Special to the Register
Gainesville Daily Register
Sherman —
The Texoma Council of Governments (TCOG), an organization of local governmental units in Cooke, Grayson and Fannin Counties in northeast Texas, has renewed its annual contract for IT outsourcing with MARJEN Technology Group of Arlington for a third year, said Raj Croager, MARJEN founder and CEO.
MARJEN is a privately held business consulting company with a mission to bring enterprise-class business solutions at affordable prices to small and medium-sized businesses and organizations.
“MARJEN manages all TCOG’s IT needs, from desktops and servers to voice and Internet connectivity” said Croager, whose company was founded in 2009 and is opening a second office in Sherman in late 2012.
The Texoma Council of Governments, which provides aging, client and government services in northeast Texas, initially contracted with MARJEN Technology because “it came down to fit. They put together a really good proposal, including Raj serving as a virtual Chief Information Officer,” said Dr. Susan Thomas, TCOG’s executive director.
“Raj is a management guy who understands how technology fits into our overall mission. He is a member of the management team, and understands how to use technology to provide better service and have happier, more productive employees,” Thomas added. “Internally, inside the three-county area we serve, we are light years ahead of other agencies in our use of technology.”
Founded in 1968, TCOG “is leading the pack in terms of technology they have implemented,” Croager noted. If a TCOG employee has an IT related problem, he or she contacts the MARJEN Technology Help Desk for assistance. MARJEN’s data center in Dallas monitors all of the council of government’s systems and services.
Several years ago when Dr. Thomas joined TCOG, she and her management team quickly realized that the council’s technology needed to be updated. “Our servers weren’t efficient and they weren’t stable. We had awareness of how important technology is to an organization. But we were using out-of-date software that was no longer supported,” she explained.
After transitioning the IT support to MARJEN Technology, TCOG has achieved both efficiency and effectiveness from technology as well as higher employee productivity, Thomas noted.
In December, MARJEN Technology will open a second office in Sherman, targeting other small to mid-sized businesses and organizations in the area. “These counties are growing both in population and in the number of businesses they support, and we want to be part of that growth,” explained Croager.
