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Company Spotlight: Direct Supply - The Side You've NEVER Seen


Direct Supply, Inc. is a well-known company around Marquette University's campus. We've all heard our favorite recruiters, Wade Krogwold and Sarah Heronymus who speak on campus, answer our questions at career fairs, network at Java and Jobs and interview students in Internship Express. The Direct Supply logo is even seen on Marquette University's favorite T-Shirt, our Fanatics Basketball Game Day T-Shirt. If you've never heard of Direct Supply, then you probably don't really attend Marquette.. My point is, we all know about Direct Supply, but after our IT Club field trip there on April 11th, I have learned so many more interesting facts.

8 Reasons Why We Love Direct Supply (in no particular order):
- Direct Supply made ITnet2007 possible through large contributions
- Direct Supply always finds an excuse to incorporate yummy food into any event
- People at Direct Supply are PASSIONATE about their jobs and other people
- Direct Supply is short 11 miles away from Marquette's campus
- Direct Supply loves Marquette interns and full time employees
- Direct Supply is a national firm headquartered in Milwaukee, WI
- Every employee at Direct Supply is considered a PARTNER
- Wade is really cool even though he didn't attend Marquette (We can forgive him)

Technology at Direct Supply Impresses Marquette IT Students!
The Marquette students that toured Direct Supply's IT building were very impressed with the vast, high-scale technology shown to us by Data Center Engineer, Paul McMillian. Paul started the tour with a walk-through of "NOC" or the Network Operation Center, which is manned 24/7, 365 days a year. Some applications used included "MOM" the Microsoft operation manager.

We then took a very exclusive tour of the Tier 4 Data Center Room, which is kept at a chilly 67 degrees. In the data center windows servers line the room as well as 2 dual 20 ton air conditioning units. Every single hardware and infrastructure piece of equipment at Direct Supply has at least one back up piece.

Further along in the data center took us to the room used for Sonic Gear fiber loop WAN system hardware as well as telephony technologies. The telephony technology allows for voice over IP access where telephone technology is transported on the network. Basically, telephony was described as old telephone meets new internet technology to make great new system!

Finally, we saw the video conference room where Direct Supply could directly interact with partners in China for operations. Paul explained to us one of the most up-and-coming technology terms, "ITIL", which means Information Technology Information Library, a term and concept taken from Great Britain. Paul explained that candidates who apply for jobs and are ITIL certified definitely have an advantage in the workplace.

Overall, our field trip to Direct Supply was awesome! We ate sandwiches, cookies, chips and had all the soda we could stomach. Besides the weight we gained, we also gained technology knowledge and a great visual explanation of all the things we've learned in class.

Direct Supply is a great company and they spend tons of money on their technology because, they said that for Customers, they're willing to make the technology investment. For information on careers or internships visit www.directsupply.com/careers or email wkrogwold@directs.com. ~ Stephanie Storck


Read more articles in ITSO..GOOD Vol. 1 No. 8

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