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Pacific Office Automation
By Virginia Bruce

Customer wait time, along with the status of the solution, is monitored by CS managers, who are also available to step in as needed.

Some companies grow by offering better products than their competition. Some grow by offering better service. At Pacific Office Automation, growth has been a combination of these factors, along with a strong commitment to build a culture that nurtures and develops the 780+ employees who are the face of the company to its thousands of customers.

The business began in 1976, when founder Terry Newsom bought an ailing photocopier company. They soon moved from their Tigard location to an office on Science Park Drive in Cedar Mill. The Newsom family grew up in the community, and sons Brooks and Fall attended Sunset High. The family still owns a large share of the business, and Brooks remains active. Longtime employee Doug Pitassi took over as President five years ago and has led the business in steady growth since then.

Pitassi is a hands-on manager, but also spends time thinking about the big picture—how to continually improve the company culture. Each year, they host a big meeting for all the employees of their 25 offices in seven western states. The theme for 2014 was taken from the book, “Tribal Leadership,” which describes five stages of evolution in employees and companies.

“We want to be a Level Five company,” Pitassi says. “The focus of a Level Five organization is not simply on profit, or beating the competition, but to make history!” This requires everyone to move from the Stage Three attitude of “I’m great,” to Stage Four, where the group becomes a tribe and says, “We’re great.” Pitassi told the group, “At that point, they are a team with shared core values—holding one another accountable.” And then they can move on to Stage Five.

Doug Pitassi in one of several “demo rooms” in the headquarters building.

He illustrated this point with a simple triangle. The base of the triangle is the relationship between the customer and “me,” the sales or customer service person working with them. POA is at the top of the triangle, supporting the employee in doing what’s right for the customer.

Their company slogan, “Problem—Solved,” reflects this pervasive attitude. The first task with a new customer is to identify the current state of the business. Then the job is to work with them to find ineffiencies and bottlenecks, where the right solution can transform a business.

They use some technical applications to make this happen, in addition to building good attitudes. The Customer Service department employs tracking software that lets managers see in real-time how well the reps are doing in answering and solving customer calls. Their repair and delivery vehicles are all equipped with GPS software that helps efficiently route employees around the region. They developed their own order tracking software, because off-the-shelf products just weren’t good enough.

POA harvests reusable parts from “dead” equipment that comes in from customers, and also deconstructs the unusable parts into components that can be recycled.

Most of the company’s growth was achieved organically, but also through purchasing smaller companies, and then serving those locations with improved efficiency.

Their product lines include the most respected names in state-of-the-art document management software and office technology. POA is recognized nationally for its sales, service, and customer support. They are the largest private dealership in the nation, and the world’s largest dealer for Konica Minolta copiers, printers, faxes, and multifunctional devices. They’re also among the largest dealers for  many other prestige brands such as Ricoh, Canon and Sharp.

They outgrew the Science Park headquarters (which was sold to next-door neighbor Columbia Sportswear) and built a new facility just across the highway on Greenbrier Parkway ten years ago. The finishing touches are now being completed on a new warehouse next to that location, which will free up space in the main building and support the seven other warehouses with any overflow inventory.

They are happy to work with all types of customers. They provide traditional copiers, printers, and multi-function machines, as well as high-end production color and black-and-white equipment for commercial applications. Pitassi notes that, “We have built our business off every customer size, from small/home office, to mid-size, to large Fortune 100 companies. With our dealer network, we can also provide service nationally and internationally.”

Pitassi explained that, as office technology has developed over that last 40 years, the lines between copiers, printers, and other essential document-handling devices has blurred. And in recent years, software is increasingly part of the increased efficiency of the modern office. “We are instrumental in the transformation of offices moving towards a digital platform. We offer document management, software, security, fax services, and of course IT Services. We offer a 24/7 monitoring and help desk, on-site support, project planning, and ongoing advice.” By remotely monitoring customer equipment, they can prevent breakdowns that interrupt a customer’s workflow. How great is that?

The Managed Print Solutions department handles large or complicated print jobs for customers and also serves local non-profits and other groups. This is where the Cedar Mill News is printed!

A customer such as OHSU needs increased security measures to protect patient information. Copiers now have the capability to store information, so cards and codes need to be used to ensure that anyone accessing them has the proper authentication.

Information Technology (IT) management has become an increasingly important component of the business. They found that since they were already performing these tasks for some of their customers, that they could effectively offer it as a stand-alone service to businesses who found that challenging.

Pitassi says, “Our technical department has 240+ employees. POA has two full-time trainers to train our staff. We also have a “train the trainers” program with our manufacturers. Depending on who needs the training, it could be held here at branch support, or we have the trainer travel to one of the branches. For some of the larger and more complicated equipment, it can take up to five weeks to become certified! The training department is certified to train our people on 100+ models! We are constantly developing new courses and have plans to expand to be able to provide training in managed print services, IT services, etc.”

Constant training is a major way that POA supports employees, with an in-house staff and also trainers from all of their equipment suppliers.

Their repair staff travels to customer locations and also handles larger jobs in the facility. They welcome new repair clients who bought their equipment elsewhere. They encourage anyone that needs labor, cleaning, supplies, or just general support to give them a call. Online repair tickets and scheduling is available to existing clients via their website.

Pitassi and his Executive Assistant, Kristine Draper, oversee POA’s advertising and marketing, and works with two outside companies to achieve their goals. Adpearance handles social media, online marketing and e-commerce. Fish Marketing handles radio, TV and print. One of their more visible forms of marketing is their partnership with the Portland Trailblazers.

In 2013, Konica Minolta awarded Terry Newsom with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his business acumen, along with “his extensive community involvement and charitable contributions, particularly involving athletic scholarships and programs for children.” Among other local projects, they have been a major benefactor to Sunset High’s sports programs and facilities. And, of course, they print this paper!

For more information, visit the website at pacificoffice.com, or call 503-601-2228.

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