My History (In other words, why choose me?)
Mark Sicat DBA Sicat Technology Consulting, is a one man operation. I work from my home office located in Wahiawa, and am able to service to entire island of Oahu, primarily the north shore communities, Mililani and Wahiawa. I have business clients with up to 15 workstations in client/server environments and do tech work for some clients with only one machine. My certifications include many mainstream manufacturers, but it makes no sense to list them, as a certification means nothing in today's IT environment.
I was born in Hawaii, but raised in the mainland, primarily Georgia. I have lived in California, Arizona, Maryland, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio & finally, Hawaii. College was not my avenue in obtaining the knowledge that I have in computer & networking. My knowledge and experience started as a child taking apart my electronic toys, such as modifying an old remote control car to make it accept a higher amount of voltage, resulting in faster RPMs on the tiny little factory motor. I was 12 at the time. My father was an electrical engineer and computer programmer, which always put me around my field of expertise throughout my adolescent years. I, naturally, didn't want to have anything to do with my father's profession, just because of being rebellious, and joined the military. After serving with the Georgia Army National Guard, I held various positions that helped me shape myself as a more rounded person. I installed billboards, drove an office supply delivery van and held every non-managerial position in a movie theater while living in Georgia. I then worked in a Honda automobile factory in Ohio. In Hawaii, I opened two movie theaters as a general manager on the big island. My sales career started afterwards on Oahu, becoming the top salesperson for AT&T long distance as a telemarketer during my tenure. I have also been a Kirby door-to-door salesperson and an account executive for a locally based computer networking firm.
During the last few years before my father passed, I realized that doing computer work with him was fulfilling and came naturally for me. I went into field technical services, starting at the rank of entry level Dell computer hardware installer for the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) project under at that time, EDS. Within one month, I was promoted to lead technician, then two weeks after that, I was promoted again to Senior Deployment Lead Technician of Pacific Command (PACOM), Camp Smith. Two months afterwards, I was promoted to Dell Project Manager of PACOM. The contract was in a transitional phase and out of about 150 employees, 3 were selected to move on as enterprise field service technicians for major OEMs. Yet I didn't have a college degree or any formal certifications at that time, I was one of the three, the rest of the employees were released.
Since 2003, I have been doing the warranty work for the likes of Dell, Apple, Sony, Lexmark, Canon, Polycom, Vanguard & EMC (Data General). Some managed clients that I am the primary technician for include Honeywell & Circuit City (when they were still open, pre-liquidation).
If you are looking for a "geeky", tie-wearing, aloha shirt tucked in, fresh from college, paper certified kind of support person, look elsewhere. I am simply a casual technician who has the real world experience to troubleshoot and recommend cost effective solutions. Latest and greatest is definitely not my perception of well being. I believe that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. I recommend solutions to my clients with the same mentality. Still interested? Drop me a line.