Page 125 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

We work more like a contractor on these jobs because there’s so much integration involved, far beyond just the engine generator.
– Don Whitehead, sales engineering manager, Peterson Power Systems
PETERSON’S ROAD WARRIORS
Data centers are located all across the country, which means getting the local Cat dealers involved for installation and start up. “We always use the local dealer for service because it makes sense and it makes for good relationships,” says Hamilton. “But we also send our own technicians to manage the work. They set the tone and provide consisten- cy because they do these jobs over and over again and they’re good at it. The local dealer may see a job like this once every three or four years. These are very big, complex jobs that can take two, three, even four months to do the start up on dozens of gen sets.”
Gene Hamilton at a data center installation in San Jose, California
Many of Peterson’s Mission Critical Team are road warriors who live in places like Idaho, Neva- da, Texas, and North Carolina to be closer to the job. Others travel back and forth, two weeks—or more—at a time. All are dedicated to the hyper- scale data business. Peterson’s flying team is made up of ten technicians, at various skill levels, all will- ing to be away from home for weeks and months at a time. “These are tremendous learning oppor- tunities,” says Hamilton. “In three months, they can learn what would take a year or two working in-territory because this is such intense and com- plex work. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of younger guys who are excited to go out and learn.”
“As this business has evolved, we’ve actually done recruiting, internally,” says Whitehead, who over-
sees all of Peterson’s project management and en- gineering teams including the Mission Critical operations. “It provides training that technicians would never come across, otherwise, just working in our territory. We do have large installations like hospitals but this is very different. Without the support of their local parts department and 20-30 other techs at their disposal, they must learn to be
CHAPTER 8 | 123