COVERSTORY
Nationwide IT Provider
VERITY IT
Acquires Sanford LAN Masters BY NIKKI NAMDAR, SENIOR WRITER
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At that time, a major computer virus started spreading and attacking Windows 2000 and Windows XP PCs. Della Pia’s work vehicle, a patriot blue PT cruiser with his company’s name branded across it, caught the attention of a local reporter on the road. When the news outlet needed an expert to weigh in on the worm, they called the tech-savvy cruiser from New Jersey. “Computers were one of those things. I was super fortunate that my parents got me a Tandy TRS 80 when I was younger,” he said. “When I would get in front of a computer, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I loved it.” With new models being released, he eventually learned how to write code, disassemble parts, and rebuild equipment. As a teen, this hunger earned him the role of the go-to IT guy at his father’s machine shop, where he kicked off what would be a lifelong technical career. “I knew this was what I was meant to do. No question about it; it was the only thing that was natural to me.” The day after his segment aired, he had booked five appointments a day for six weeks straight. Meandering through the streets of a new town finally paid off and put him on the radar as the one to call. After spending decades mastering the machinery, the computer connoisseur decided to follow his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps and forge his own path. Establishing a start-up required starting over again, but he was used to that. This time, though, it would last. Thanks to the attractive and affordable real estate market, he found his place in Sanford. “The square footage we get here, we can’t get in Orlando, where the price is almost double,” he said. “It makes me laugh that people think it’s on the other side of the planet. It’s so easy to commute to. All the cool things Sanford is doing and keeps doing, it’s growing fast.” Della Pia created a techie’s dream office. Inside a 4,000-square-foot facility, the staff built mini houses, put in a fake lawn on the ground, set up video games, and troubleshoot customer issues in a matter of minutes. The 4 M Y S A N F O R D M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 21
Michael Della Pia
innovative space gave Della Pia the power to generate a business concept that would revitalize the IT industry. When surveying prospects, he took issue with the standard IT approach that makes their customers wait hours for service. “What if I told you we would reach out to you in 30 minutes and have someone on your PC in an hour,” he told them. Their response time is 95 percent faster than their competitors across the country. According to Zendesk, that ranks them in the top three percent for IT companies. “I have a good team; it’s all about who you are. My guys are good, and they are experienced in seeing most issues.” Their speediness and company culture caught the attention of an IT service provider based out of Chicago in 2020. Mark London, the President of Verity IT, and his partners started the company seven years ago to show small-to-medium-sized agencies that emerging technology enables businesses, it doesn’t drive them. One of their clients, TransNational Payments, is a merchant services provider that specializes in affordable and powerful payment processing, payroll, and POS solutions. The company transitioned to Verity IT from another provider in 2018 to acquire more scalable solutions to support their infrastructure and core business processes. “We’ve been very happy with the support and communication from the Verity team, and their ability to provide on-site support across our locations in different parts of the country for over 100 employees,” said Bryan Olson, the executive vice president of TransNational. “I was very impressed early on with the way they managed our transition from our previous provider. We have some custom applications to support our business that made me apprehensive of a change. Verity managed these complexities seamlessly. Onboarding went very smoothly, and my only regret is that we didn’t make the transition a lot sooner.”
BARRY D. KIRSCH
hen ichael Della Pia moved to Orlando in June 2003, he didn’t know anyone and had nothing but an unemployment check. He went door to door trying to sell IT services via a franchise he transferred from Virginia. By August, after surviving the summer heat and, moreover, the screams from dissatisfied residents, he finally booked his first job with a client he continues to represent.
