Orlando Huertas is the owner of Florida-based consulting service ERPDM, LLC, which specializes in helping higher-education institutions with enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Huertas says, “I work primarily with several products like Power Campus, a student information system, Power Faids, a student financial systems, Self Service, which is a student portal, and Dynamics Great Plains, Microsoft's Business Accounting software. I also provide managed services for the entire ERP product.”
Huertas didn’t set out to work in education though. In fact, at the beginning of his career, in the 1980s, he had very different aspirations.
“I initially wanted to be a surgeon, but I couldn’t afford to go to medical school. Then I read a magazine article that said computers would be in every household just like telephones and it gave me the idea to study IT instead. Over the years I’ve been working in many different industries, from hospitals, non-profits, finance, and telecommunications; I even worked for a company that produces paint. But working in higher education is really satisfying. The students are very intuitive and it’s always changing-- it makes you think outside the box.”
“I have been working in education for 15 years. At the start, I would receive calls from other universities reaching out for assistance and guidance with many of their pain points, which incidentally, are identical across the board. I realized that I could convert this into a business, offering my services to all of those institutions that were and are in need of help since this is a very niche environment.”
So what has Huertas learned from his decades of experience as an entrepreneur? “Never give up. Be persistent, there will always be neigh sayers so you need to really know what you’re capable of.”
Huertas understands that being a business owner takes a lot of time and effort, but he says there was one essential item for his business was simple and easy. “CoverWallet was actually the first place that was able to offer me Professional Liability coverage, which is something I need to do business with my clients. So far my experience has been great.”
You can learn more about Huertas’ services on LinkedIn.