After 25 years of marriage, Brad and Wendy Goodenough decided to become business partners. Today they are helping businesses of all sizes solve their biggest IT challenges.
By Dawn Nolan
HQ 126 | SUMMER 2024
As businesses and organizations have become increasingly dependent upon technology, especially with the rise of remote work and continuous cybersecurity threats, the need for reliable information technology (IT) services has only risen. As a result, DiGiT3, a downtown Huntington-based IT management, security and solutions provider, has become the “trusted technology partner” for companies throughout West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and beyond.
“Big clients, small clients, government, private — we’ve got a pretty big footprint,” says Wendy Goodenough, who owns and operates DiGiT3 with her husband, Brad.
Wendy and Brad met while attending The Ohio State University as undergrads. Wendy is a South Point native, and Brad grew up outside of Dayton. Brad went on to earn an MBA in technology management from the University of Phoenix, while Wendy completed a master’s degree in political science at Marshall and a Juris Doctorate from OSU. They moved back to the Tri-State in 2002 to join Wendy’s family business.
In 2008, Brad started an IT services and consulting firm called NETillect. After merging with two other partners, the trio established DiGiT3 in 2015.
Meanwhile Wendy was working as the in-house regulatory and compliance attorney for Walmart corporate and King’s Daughters Medical Center. When Brad eventually bought out his other two partners, he brought in Wendy as a co-owner and full-time employee in 2018.
“I’m a lawyer who met an IT guy, and the rest is history,” says Wendy. “We are both business people, so our passion, and what makes us tick, is working with businesses to help them meet their short- and long-term IT goals.”
Though they offer an array of different services — on-site technical support, IT consulting, data backup, cybersecurity, VoIP telephone solutions, computer network infrastructure, remote help desk support and cloud solutions — the “nuts and bolts” of DiGiT3’s daily business and what has made it what it is today are its services as a Managed IT Service Provider (MSP).
“Our primary business model is serving as the IT department for businesses, managing every IT-related aspect,” explains Brad. “However, DiGiT3 also supplements organizations that have internal IT departments or staff (co-managed IT services), provides more limited services to some businesses — backing up their servers, for example — and provides project-based services to some clients, such as setting up the IT infrastructure and hardware in new office locations.
“Originally, IT was more of a break-fix mentality, meaning you only really got a phone call if something wasn’t working, and you only billed for that event,” Brad continues. “But in today’s world, businesses are having to plan for their expenditures, and technology is an integral part of every business today. We can provide those services and alleviate some of the financial flux — the up-and-down costs — by just creating a managed platform. We then take on the responsibility of making sure things run smoothly. This helps a business maintain their cost structure month after month, year after year.”
DiGiT3 also sells equipment and partners with leading technology vendors such as Microsoft.
“We can be a business’s source for hardware and software including computer equipment, servers and networking infrastructure,” Brad says.
With cyber attacks on the rise, more regulatory requirements have been implemented. That’s why cybersecurity is an integral part of DiGiT3’s services, Wendy says.
“We regularly see industries and insurers setting expectations and requirements about IT protections they require to be in place — for example, the IRS, the FTC, the Coast Guard, the Department of Health and Human Services,” says Wendy. “We are also seeing IT-related requirements in contracts. So, if businesses want to provide services to banks, they must agree to have certain cybersecurity protections in place,” Wendy explains. “We help businesses get those protections in place, and we help them draft the documentation often associated with those requirements — disaster recovery plans, information security policies and incident response plans. We also help them complete IT documentation related to running their business, such as cybersecurity applications. These applications ask very specific IT-related questions.”
With a staff of experienced and specialized technicians, DiGiT3 is able to solve all sorts of issues that might arise.
“Knowing how to solve a problem is one thing, but 80% of problem-solving is knowing what the problem actually is,” Brad says. “Sometimes, you’re working with someone over the phone, and you have to draw it out of them. You’ve got to deal with the problem at hand, but that problem could be a symptom of something else. It could be a hardware failure, it could be user error, or it could be a cybersecurity incident. So, what our guys do is solve problems all day long.”
I’m a lawyer who met an IT guy, and the rest is history. We are both business people, so our passion, and what makes us tick, is working with businesses to help them meet their short- and long-term IT goals. — Wendy Goodenough
“I think people have this perception that a company’s ‘IT guy’ is like a jack-of-all-trades, but he only knows what he knows,” Wendy adds. “You need a team of people with different skill sets. I mean, you wouldn’t go to a cardiologist to get your kidneys looked at, or you wouldn’t go only to a general practitioner if you were pregnant. Everyone has their specializations, and IT is the same way. We are very proud of our DiGiT3 team, particularly their dedication to our clients and their focus on customer service and responsiveness.”
Being active in the community where they have chosen to build their business is very important to Wendy and Brad. They regularly speak with local groups to educate them on cybersecurity threats and industry-specific IT requirements. They both also sit on the advisory board at the Mountwest Community & Technical College Career & Technical Division.
In 2021, Brad was appointed by the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives to the Ohio Residential Broadband Authority, giving him the opportunity to be a voice for rural counties in Appalachia and the unique challenges associated with providing reliable internet in those communities. Wendy is a board member of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce, vice chair of the Chamber Foundation and a member of the 2024 Class of Leadership West Virginia.
“As a tech company, we can be anywhere we want to be, and we chose to be here. This is our home; we love Huntington and want to be part of the solution,” says Wendy. “We are incredibly grateful for the opportunities to build a life, a family and a business together and we do not take that for granted.”
