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Amtelco had become a success, but Bill and Eleanor remained grounded. They never forgot their roots or the hard work it took to become successful.
Mike Friedel, VP of Sales for Amtelco’s healthcare market, said, “As a way for Mr. and Mrs. C to celebrate their Irish heritage and show appreciation to the staff, they gave each employee a long-stemmed green carnation to wear or place in a vase on their desk, and pay raises would be given on St. Patrick’s Day. Then, at approximately midafternoon, the celebration continued with a keg of green beer (and maybe a leprechaun), and St. Patrick’s Day at Amtelco was complete! It was a very special day.”
“Mr. C thought it would be nice to let us enjoy a beer on that day,” said Tom Lindsay, Retired Answering Services Sales Manager. “However, as often happens, all good things must come to an end. There was one St. Patrick’s Day in particular that got a little out of hand, so that was the last time we had green beer!”
Amtelco’s Irish heritage was also represented by the sales teams and front-office staff who wore their Kelly Green sport coats at conventions. This tradition is making a comeback during our 50th anniversary year. Sales teams are once again wearing Kelly Green jackets and shirts with an Amtelco 50th anniversary logo in honor of our golden anniversary.
Amtelco’s Green Sport Coats
Jill, Stacey, Kelly, and Joe brought back the green jacket tradition at this year’s ViVE conference.
“Then, of course, there are the products themselves,” continued Tom. “The FLCs (First Level Concentrators) were built into a green cabinet and became affectionately known as the ‘green boxes.’ Even our customers referred to them that way. In 1980, there was the Leprechaun, which was a smaller version of the FLC.”
Amtelco introduced The Leprechaun in 1980. It was a mini-concentrator/identifier for 15 secretarial lines which provided the operator with voice identification prior to call connect.
Tom remembers when Amtelco purchased and moved into its current headquarters building in McFarland, Wisconsin. He said, “A large flagpole is in front of the building. Mr. C began flying the Irish flag along with the American flag, and we had to tell him that the American flag had to be flown higher up the pole than the Irish flag!”
Amtelco employees wear green in this company photo with Mr. C. Green is still Amtelco’s signature color and is a prominent reminder of Amtelco’s Irish heritage.
Expanding Markets and Amtelco’s Future
Amtelco’s healthcare branch, originally named 1Call, was established in 1997 to offer enterprise-wide clinical communication solutions designed specifically for the healthcare industry. In 2011, Amtelco released its own secure messaging app. Previously known as miSecureMessages, the HIPAA and HITECH-compliant app was specifically developed for hospitals and clinics. The Amtelco Secure Messages app is widely used in the answering services and healthcare industries, as well as by any business that needs to protect the confidentiality of text, photos, audio, and video files.
Telescan, located in St. Louis, MO, was acquired by Amtelco in 2012 to expand its feature set and product offerings that help answering service businesses decrease operating expenses and increase profits. Today, Amtelco has sales and customer care offices throughout the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
Amtelco has grown from a mom-and-pop shop to a trusted leader in the telecommunications industry, with almost 150 employees and an expanding customer base located in all 50 U.S. states and over 20 countries. Amtelco holds 30+ U.S. patents for telephony software, data handling methodologies, and telephone switching devices. New products and features are continually being developed to ensure customers have the best tools available now and in the future.
Amtelco celebrates 50 years of connection.
Ellie™ is Amtelco’s newest offering, an AI-powered intelligent virtual agent (IVA) that supports operators and improves the caller experience by automating and intelligently processing existing scripts.
Ellie is the nickname of Eleanor Curtin. The name Ellie was purposefully chosen to honor the legacy of “Mrs. C” and to stress the importance of this product to Amtelco and our customers. Ellie is here to amplify, not replace, human connection.
Amtelco continues to provide cutting-edge technologies built on a tradition of innovation, reliability, and care. Family life and the family business have remained intertwined since the beginning. Amtelco remains a family-owned contact center software company. Now a third-generation family business, Amtelco’s CEO & Chairman, Tom Curtin, says, “We consider our customers and employees to be part of our family—and family members want to see each other succeed!”
