2024 Business Women Awards
ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE: Ruth DiGiovanni
RemiPBX Inc. co-owner
RUTH DIGIOVANNI KNOWS talking about her company, which develops and installs cloud-based phone systems, isn’t the most exciting conversation starter.
“Here I am with cloud telephones sounds so unsexy,” she said. “But if you don’t have a working phone system, as a small business, that’s a problem.”
DiGiovanni and her husband, Zopito “Zo” DiGiovanni, who owns an information technology company, jumped on the opportunity and debuted RemiPBX Inc. in 2021. They began fielding calls from small organizations her husband already had relationships with that hadn’t embraced cloud phones. Today, clients range from retail and security operations to a Providence law firm.
Running a tech company is a long way from DiGiovanni’s childhood in Taunton, where she grew up stargazing on astronomy nights, hanging out with other members of the varsity math team and presiding over the school Latin club.
“I was a nerd in school,” she said.
In 2000, she graduated with a political science degree from Syracuse University but opted not to go to law school, her original plan.
Instead, she worked as a political consultant for a Massachusetts state senator’s successful campaign, then eventually landed a job as a public affairs assistant at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. That’s when she recognized her passion for doing media relations. She took a job at a public relations firm before launching a consulting business as a self-described hired hand for tech PR agencies in the Boston area. One of her clients, Roger Williams University, offered her a position as director of media relations and social media.
After staying home for a year, she joined her husband, who’d launched Remi IT Solutions Inc. a few years before.
Remi IT manages computer systems for small companies, making on-site troubleshooting visits and helping businesses navigate the perils of cybersecurity and hacking. Most clients are in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Remi IT and RemiPBX, both of which have offices in Providence and North Attleborough, work alongside and have a combined six full-time employees.
Small businesses should spend 4% to 8% of their budgets on technology, including security, DiGiovanni says. “I ask them, ‘If you’re hacked, what are you going to do?’ It’s a sticking point,” she said. DiGiovanni says the business plan is to stay local.
“When you’re here, you’ve got your finger on the pulse of what small business is faced with,” she said. n
