From Family Dollar to Williams Sonoma, there's a toaster for everyone. The same is true for bank technology

By Art Gillis

I admit to being somewhat of an elitist regarding appliances. We have a toaster at home that reminds me of a 1956 Buick Roadmaster. The price was $239.95. While on Spring Break last week, I drove by a Family Dollar distribution center that could have housed every used Wang word processor ever built. It was massive. On the rest of my trip, all I kept noticing was a Family Dollar store in every strip mall. I have a feeling that toasters cost $9.98 at Family Dollar. Both machines can toast two pieces of Wonder Bread very nicely. Take your pick. The same is true for bank technology. It's all scalable and it's priced accordingly. Several years ago when I was teaching seminars for the ICBA, a young lad approached me at the end of the 3-day program. He hadn't said a word during the program, but he took a lot of notes. He offered these facts: • We're an ag bank and we don't have any capital to allocate to technology. • The bank president sent me here to find out what the cheapest system is. • We can't outsource because their minimums are more than we can afford. • We're willing to concede to vendor demands if we can get a reliable system. • Please tell me the vendor we should contact. I almost wanted to hug the kid. But I did something better. I gave him the answer. Call the folks at Precision Computer Systems. I don't know how this story ended, but I do know how Precision is doing. Just call them scalable. From very small to mid-tier, they serve the needs of their customers and they price according to the affordability of their customers.