Commercial Integrator June 2022 - 18

COVER STORY
EMBRACING
'THE ROAD
NOT TAKEN'
McCann Systems carves its own path, and, in the
process, has achieved organic growth. CI unwinds
the integrator's unique DNA to learn its secrets.
By Dan Ferrisi
IT WOULD BE ACCURATE to say that Frank
McCann, founder of Edison, N.J.-based McCann
Systems, is a bit of a contrarian when it
comes to groupthink. The design-build integration
company, which boasts more than a
half-dozen offices around the country and a
team of 150-plus, isn't content to follow the
crowd. For one, McCann and other members
of executive management describe
themselves as occupying the lowest tier of
the organizational pyramid: In short, customers
sit at the top, with the operations group
existing to serve them, and with management
serving the operations group. What's
more, McCann Systems has unreservedly
embraced managed services as a fundamental
part of its business model. In fact, 99%
of customers have an ongoing relationship
with McCann after completion of a capital
project. Finally, the integrator's approach to
the pandemic - no layoffs, no furloughs, no
pay cuts, no benefit cuts - flew in the face
of conventional wisdom but proved that
McCann Systems backs up its words.
Here, we'll explore all of the above, illuminating
how McCann and his executive team,
including Josh Bittner, senior vice president
of sales and marketing, have created the
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Commercial Integrator JUNE 2022
kind of firm that attracts not only top industry
talent but also world-class clients looking for
everything from experiential AV to essential
UC&C deployments. Along the way,
McCann Systems will illustrate how a small
business, started in 1996, can become a
global integration leader with clients spread
across the globe.
Company Culture
McCann Systems' company culture is perhaps
its greatest distinguisher. The integrator
recognizes that its operations team in the
trenches - salespeople, project managers,
installers, programmers and managed-service
providers - are customers' day-to-day
points of contact. Thus, the organization
acknowledges and treats them as its public
face. " The people who see the customer
every day, " McCann begins, " they're the
people who run McCann Systems. " On this
view, operations decisions don't originate in
the C-suite; rather, the operations group tells
executive management what they need to
do their job, and executive management's
function is to fulfill that through dedicated
accounting, HR and logistics teams.
" We have embraced our staff's ability to
lead, " Tom Treichel, president and COO,
says. " We developed a self-managed
workgroup that allows autonomy. " Seeded
by that approach, a natural mentorship has
blossomed within the company's ranks.
" Mentoring each other through the struggles
that we face during the life of a project
brings us closer as a team and as a family, " he
adds. The inversion of authority at McCann
Systems not only breeds intraorganizational
closeness but also empowers associates to
serve clients well. It does, however, invest
team members with real responsibility to
identify and meet customers' needs - and
there's no room for ifs, ands or buts.
Bittner describes the thread that runs
through McCann Systems in four words:
take the pain away. He means that, these
days, customers must contend with many
stressors. At its best, McCann Systems can
act as an extension of the customer, mitigating
those stressors and yielding excellent
outcomes. Doing that requires employees
to wear many different hats; accordingly, associates
don't have role-centered job titles.
" The words 'not my job' don't come out of
anybody's mouth at McCann Systems, " Bittner
adds, emphasizing that the team exists
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