state. With its headquarters in Lexington and sales and service offices in Charlotte and Statesville, as well as a technician's office in Salisbury, Wynncom now provides telephone systems, local and long distance service, structured cabling, data solutions and Web site development services. The firm employs a total of 60 people, with a dozen based at the main office in Lexington.
Just in the last couple of weeks, Wynncom has collected several accolades that attest to the growth of the business.

Wynncom was named the Samsung Dealer of the Year for 2005 - which means it sold more Samsung products than 600 other dealers across the country last year. The company has been a Samsung dealer since 1990. In fact, this year, Wynncom is one of only a dozen national distributors of Samsung products - and the largest one at this point. "We now sell their telephony and data products to other dealers across the country," Wynn said, noting that manufacturers can get their products to dealers quicker through such a national distribution system. The distribution operations are handled through the Statesville office.

The company also has been named to some Top 10 business lists. The Charlotte Business Journal recently ranked Wynncom No. 4 out of 25 local telephone equipment providers. The Triad Business Journal named Wynncom No. 9 out of 25 area Web site designers.

"I know a lot of local people still think of us a cell phone company, but we've been out of that for years," Wynn said, noting that the company was one of the first local sellers of Cellular One service when cell phones started to grow in popularity. Now, Wynncom's sales are strictly business to business, he said. The company has about 3,000 business accounts across the state, including many local governments - the City of Lexington and Davidson County are among those - as well as private employers.

"About 90 percent of our business is along the Interstate 85/Interstate 40 corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte," Wynn said. "We're in small towns and large towns. Our technicians live across the state as well. They're dispatched from here and go straight to work in their area. They might meet here once a week." Wynn said the company's growth was partially attributed to an acquisition of PSI Phone Services in Statesville about four years ago but also due to aggressively pursuing the Charlotte market and opening an office there.

One of the fastest-growing segments of the business is the structured cabling unit, which has more than 20 people headed by a registered network design engineer. Another growing business unit is Web site development, Wynn said. His wife, Susan Wynn, works with that unit. "It's not our primary business, but it's growing," he said. "We have some very talented people working with us. "Most of our Web customers are also our phone customers," he said, such as Lexington Memorial Hospital and the Bob Timberlake Gallery.

Wynn said one of the biggest challenges in his business is keeping up with technology and finding qualified technicians and then keeping them up to date. He said his employees come from all over the country. "Our people are constantly in school," he said. "Everything changes so quickly. But they have to keep their certifications up and there are new software releases every few months. "A lot of our technicians have grown up with us," he added. "It's hard to find good, qualified people. And when you do, you take care of them."

Wynn noted that he and business partner Jimbo Hill established the business in 1984, but Hill later left to start Carolina Phone Biz. Many of the current officers and shareholders of the company were among its first employees, he said, noting many veteran employees. The other officers are: Randall Lowery, vice president; Laura Hemphill, vice president and chief financial officer, who was the company's fourth employee; Mark Temple, vice president, who was the fifth employee; and Charles Lanning, vice president, who was the third employee hired.