By Andy Slawetsky – I flew down to Orlando to take a tour of Hytec Repair, a key partner to imaging dealers and manufacturers alike.

President and CEO Eric Auman has been with Hytec from the beginning, when they were better known as a small part of Delta Business Systems, one of the country’s biggest copier dealers at the time. Eventually, DBS was acquired by ALCO Standard (IKON).

Like many dealers back in those days, DBS had their own circuit board repair program, fixing boards from Canon and Sharp.

In 1985, Eric moved a team out of the small room they’d been working in and spun off Hytec Repair as its own company. And off they went.

Today, Hytec, is a regular at BTA events, showing up at the recent BTA Spring Break this past week in their home town.

Hytec has grown from their days of circuit board repair, a program they still run as they repair boards for dealers and OEMs, often with advanced exchange services that provide customers with lightening fast turnaround so they can get their customers up and running as quickly as possible.

The “Shop” is massive, yet they’re on the verge of needing more space. With over 2,000 copiers on the floor from nearly every brand, Hytec now does much more than fix boards and destroy hard drives with their Hytec Drive Secure program.

They also offer electromechanical services where they fix assemblies, fuser units, staplers and laser scanners. If it’s inside a copier or printer, I am pretty sure they can fix it.

Virtually all parts in these assembly repairs are OEM unless they’re not being made anymore, in which case they either find alternatives or make them on their own using a 3D printer. They’ve even helped OEMs identify failing parts so that they can improve the hardware’s reliability when the machines are being built.

Hytec isn’t all circuit boards and tearing apart copiers. They’re also very involved in helping out in their community with charities.

Their support and sponsorship of “Puttin’ on the Pink,” the September golf outing run by partner Ricoh is a perfect example of this. The annual golf outing is held in Dacula, GA and benefits The American Cancer Society.

There are still open sponsor slots for anyone who would like to get involved, please contact andy@industryanalysts.com. I look forward to covering the event this year!

It was a short visit and I learned a lot. It’s one thing to talk to Emily Rodriguez at a BTA booth to learn about Hytec, but it’s a whole different wow factor when you walk into that building and see how much is going on, how many machines are on the floor with covers off…it’s pretty amazing.

If you get a chance, take the tour!

SOURCE Industry Analysts Inc.