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David Hodgdon, president and CEO of PCG Portsmouth Computer Group, stands with the company file servers as an example of how the company provides IT-outsourcing services for small businesses. The company is located at 30 Mirona Road in Portsmouth. Rich Beauchesne photo

David P. Hodgdon, the chief executive officer and founder of Portsmouth Computer Group IT, puts his degree from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics to work every day.

But by no coincidence, he says, it is his minor in hospitality that has helped him succeed in his field, what he describes as one of the toughest service industries.

"Our business is all about customer service," says the former restaurateur who branched out into the world of floppy disks, selling software in the early '80s.

Today he's selling his expertise, along with service from about a dozen tech workers at PCG's headquarters on Mirona Road Extension in Portsmouth. The company services include on-call IT with remote support, network solutions, and computer sales, service and support. The services range from data backup to disaster document recovery.

Founded in 1996, PCG serves about 300 customers, many of which are smaller to medium-sized companies that realize a system failure means a loss of their own customer service and a blow to their bottom line.

"We're a full-time IT department at a part-time price," Hodgdon says.

Hodgdon is also known for his technology breakfast series, which covers the latest developments, as well as data protection strategies and ways to block computer viruses and can the SPAM.

In his own words, Hodgdon tells Seacoast Ventures how his company keeps others clicking right along.

"It's been a very reactive, a fire-engine drill in our industry. If you're not looking into the future and finding more effective ways to take care of your customers, you're not going to be in business. Every day the phone rings and you can't predict what's going to happen. And our goal is to change that methodology for our clients, that we're moving into more of a proactive managed service, effectively eliminating a problem -- knowing it before they do."

Hodgdon says PCG's use of N-able, a product that combines hardware and software solutions, allows his team to target potential problems by monitoring and managing IT and security. It has the technology to serve and protect systems remotely, an ability that dramatically reduces downtime. Is a company's e-mail working? Are the hard drives up and running? What's the temperature?

Hodgdon compares it to the dashboard of a motor vehicle. When a vehicular component needs to be checked or fixed, a light on the dashboard lights up.

"We're finding that in this industry you can do more and more remotely, so why drive? You can do things here quicker. What this has effectively done for us is minimize the number of chaotic calls ... we see it and address it before a client even knows it."

In the business world, it's comparable to buying insurance, Hodgdon says. And coordinating these "proactive managed services" allows for better management of his tech support, too.

Another product, called GoToAssist, serves as a virtual IT help desk and allows the company to reach out and help a client to solve a problem. Hodgdon says PCG can fix about 60 percent of the problems within 15 minutes. In some cases, the tech team has reached out to its clients as they conduct business as far away as California and India.

Demand for services is picking up. PCG gets 50 or 60 calls a day, and based on that increased interest Hodgdon is hiring another employee to field the inquiries. PCG serves a lot of companies with 25 to 50 employees, whereas larger companies are more likely to have their own IT departments.

PCG, with a dozen employees, has a general coverage area of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The company also does work for nonprofit organizations such as the American Red Cross.

Hodgdon says PCG is now the largest reseller of Hewlett-Packard product in New Hampshire. The partnerships with HP, Microsoft and Cisco Systems in the mid-90s gave Hodgdon's company leverage and the ability to meet customer needs.

Hodgdon has seen growth in the retail market as well. Click'n Fix, now in its second year, targets the home market. It is designed as the in-home computer specialist, where PCG techs can fix pesky computer problems by house call or by drop-off service. Click'n Fix is the local competitor to the Geek Squad franchise, and at a lower cost, Hodgdon notes.

As PCG enters its 12th year, Hodgdon anticipates continued demand in security and firewall solutions. The need is partly based on regulatory compliance, which requires companies to store certain information for longer periods.

"Disaster recovery or disaster avoidance is very important," he says. "The good news is that as the data's been growing the cost to buy the technology for storage has come down."