Founded in 1984: TSI Evolves from Selling Desktop Phones

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Following the 1978 deregulation of the phone industry, Deane Wurst, president of Tele-Solutions Inc., took advantage of the change and started his own business.

He was handling a large region that included the Cleveland and Toledo exchanges while working for AT&T and living in the Strongsville and Brunswick areas. Wurst, who spent his teenage years in Austintown, says a friend from Youngstown suggested a partnership.

“Six months later I was sitting in a little office on West Avenue trying to figure out why I left AT&T. But it was probably the best decision I ever made in my whole life,” Wurst says.

His friends in Cleveland questioned his decision because Youngstown was struggling with steel mill closures. “It probably wasn’t a boom town at the time. [It] kind of was the reverse,” he says.

Tele-Solutions Inc. now handles the managed IT and voice solution needs of businesses throughout the area. But TSI started in 1984 as a telephone business with five people – Wurst, three technicians and a salesperson. Wurst was commuting before relocating the family.

It was not exactly a quick rise to success. Early on, the company’s largest client was Phar-Mor and TSI moved into the Phar-Mor building in downtown Youngstown in 1988. After Phar-Mor declared bankruptcy, TSI moved to Market Street in 1993 and continued to grow. The company moved to 6001 Southern Blvd. in Boardman in 2008. At one point, a flood prompted renovation of that building.

In 2000, Wurst’s son, Jason, joined the business and today is vice president of TSI. The business has transitioned from a telephone company to one that handles the full range of business communications needs.

“It’s actually exciting for me because the industry has changed so much,” says Deane Wurst, “and the idea that the telephone system isn’t a thing with a cord on it anymore, it’s an application sitting in a computer somewhere. Whether it’s on your premises or sitting somewhere else, it’s still just an application.”

Jason Wurst notes when his father started the business internal telephone systems allowed a worker to press a button and use the phone as an intercom.

The business changed from Voice over Internet Protocol and networks to computer support. The evolution to IT infrastructure, fiber installations, structured cabling and now cybersecurity has required keeping up with changing technology.

“I always say we do blacktop to desktop,” Jason Wurst says. “I work with the phone companies and the internet providers all the way to desktop support. It’s everything from a technology standpoint. Any business needs, we handle it.”

The company employs 15, mostly technical experts, including IT engineers, voice engineers and specialists in structured cabling.

Jason Wurst credits TSI’s new director of IT, Mike Edwards, with helping him revamp delivery services to customers.

During Covid, businesses immediately wanted to expand their systems to go as remotely as possible and communicate through Zoom and Team calls. Jason Wurst says TSI customers already had the needed systems, which made for a smooth transition.

Today’s concerns among business owners include artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and those will continue to be big over the next decade for companies like TSI, he says.

“As far as the technology is concerned, it’s more of a collaborative environment – getting back to those unified communications aspects of not only being able to interact via voice but also with video and chat. With the onset of AI coming into this whole thing, that’s the X factor here, as far as technology goes,” Jason Wurst says.

Most of TSI’s clients are now using AI-based cybersecurity, which can recognize a potential virus by its activity in the system and automatically defend against it.

Although Jason now handles the day-to-day operations, his father comes to work every day and says cybersecurity really interests him. He still finds the business fun and exciting as he watches the industry evolve.

Some customers have remained with the company throughout the years.

“I like to think we’re still here because we provide good service,” Deane Wurst says. “We have good products. I have a dedicated staff of individuals who are really well-trained. I think I might have said something like that 35 years ago. But it’s every bit as true today, probably why we’re still here.”

Jason Wurst believes being family oriented has played a role too. And even when the economy has struggled in the Mahoning Valley, people have still needed TSI.

“The good news about what we do, it is a necessity,” the younger Wurst says, “especially on the IT side. Nobody functions without some kind of IT support needed, whether that be internal or external with us or both. And from a communications standpoint, we still have to talk to each other, so that never goes away… So, as long as we were priced right, did the job and treated our customers right and made sure that we serviced them the way we promised, we were able to get through those tough times.”

Pictured at top: Jason Wurst now handles day-to-day operations.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.