Home / Our News & Events / Blogs / 2019: My Shot / Wait for It...
David West
January 15, 2020
The musical Hamilton made its way to Nashville recently, and over the holidays my family joined most of the city in seeing a performance. If you are not familiar with it, there is a lot to the story—I prepped by reading the synopsis on Wikipedia (which is prefaced by a note saying the summary may be too long or detailed!).
Among other themes, the show explores the conflict between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Hamilton is bold and impatient, constantly striving for more. Burr is cautious and calculated, always circumspect and slow to act. While Hamilton is clearly the protagonist, he creates challenges for himself in his impetuousness. Burr, on the other hand, regrets the opportunities he misses due to his prudent deliberation.
At Equinox, we have worked hard to chart a course between these two extremes, and I think that is why we continue to thrive after 34 years. By resisting the temptation to take off in a bold new direction in response to the latest trend or hottest buzz word, we have avoided committing ourselves to a path that is unsustainable—unlike the countless tech companies in recent years that exploded on the marketplace only to quickly dim. However, we have also worked hard to not give in to inertia and invite stagnation. Driven by a curiosity that starts at the top, our team constantly strives to better understand our customers’ needs and discover ways we can improve to better address them.
As I look back at Equinox in 2019, I see a company that is flourishing—that is a company that is growing at a sustainable pace and not burning out its employees or burning bridges with customers. While certainly a blessing, this is not happenstance. It is a function of being constantly attuned to the tension on display between Hamilton and Burr in the musical—keeping abreast of change but engaging it with intentional consideration.
Below are some of the milestones that defined the journey for us in 2019.
On our staff, senior software architect David Bastin celebrated his 25th anniversary at Equinox and was promoted to Vice President of Software Engineering. In that role he serves as the lead architect for all our new software products as well as leading all development for the company’s Microsoft SQL Server project code.
Another change on our development team was the promotion of Bill Menees to Vice President DevOps. In this role he will expand his efforts to integrate and streamline our software development practices and IT operations. In December Bill also completed a Master of Science in Computer Science from The Georgia Institute of Technology. We are excited for him to apply the latest machine learning, network security, and information security principles he acquired in his studies.
2019 included our 21st annual Protector User Group Meeting and our second “re-booted” TeleLink User Group Meeting. Both will be back in 2020; dates have already been set, so please plan to join us! If you’d like to get a feel for the meetings or see what other have to say about them, check out the videos on our YouTube Channel.
We also continued a multi-year trend of sales growth, with the highest total revenue in company history. This growth was fueled by adding new customers as well as helping current customers update existing implementations and deploy new solutions, including:
Outside the office, Byron, Eric, and I sent kids off to college for the first time, Joe welcomed a new granddaughter, and Chris’s brood grew to 3 as they welcomed a new daughter.
Before going to see Hamilton, I anticipated that with so much hype I was bound to be disappointed; I was not. If you have a chance to see it, I encourage you to do so. If you do, perhaps you will think of us at Equinox, even though we don’t wear waistcoats or debate in rap.
David West is Executive Vice President of Equinox Information Systems. David oversees the company’s sales and marketing team, develops the company’s long-term strategic plan, and works directly with the company’s hundreds of customers across the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. When he is not making sales calls or updating spreadsheets, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing basketball, and serving his community through his efforts at St. Bartholomew's Church and One Voice Nashville. To learn more about Equinox, its products, and the people who power them, visit www.equinoxis.com or call (615) 612-1200.
