Carol Stream, IL and Chesterton, IN (Dec. 8, 2018) — A well-known Greater Chicago business, Des Plaines Office Equipment and its northern Indiana affiliates, Kramer & Leonard McShane’s, will soon operate under a new common name, Pulse Technology.
All of the locations will officially change to Pulse Technology effective Jan. 1, 2019. The transition follows a re-branding effort undertaken at the direction of the company owners. There is no change in the ownership or management of the companies.
For Chip Miceli and his brother Victor, second-generation owners of Des Plaines Office Equipment, a business their father started in 1955, the last few years have been eventful in the evolution and growth of their company. Fresh off a string of acquisitions of local, smaller Chicago-area competitors, the company began to look at expanding both its offerings and its geographic footprint – and in the process undertook a re-branding exercise to select a name and tagline that better reflects the growing company’s mission.
Having made a significant investment into the area of Managed Services (IT), Des Plaines Office Equipment then invested in two Northern Indiana businesses, McShane’s, and Kramer & Leonard, and then implemented a merger of these two entities. The resulting merger and incorporation of the new Indiana businesses under the DPOE umbrella expanded the growing company’s offerings. The Indiana businesses added office products, facility, break room and safety supplies, as well as office furniture (and office design) to the menu of services. Conversely, these two established Indiana businesses could then offer Managed Print Services and Managed Network (IT) to its established customer base.
In the midst of this activity, the firm’s owners went about the business of buying and opening a new corporate headquarters building, located in Carol Stream, IL, to replace their previous headquarters in Elk Grove Village that was severely damaged by a microburst several years ago.
Already established as a national leader in the field of Managed Print Services (MPS), where Chip Miceli speaks before associations, leads discussion groups at trade meetings and mentors colleagues across the country, DPOE has expanded its core competencies to include Managed Network (IT) throughout the Chicago area.
As the firm added the new companies and new offerings, they saw their employee count jump to 120 and their annual sales hit $29 million – an impressive increase that also caught the attention of Inc. Magazine, who named the company to its Inc. 5000 list of the United States’ fastest-growing companies. DPOE has won a number of industry awards, including Elite Dealer, Hyakuman Kai, and their President, Chip Miceli, was named a “Difference Maker” by the national ENX Magazine. Simultaneously, McShane’s has been named best “Office Equipment and Supply” company 12 years in a row in the Northwest Indiana Business Quarterly magazine. More recently, DPOE once again claimed the coveted award “Elite Dealer” from ENX Magazine for 2018, as did Kramer & Leonard McShane’s.
Going through the acquisition and merger process, it occurred to the Miceli family that a name which better reflected the expanded technology and service offerings would be appropriate. With that, they set about the process of selecting a new name.
Chip Miceli said, “We created a committee which was comprised of representatives of each of the companies, and had them collaborate on a new name. After a long process, lots of discussion and lots of creativity, our team came up with the name Pulse, which means moving with strong, regular beats, and to be filled with activity and feeling. We think the name reflects our expanding scope of technology and activity.”
The Carol Stream, Chicago and Rockford, IL, locations will be under the Pulse umbrella as will the Indiana locations.
As the firm begins the migration of individual names to the Pulse brand, the first phase was that each company name – DPOE and Kramer & Leonard McShane’s – adds “a Pulse company” to its brand. Miceli said that as the name changes to Pulse, a website, pulsetechnology.com will serve as the main URL. “We like the tagline that our team came up with, which is ‘Kickstart the heart of your business,’” he said.
Visit the company’s new website here.
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About Kramer & Leonard McShane’s
Kramer & Leonard McShane’s is a Northern Indiana/suburban Chicago firm providing office furniture, office equipment, and services including Managed Network (IT). With a combined history dating to 1921, it is the merger of McShane’s, and Kramer & Leonard. The firm maintains its office in Chesterton, IN (312 Roberts Road). Brian McShane serves as Chief Executive Officer and Greg Fox as President. The firm is part of the Des Plaines Office Equipment family of businesses. Chip Miceli serves as chairman.
About Des Plaines Office Equipment
Des Plaines Office Equipment (DPOE), a 60+-year-old, second-generation family business, is a leader in the field of print management, including multi-function printers and It/technology solutions, serving the greater Chicago area since 1955. Today, DPOE operates three Chicago area locations: its headquarters in Carol Stream, and a location in Chicago (211 West Wacker Drive) and Rockford (Loves Park, IL). Additionally, DPOE has partnered with several Indiana companies and maintains several locations there as well. DPOE is a leading provider of Sharp office equipment, Kyocera and VOIP telephone systems. The company offers the Sharp Aquos Board, an interactive display system, and a customized video wall in its product line. DPOE provides products and services to a diverse client base that includes schools, hospitals, law offices, accounting firms, and financial institutions, among others. The firm has won the Sharp Document’s Hyakuman Kai award for sales excellence since 1988 and the Elite Dealer by The Week in Imaging since 2007. DPOE maintains corporate headquarters at 262 Carlton Drive, Carol Stream, Il. The firm is active in a number of area civic organizations, including the Greater O’Hare Business Association, the Small Business Advocacy Council, the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce and the Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce.
