Computer Repair Pros President Peter Cloonan was working late one night in his computer repair shop in Monona when he saw movement on one of his security monitors.  “At about 2 a.m., I saw three young males walk through my camera range,” said Cloonan.  He watched the monitors as the males walked around his store, through the ally and started to break into a nearby jewelry store.  The camera he had mounted at the rear of his building caught the suspects breaking in.  After calling the police, Cloonan went outside with his German shepherd and scared away the would-be burglars.  Hindsight told him that he should have waited for the police to get there before going out but he says since that incident there have been no break-ins reported in the area. 

Computer Repair Pros President Peter Cloonan demonstrates the touch-screen capabilities of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 software.  He says Windows 7 is the best operating system ever.  “It highly virus resistant and it’s five-times faster than Vista.”

Cloonan, who has had his hand in one computer or another since he was a young man in the ’80s, started designing camera security systems after doing computer work for the state of Wisconsin’s attorney general’s office.  Their elaborate computerized surveillance system gave him the idea to design video surveillance systems that were accessible to business and residential users.  “With the economy going down and crime going up, businesses and homeowners need to protect their assets, said Cloonan.”  And with most computerized camera security systems running anywhere from 5 to 10 thousand dollars, he wanted to create a system that was affordable to the average person.  “We build our own custom units, which are all covered under the manufacturer’s warranty, and we do it for half the price.” 

So if you are going on vacation in the Caribbean for example and want to keep an eye on your house these systems are designed so you can check your laptop to see what’s going on.  And they can even be set up with motion sensors that will notify your personal digital assistant (PDA) and allow you to watch the activity in real time while contacting the police.  “I want to give people the power to protect and watch their assets from far away,” says Cloonan.  “You don’t have to hire a security firm and get charged an arm and a leg.”

Doing all their work in-house is how Computer Repair Pros is able to keep prices low on the security and computer systems that they service and sell.  They also keep it affordable through green means, which include recycling old computers and selling them for a fraction of the original price.  Cloonan buys used computers from the University of Wisconsin and large companies that replace them every few years.  In many cases he says the systems are only two or three years old and they sell them refurbished for $99. He says making these computers available at such reasonable prices has opened the computer market to a new group of people. “It’s great for people who didn’t want to spend the money on a computer.  Now for 99 bucks grandma can get one and the son in the family can now have one in the basement.  And people who have a computer that is completely shot and don’t want to spend a thousand dollars to fix it can come in and buy one of our $99 computers.”      

And don’t think just because they’re $99 that quality falls victim.  For Cloonan quality is never compromised for price.  He is always aware of the parts that go into his computers and where they come from.  For instance he will not use hard drives made in China because his research has found that electronic devices manufactured there have a 20 percent failure rate. That’s compared to a 3 to 5 percent failure rate in parts manufactured in other countries. 

Cloonan says he would rather have a happy customer who knows that their data and family photos are safe than having them return every six months replacing a hard drive. “In a small business like ours we are more a part of the community.  These aren’t just customers.  They are our family, friends and neighbors.”   

For Cloonan it’s all about happy customers.  And part of accomplishing that end involves separating the ‘pros’ from the ‘geeks.’  The reason he says that they don’t call themselves geeks is because of the negative connotation for inexperience that the term has earned over the years.  Every one of his computer technicians has at least 10 years experience in the field.  “We are all pros here.  We know what the problems are when we see them.” 

Cloonan says many businesses out there hire their staff straight out of high school with limited background or training in computers.  “They’re just basically selling the product.  They want to sell you the antivirus.  They want to sell you the computer.  But when it comes to actually fixing it they’ll ship your laptop off to another company in Georgia.  The guys in the stores don’t have the capabilities to work on laptops or solder joints.”

So it seems safe to say the pros have an advantage over the geeks, but it’s not just a job for them either.  The Computer Repair Pros love computers.  They love fixing them and finding ways to make them run better.  But even the most passionate pro must balance his left brain with a bit of right brain stimuli.  For Cloonan this comes in the form of an instrumental intervention.  When he isn’t working in the shop chances are that he is banging on the drums or teaching percussion and drums at the UW. Learning music at an early age from his father (also a musician), Cloonan did regular recitals.  The training created an inner discipline that carried on into all aspects of his life.  Today music is a pastime that helps balance out his business side. 

“When I’m on computers all day I’m using my left brain and getting all fried out.  I switch to music in the evening and it basically harmonizes my brain.  If I’m too wired out on computers I’ll literally get burned out.  But if I play music it totally releases all that pressure.” 

But even with each taking up residency in opposite sides of the brain, Cloonan says that computers and music have a lot of similarities.  “They’re universal.  Everybody uses a computer just like everybody listens to music.”  Cloonan described the parallel further, using the evolution of Apple Inc. as an example: “The reason the Mac faltered in its early years was because it didn’t communicate with other computers.  You bring them into an office environment and they wouldn’t work with anything else.  So (Apple CEO) Steve Jobs took the Mac and turned it into a PC around the turn of the century.  He put Intel chips in it.  You can run Windows on it and Mac stocks went through the roof.   It was because Mac opened their doors and allowed their system to work with any other system.  That’s the same thing with music.  You meet people and you’re on a platform that pretty much relates to everybody.”