Family comes first to Bill Tracia—always has, always will. From a business perspective, however, one gets the impression that the president and owner of Northern Business Machines, a.k.a. NBM Inc., has a thirst for competition that can never be fully quenched. And this is what’s kept him fully engaged and passionate about being an office technology dealer for the past 40-odd years.
NBM is tucked comfortably in the Boston suburb of Burlington, Massachusetts, a market that’s teaming with megadealers, manufacturer direct branches and other venture-capital-backed entities. That doesn’t phase Tracia one iota. He’s wholly confident in the notion that NBM can do a better job servicing customers than the interlopers who’ve invaded the New England market.
He has the numbers to prove it—$30 million in annual sales, bolstered by double-digit annual growth and further fueled by 50% year-over-year growth in managed network services and 22% growth in managed print services. The latter is an impressive figure during a time when MPS profitability is at a premium.
While NBM may not be a household name outside New England, the company continues to defy convention with solid hardware placement growth, time-tested values surrounding customer service and a full (and growing) slate of offerings designed to address the needs of its client base. As for challengers? Bring them on.
“Over the years, too many dealers ran scared of the large financial conglomerates, the megadealers, manufacturers and VCs that come into the market,” Tracia said. “We embrace it because we know we can do a better job in our market. We eat here, sleep here, educate our children and go to church here. This is our market where we support our customers. We’re not a faceless corporation trying to do business in a foreign market.”
Tracia is all in, backed by a staff of 65 that includes his daughter Amie Geary, vice president of IT and administration, and son Nick, the vice president of sales for the southern region. A sizeable portion have been with the firm 20 and 30 years, and a lion’s share have been on board for at least 10. When discussing NBM’s success, Tracia credits much of it to his long-tenured senior managers: Laura Bray, vice president; Vern Hydorn, senior vice president of sales; and John Pietrangelo, director of service—all of whom have been with NBM for more than 35 years. Even with a veteran crew, NBM also boasts a Gen Z cast of recent college graduates who are thriving in sales under the leadership of Hydorn, Nick Tracia and RJ Saucier, vice president of sales for the northern region.
In the Beginning
What’s most impressive is all of NBM’s growth has been organic; no acquisitions of area businesses, and its managed IT platform was adeptly crafted from the ground up. Tracia founded the firm in 1985 with the encouragement and support of his wife of 44 years, Pam, not long after he had his sales commission sliced from 15% to 11% by his old boss at another dealership. An Adler Royal dealer at the onset, NBM added Sharp two years later followed by relationships with Konica Minolta, Ricoh and HP. Today, NBM is one of Sharp’s 10 largest dealers in the nation. Tracia started his MPS business in 2008, with the managed IT platform following four years later.
NBM serves virtually the entire New England region, from just south of Portland, Maine, through all of New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Its client base is primarily SMBs on the copier side of the business. MNS encompasses legal, manufacturing, insurance and nonprofits, while MPS is an attractive proposition for banks and public/private educational institutions.
In addition to copiers and managed services, NBM furnishes production print gear (including wide-format), mailing equipment, unified communications/VoIP, interactive display boards/AV, document management solutions and document capture and digitization services. A new offering—which includes water, ice and carbonated drinks—launched last month (more on this shortly).
A significant point of differentiation for NBM is its in-house leasing arm, Millennium Capital Leasing. Although Millennium finances companies across all vertical markets, two customer sets in particular—the cannabis and biotech industries—are an ideal fit. As cannabis is not legal on a national level, national banks are unable to provide financing to businesses in that industry. Leasing companies are also hesitant to support and extend credit to biotech, and Boston and Cambridge are essentially biotech incubator cities.
“By having our own leasing company, we’re able to provide financing and do business with them,” Geary said. “That’s something many of our competitors can’t do. So we try to be as flexible as possible.”
Pandemic Proof
NBM has greatly outpaced its 2019 pre-pandemic performance on the strength of MPS and MNS, and MFP hardware has played a significant role. Even when supply chain shortages haunted many OEMs, the dealer leaned on its longstanding relationship with Sharp. During the pandemic, Tracia ordered copiers by the container, each holding 96 units, ensuring that he had a year’s worth of inventory on hand.
