Houston’s IT department is inextricably interwoven with everything that Houston’s does as a business. Where other foodservice operators generally outsource to contractors for programming services, Houston’s does just about everything in-house.

Houston’s IT provides a level of knowledge and service that supports both the company and many of our customers. Outside contractors don’t typically spend the time to learn the details of an individual job process. Our IT department works directly with employees, departments, operations, drivers, and merchandisers to hone in on their specific job functions and enable them to work more efficiently and accurately.

Houston’s was not always so tech savvy. In 1985, a Honeywell mainframe computer about the size of two refrigerators was purchased. The nightly backup took six of the large reel-to-reel tapes (think movie projector) and a person had to stay all night and change them when each one finished. An upgrade came along in 1992 to an IBM computer. This one only took one tape to do the nightly backup.

Gary Lass, Houston’s IT Manager, was then a contractor who provided IT support. When an issue arose, the common response was “Call Gary!” In 2000, Gary joined Houston’s permanently and within three years Houston’s was automating warehouse functions. Also, Receiving, Order Picking, and Inventory Management began using portable scanners, streamlining warehouse operations and reducing inventory and picking issues.

Now employees, customers, and vendors can access data using a number of methods. Sean Utt is our website and special systems programmer and database architect. Features on our website include the ability to:

• Browse product and inventory levels in both warehouse locations
• Place quick orders
• View invoices and credit memo’s
• Download price lists and MSDS sheets
• Print flyers and other product resource materials
• Obtain vendor sales data

Sean also designs data files that can communicate with our customer’s and vendor’s computers to stream live data. Our Sales teams also have the ability to source data on the road so conversations with customers contain real-time information.

Diverse technology requires diverse personnel. Gary notes, “There are literally hundreds of operating systems in use around the world. Many of those have dozens of subsets that differ in significant ways from one another. The operating systems control how the programmers interact with the system. Features and controls vary from system to system, from the big mainframe systems, down to your smartphone, and everything in between.  There are hundreds of jobs in IT and people in the IT arena tend to specialize in one or two disciplines over the course of their careers.”

Gary Pierce specializes in the hardware, including phone and computer systems, the portable scanner units, and other equipment used out in the field. The team recently completed a project to update HTrans truck tablets to a web-style interface. This allows our HTrans drivers and customers to make notes regarding deliveries or returns and convey them back to the office. Also joining the team is Manuel Magana, who will be assisting on various projects including a proposed update to our VOIP system.

Plans for the future are always geared toward automation where we can gain efficiency and reduce operating costs. We can be assured that we have an IT department that has the specializations needed to support Houston’s diverse technology needs.

Fun Fact #1: When the Wilsonville location opened in 1998 there were over 5 miles of computer and phone cables pulled throughout the building. Today, with advancements in technology we use less than half of the original cable.

Fun Fact #2: To date there are 10,900 programs and 1.13 million lines of code.

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