When the behemoth Bell System broke up in a monopoly-busting era, John Rooney faced a transfer from Rhode Island to Albany, N.Y. Not inclined to move, Rooney mulled opening a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise or a communications firm. Rooney chose the latter and, with a partner, founded Communications Unlimited in his Warwick basement in 1984.
Twenty-seven years later, the firm has long outgrown Rooney’s basement and entered markets never conceived in the 1980s. Rooney’s son, Kevin Rooney, took the reins of the company in 1997 and has navigated the company through the rise of the Internet, the advent of cellphones and the ongoing merging of telephones and computers.
“This is all stuff back in early ’90s you couldn’t foresee happening,” the younger Rooney said.
Today, Rooney considers his company as much an IT firm as a telephone consultant. He deploys teams of computer technicians to design phone systems that work in tandem with computer databases, transfer calls to cell phones or sync with computer calendar software.
Rooney said he views the technology not as a threat, but as an opportunity. A decade ago, companies hired Rooney primarily to outfit new offices with phone systems. The latest bells and whistles provide new reasons to upgrade.
The new phone systems bring more than a coolness factor. Rooney said that by tying phone systems to existing databases, his company can save clients money. For example, his technicians can program a system to identify the caller based on his number and, before someone even picks up the phone, display on a computer screen the caller’s name and relevant information. It may only save a few seconds but in large call centers that translates to real money over time.
To make the systems work, Rooney and his staff must become experts in far more than phones. They need to understand which departments take which calls, how companies want to cue up many calls or whether the customer needs to send calls to other sites if its main location goes down.
“We’re as much consultants as salespeople,” Rooney said.
In the company’s younger days, consulting was all it did. It taught companies how to install their own phones and wires, rather than rent them from big telecommunication companies. Accepted today as the norm, the concept of installing an in-house phone system was daunting for many companies.
The elder Rooney sold phones and wires and took a percentage of the reduced rent costs. He bought the company’s first computer – complete with a 1-megabyte hard drive – only after strong urging from his son. Today, the company still sells phones but also relies on installation, configuration and servicing to boost its bottom line.
Largely through word-of-mouth recommendations, Communications Unlimited has built up a client base of more than 1,000 companies across the region. And it has become one of the largest sellers of NEC Corp. phone systems in the region.
And no, the company does not favor cold calling to drum up business. The younger Rooney said he favors face-to-face conversations that let him build rapport and see a potential client from the inside. Rooney also welcomes small jobs of just a few phones.
“My father taught me early on the guy with two phones may have 200 tomorrow,” he said.
For many years, Communications Unlimited served all Brooks Pharmacy’s phones spread over more than 300 stores. The company is preparing to install a company-wide phone system at National Lumber’s 13 locations.
In all, Rooney estimates that the company has installed more than 100,000 phones since its founding, most at medium-sized businesses in the southeastern New England market.
Communications Unlimited now records more than $1 million a year in revenue, Rooney said. And last year, in need of more space, the company moved from its long-time Apponaug offices to a larger one at 83 Vermont Ave.
Today, the company employs nine, including Rooney. His father retired in 1997. His father’s business partner, Bill Tooher, retired four years before that.
The younger Rooney has no immediate plans to retire, saying he’s got at least another decade of vigor in him. And all these years later, how does Rooney feel about his father’s decision to skip a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise?
“It’s worked out,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “I’m not sure as well as Dunkin’ Donuts.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
COMMUNICATIONS UNLIMITED
OWNER: Kevin Rooney
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Phone-systems installer and servicer
LOCATION: 83 Vermont Ave., Warwick
EMPLOYEES: 9
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1984
ANNUAL SALES: WND