“We’re fortunate to be a Sharp dealer,” Tracia noted. “When the other manufacturers had no equipment, we leveraged Sharp and ordered big. We were probably buying more equipment than most of the dealers on the East Coast. We did very well through the pandemic, unlike a lot of dealers and manufacturers.”
As much as MPS and MNS have experienced growth in the last five years, hardware sales will forever be the golden goose for Tracia. “We’re a believer in managed services, but we’re also a firm believer in what drives the revenue, which is copiers and service,” he said. “The hardware number has always driven my business.”
Tracia doesn’t have any special blueprints that enable his company to thrive in MPS, noting, “It’s not who you’re doing business with, it’s how you’re doing business.” That entails stressing the fundamentals of customer service; he believes the company is only as good as its last service call or supply order. NBM’s MPS division is led by longtime director Rob Nickerson, whom Tracia notes embodies what customer service is all about: an all-hands-on-deck mentality geared to address client needs in short order. No one is above delivering copiers, toner or paper—including salespeople—even on weekends. After all, it’s another opportunity for a rep to get in front of the customer.
NBM’s foray into MNS has been a rousing success. At the start of the journey in 2012, Tracia made significant investments in the staffing and infrastructure of the MNS division. NBM offered mostly break/fix network services during the first few years of the division’s inception before Geary took over and expanded the department’s offerings, including a wide array of entry-level to advanced cybersecurity solutions, SOC services, managed IT support and project work. The dealer also continues to expand its cybersecurity offerings and advanced technologies.
Geary, a licensed attorney with experience in data and cybersecurity, felt it was important for someone in senior management to spearhead the initiative. “It’s very different from the copier business, but in a good way,” she said. “It’s more of a consultative, business process-driven relationship, with each network environment requiring evaluation and assessment on a unique and individual basis. We continue to scale our support to meet our growth, and we are fortunate to have many years of experience on our NOC bench, led by Mike Archambault, our director of IT and 30-year team member.
“The division has evolved and grown from a support perspective, including expanding our NOC and providing an array of robust cybersecurity offerings that appeal to a broad subset of our customers, from mom-and-pop stores on Main Street to our mid-sized to large technology-savvy customers. It’s a division that’s key to our future growth. It’s been a great journey, and I feel like we’re only getting started.”
In October of 2022, NBM hosted an Octoberfest customer appreciation event. It was the first time NBM opened its doors to clients since its 2020 expansion project that added 11,000 square feet to its corporate headquarters, resulting in a new, state-of-the-art 40,000-square-foot facility owned by the dealer on its five-acre plot. The makeover included a new corporate wing, much-needed additional warehouse space, a new demo showroom and modernized conference room. The American Co-Op Group peer organization had a chance to experience the facility toward the end of September this year when the dealer hosted the annual meeting. Another customer open house is planned for next spring.
Being able to see industry friends, customers and colleagues has been a breath of fresh air for Tracia after the pandemic-induced hiatus. “People were grateful to get out of their homes, have conversations in-person and partake in a few beverages,” he said. “There’s no replacement for belly-to-belly selling. In-person events allow us the opportunity to showcase all our services, whether it’s unified communications/VoIP, cybersecurity, production units or copiers.”
Marketing Magic
In addition to in-person events, NBM relies on a marketing strategy that includes email campaigns. Just this year, the dealer unveiled a monthly webinar series touching on a variety of topics including cybersecurity, unified communications and solutions such as PaperCut. NBM has also engaged a national marketing firm to beef up its efforts.
Not surprisingly, cybersecurity is a popular topic. NBM provides assessments that include dark web searches, allowing clients to discover if they’ve had any of their information compromised, as well as targeted phishing campaigns. It’s an excellent selling point and, as with any product or service the dealer offers, it provides a foray into cross-selling between the different departments—converting MPS clients into MNS, or introducing copier clients to unified communications.
NBM is also shifting gears into production equipment, courtesy of Ricoh and Sharp. And as of October, NBM began offering water, ice and seltzer beverages through a partnership with Waterlogic as an authorized seller. There won’t be a lack of penetration opportunities, as the state of Massachusetts recently passed a law that prohibits single-use water bottles in state agencies.
