Let's connect with Frank Hershberger of City of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Please leave your comments and questions for Frank below. If you are interested in being featured in a member spotlight please email customerreference@8x8.com.
Tell us about you and your role at the City of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
As the Director of Information Technology, I pretty much handle anything that is electronic, has a button or a plug! We have a two man IT department - myself and another IT specialist, and we take care of everything - the phones, computers, physical hardware, the network - the whole nine yards. I've been with the city for 16 years.
Did you always know that you wanted to be in technology?
Not necessarily. It's interesting, people my age grew up with the emergence of computers and technological devices in their day-to-day life, and a career in technology just kind of fell into my lap. I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do going into college. At the time I thought that computers were a safe bet. It's only going to expand and grow. That's pretty much how I got into it.
When you graduated from college, did you go straight to work at the City of Wilkes-Barre?
Almost! I began an internship at an IT consulting firm that supported the city. The city did not have an IT department at the time. We were independent contractors for a year before the city hired us outright and established an internal IT department. My intern advisor became the city's first IT director.
How did you discover 8x8?
Our IT consultant recommended a few platforms for us to consider, including 8x8, and we chose 8x8 for the price and feature functionality. We transitioned to 8x8 toward the end of 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic from Frontier - a plain old telephone system (POTS). The administration of 8x8 is heads and tails above the POTS system we had, and we've cut our telecom bill in half. Honestly, I would recommend 8x8 to anybody.
How is the city leveraging 8x8?
We have six physical locations tied together, including city hall and police headquarters. Most of our users are in those two main buildings. We have about 200 8x8 Work licenses in all.
What news resources do you use to stay current on technology?
I read Wired as well as technology-related and vendor/trade articles that pop up on my browser.
On a personal note, what are your hobbies?
I'm very into music. I like all kinds of music. I like going out and listening to live music.
What new things did you learn when the world changed during COVID?
I started to dig into online streaming, using applications and figuring out how to stream remote meetings. I had to find a platform to stream our city council meetings for the least amount of money. We had never done that before, and we had to figure it out pretty quick.
Have you had a mentor in your career, and if so, what did he or she teach you?
My first boss in IT stressed to me that it's not so much what you know, coming into a position, but how easily you're able to learn and adapt to whatever is coming around the corner. I thought that was a big takeaway.
What advice would you give someone pursuing a career in technology?
Be as specific as possible. Technology is such a vast field to pursue. There are many different aspects. I personally wasn't a big fan of programming, so I didn't want to go down that route. I preferred more of the physical options - networking, hardware and things of that nature. Narrowing your field is a big part of it.