PST takes mystery out of computers

By: JOHN P. MCDERMOTT    Of The Post and Courier Staff
Originally Published on: 05/20/02
Page: 3

     Ingrid A. Tugwell counts herself lucky that Nadine Evans, a.k.a. Mom, was the product of a progressive educational system.
     Not as a student but as an administrator.
     “We used Apple Computers in the classrooms,” recalled Evans, who, more than 20 years ago in Colorado began schooling teachers about how to integrate the strange, yet fascinating machines into their lesson plans.
     “We thought we were pretty cutting edge,” she added, with one eyebrow raised.
     Evans apparently has passed on the cyberbug to her daughter, who is owner and president of PST Inc.
     “I’ve always been interested in computers,” said Tugwell, whose North Charleston-based company is a woman-owned, Microsoft-certified computer-training center and testing site.
     PST (short for Productivity Solutions & Training) offers a broad range of high-tech instructional services. The company has worked with more than 300 Charleston-area businesses, military clients and government agencies since 1994.
     At any given time, one PST trainer might be teaching steelworkers how to use electronic mail in their jobs while another might be helping more seasoned hands navigate the latest and greatest Bill Gates production. The company also offers professional development courses in such areas as business grammar and resume writing. In addition, PST has a consulting service to help clients in a pinch, should they ever need a temporary webmaster, network administrator or other skilled specialist. “If a server goes down we’ll send a technician out,” said Tugwell, who finds time to play on one softball team and coach another. “Anything computer-related we do it.”
     But helping workers learn the programs and applications developed by industry giant Microsoft is PST’s bread and butter. About half of PST’s sessions are taught at the client’s work place. The rest are held in the company’s six classrooms in the Rivergate Center on LaCross Road. To drive lessons home, the company allows students to revisit a course as often as they wish for a year without charge.
     Some of the fastest-growing employment fields are computer-related, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and many require certification. In this era of outsourcing, businesses are increasingly turning to outside sources to help their new and old blood alike learn or stay on top of the latest trends, Tugwell and Evans said. The resistance by companies to invest in such training is fading, they added.
     Evans, whose title at PST is customer service manager, noted that enhanced computer skills are a key way to boost worker productivity. Every hour an employee spends in a formal sit-down session is equivalent to six to 12 hours of self-teaching, she said. “There’s always that Catch-22 that you spend all this money on an employee on computer training and then they leave,” Evans said. “Worse then that is not training your employees and having them stay.”
     Born in Ohio and raised in Colorado, Tugwell moved to the Lowcountry in 1991 and went to work for a computer-training firm that catered to local military installations. When the Navy base closed, her employer also left town. “It turned out to be a good thing,” she said.
     She went to work for a Savannah couple and ran the local branch of their computer training enterprise. She took the plunge and bought the Charleston operation from them outright two years ago. The local computer-training business is not as close-knit as it once had been, mother and daughter agreed. The emergence of bigger national competitors has made the industry more cutthroat, they said. At the same time, there still are some benefits to doing business in a midsized market. The key advantage for companies like PST is the lag between the release of new software programs and the time that local companies or government agencies start using them. That cushion, typically six months or more, gives trainers time to identify and iron out any glitches before clients come knocking.
     “It allows us to find what the issues are,” Tugwell said.