“As with any offerings we decide to bring on, we generally hear from our clients inquiring if we offer a certain product,” notes Nick Tracia. “The water offering had been under consideration for the past two years. There’s a big initiative to reduce plastic waste in landfills and provide clean water. We’re very optimistic about it. This will be set up as a separate division run by me and a dedicated team.”
NBM is always in hiring mode, seeking out hard-working and competitive individuals to help continue the impressive growth seen across all the firm’s divisions and add to the blend of long-tenured veterans and newcomers. While cross-selling is in the game plan, the dealer is also aggressively targeting net-new client additions, according to Nick Tracia.
Bill and his children are intensely proud of the family atmosphere that’s been cultivated at NBM, strengthened by its extensive work with non-profit organizations (including clients) and other charitable endeavors. One of the annual events employees look forward to is Dodging for Dollars, a spirited dodgeball game that raises funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Golf tournaments, food drives, holiday toy drives and other activities directly support organizations including the Jimmy Fund, United Way, Burlington Food Pantry, Boston Children’s Hospital and Alliance Health and Human Services.
In addition to family functions such as Halloween and holiday parties, the charitable work helps solidify the bond between NBM and its extended employee family. “It’s a great way to donate money while participating in fun events with employees,” Nick Tracia said. “We also enjoy family-inclusive activities throughout the year with ours employees’ spouses and kids.”
Building Blocks
While continuing down the path to double-digit growth becomes increasingly more difficult each year, Bill Tracia believes the water division can add nearly a million dollars by the end of 2024. The bigger push into production gear and the marketing heft behind proliferating MNS should go a long way toward achieving those goals. The dealer is also leveraging AI technologies in order to boost its efficiencies and, in turn, provide better customer service.
Geary is confident MNS (and cybersecurity in particular) can be a gateway to extensive growth. “Over the next year, my goal within the division is to be the trusted partner and cybersecurity resource to our customers, whether they are current IT customers, copier customers or managed print customers,” she said. “We are focused on educating end-users on cybersecurity risks; it’s no secret that SMBs are under attack, and we’re intent on making sure our customers are educated and prepared with multiple layers of risk protection in place. Together, we can work to combat these threats through end-user education and a willingness to adapt to and adopt technology based on the current threat landscape.”
Family Affair: Next Generation of Leadership Solidified at NBM
Bill Tracia gets serious when discussing NBM’s succession plan. “It’s not the easiest thing to plan my demise,” he joked, “but I think it’s very important.”
He need not worry. For the time being, Tracia is in good hands from a leadership standpoint, with his longtime veteran senior management team—Laura, Vern, John, RJ, along with son Nick and daughter Amie at his side. The Tracia children have been around the business their entire lives. Their father would bring them into the plant on a Saturday and an occasional Sunday (giving mom Pam a needed respite) and they would carve windows and doors out of the large cardboard boxes on the warehouse floor. The tradition continues today with Tracia’s grandchildren also building box forts while visiting NBM.
It’s easy for Tracia to be proud of his children. In addition to Nick and Amie, he has Katie (nurse practitioner) and Jenna (masters prepared registered nurse), both at Massachusetts General Hospital. As family units go, the Tracias are air-tight. When they’re not at work, they’re together on weekends, talking shop.
“We all live in the same town,” Nick Tracia adds. “We talk about work all the time, after hours, weekends, because we’re passionate about it.”
“Not everyone can have their dad as a mentor both personally and professionally,” Geary notes. “It’s nice to be able to learn from him on a daily basis as well as have our independent responsibilities and succeed in our own right. Nick and I are very much invested in the business and want to continue the great growth and success that our dad has achieved.”
While the talk of succession planning may not be the most pleasant topic, Bill Tracia appreciates what’s at stake—namely, the future of NBM’s clients and trusted employees. “We want to make sure that, if something happened, our customers continue to receive the high level of service they do today, and our employees continue to feel secure and confident in the company’s values, sustainability and future direction,” he said. “NBM wouldn’t be in a position of weakness and be forced to sell to a manufacturer or venture capitalist. The company will thrive and continue to be strong in its second generation of business.”
