Shop Talk: A Grown Up Company
Michelle Drolet is CEO of the company formerly known as ConqWest in Framingham. Her company changed its name to Tower Wall as of Jan. 1, 2008. In addition to a new company name, Drolet also has a new title as chair of the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce's board of directors. Drolet established ConqWest in Central Massachusetts in 1993. She sold the company in 1997, but bought it back in 1999. Now she has five full-time employees and seven independent contractors. Here, she talks about her company's new name and how she sleeps at night knowing all she does about Internet security threats.
Michelle Drolet, CEO of Tower Wall in FraminghamWhy the name change?
Our new name is Tower Wall. In 1999 we came up with the name ConqWest because it was back when we were helping our customers conquer their Internet fears and so it was about protecting networks from the Internet - that big nasty red cloud. Today, instead of protecting yourself from that red cloud and just protecting your network, it's more about protecting information and information assets.
So, ConqWest wasn't necessarily the right name for us anymore. I think we've grown up, and when we started thinking about a new name and a new brand we asked, 'What are we doing for our customers?' It's basically fortifying their networks, helping them get secure and so hence came the Tower Wall.
What type of customers do you deal with?
The smallest company we deal with is 50 users and above. Our typical customer profile is 250 users to about 5,000 users.
You're the new chair for the MetroWest Chamber as of Jan. 1. How long have you been involved with the chamber, and why?
I've been involved with the chamber since 1994. I believe I've been on the board for six years and I was on the executive committee this past year. The chamber is so awesome because it does so much for the community. Part of our corporate culture and why we're involved in the chamber is the giving back to the community.
Are there specific duties you'll have as chair?
So far I've gone to ribbon cuttings, I've done introductions to seminars, I got the closing of the education summit. It's the monthly meetings, the executive committee meetings. There's a lot of showing up as a figurehead. But Ted Welte [executive director of the chamber] will guide and direct me and tell me what I need to do.
How did you end up in the IT sector?
Absolutely by accident. I actually graduated from Northeastern with a double major in political science and criminal justice. I wanted to go and be an FBI agent. But I ended up working in a division of Natick Labs in their IT department. They were taking the secretaries there off typewriters and putting them on a big computer with a terminal and printer. So, that was my first experience with IT and I really loved it.
What is the one mistake that you see small businesses making when it comes to IT security? What's the one thing they overlook?
There's a couple but the major one that small organizations need to understand is that hackers or paid for Internet mafia don't want a business's information. They really don't care about information. They want their computing power. That's what small companies need to be really vigilant about: having a good firewall in place and keeping that up to date with anti-virus.
How do you sleep knowing how fragile electronically stored private information is?
I sleep well because I know what we as a company are trying to do to help our customers. It's all about being vigilant and testing a system. All you can do is try and the best we can do is probably be 95 percent secure. Nothing is ever for sure. I can never guarantee 100 percent because threats are always changing. There's something new every day.
Conducted and edited for length by Christina H. Davis, Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer
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