Three years into his Fusion Managed IT career, Philip Kennedy is a cornerstone of our Project Team. As one of FMIT’s Project Specialists, his knowledge and dedication are a invaluable asset to our team. Beyond the office, his other titles include dad, disc golfer, and cool sock collector.

Hi Philip! What does your position as Project Specialist entail?

That position entails doing configurations for systems. Setups and installations for existing and new clients. So, we take a new client, and we review what they have then alter it to go into our systems or setup a new configuration for whatever they need. Whether that be a firewall or Microsoft 365. Basically, I always tell our customers, ‘If you have an idea, tell me what it is because we can probably build it.’

So mostly, y’all are responsible for setting things up so that it can eventually be passed along to the support team to maintain?

That’s right.

Nice. How long have you worked at Fusion Managed IT?

Three years.

Three long years? Three short years?

It’s been good! Three short years!

Where did you work before?

An architecture firm. I was a Systems Administrator.

What’s one thing you have learned while working at FMIT?

So many things! I’ve learned many, many things here.

Okay… what’s something you’ve learned this year?

This year, networking has been at the forefront, for sure. Been working on honing those skills and understanding more in-depth networking concepts.

What makes FMIT your desired place to work?

First is our management and leadership team, it’s really great here. Second is the work. It’s always new. It’s a lot of fun and it’s always challenging, you get to learn something new, pretty much, with every project. You get to expand your skills.

What has been your favorite project at FMIT?

I don’t know if I have a favorite project. There are definitely some projects I’ve enjoyed working on more. I enjoy telephony and I enjoy new client projects with the full setup. I kinda like building things from scratch, just taking people’s ideas and putting them together. It’s always fun.

I feel like that would be rewarding. To see it go from nothing or someone else’s mess to something better.

Yeah, exactly!

How would you describe the FMIT team?

It’s good, they’re a solid group of people. I would say everybody is very skilled. Everybody kind of has an expertise and can take on almost anything.

How would you describe the Project Team specifically?

Oh, the Project Team specifically is really smart, of course.

Of course!

There are usually not many questions that can’t be answered inside that room when something comes up.

It’s the first place I go when I have a question!

Exactly!

What is one IT challenge that you often see, but very few businesses are thinking about?

I think that a lot of businesses feel secure on their own devices, in their own environments. They get lax and think that the hardware and the software is going to save them from cyber threats. But that’s not usually the case. You can put all the tools in place but if the user isn’t aware of what look for, being compromised is still a very high possibility.

So you still have to be vigilant?

Still have to be vigilant. That’s why we sell KnowBe4. It’s our security awareness that we offer to new clients when we onboard them.

What advice would you provide to someone interested in an IT career?

A lot of people have a perception that if you work in IT, you just sit at a desk all day but really, it’s very mentally challenging. I always tell people if you enjoy puzzles, you’re probably going to like IT. It’s kind of like being a
doctor, somebody comes to you with a symptom and it’s up to you to figure out the solution.

Would you say FMIT covers a lot of things? Would you consider FMIT to be a General Physician?

Yes! That’s the joy of working here. FMIT covers everything.

How did you get started in IT?

I was a pharmacy tech for 12 years. Got married, had kids, and decided that I couldn’t raise a family on my pharmacy tech salary. My dad works in IT and was able to provide a nice life for us, so I started talking to him about different options. And that’s kind of how I got into it.

I would say it worked out!

It did! It became something I truly love.

What’s something about you that most people don’t know? I think I know an easy one for you.

I’m pretty open. I play a lot of disc golf, that’s probably my biggest hobby besides being ‘dad.’ I’m their jungle gym. What were you thinking?

I was going to say, something that has come up before is how much you love the Joker.

Oh yeah! That might be common knowledge. I’m obsessed with the Joker.

Who’s your favorite Joker?

Heath Ledger, hands down.

Oh, he’s good.

He’s the best.

What else are you obsessed with right now?

You know what I am obsessed with right now? Peter from the Bible.

I’m not sure that could be more random.

It’s a very interesting storyline. My wife and I started reading all these books about it and it’s just cool.

Can you give me a summary of that later?

Yeah! It’s wild.

That is a very good answer. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?

I would learn a different language. I would be bilingual.

What’s your favorite restaurant in Greenville?

If it’s just me and my wife, we ‘progressive eat.’ Which means we go to five or six different places on our dates. In one night? Yeah, we go somewhere and have an appetizer, go somewhere else to have a cocktail, somewhere else to have dinner, somewhere else to have dessert.

Oh, that’s so cool! Any places you frequent?

The Wine House is one of our favorite places to go. It’s a wine lounge with lots of great wine. Our main course varies, and I don’t like dessert very much so we usually end up somewhere with tiramisu because my wife likes tiramisu.

What’s your favorite attraction or hang-out spot in Greenville?

If we’re not playing disc golf on a course, we just rotate between each other’s houses.

What’s your favorite disc golf course?

There are a couple really good ones. I like the Brewery down in Piedmont, then Firecracker [in] Fountain Inn, Woodmont has one that’s good as well.

What is a secret about Greenville that most people may not know?

Great question. Greenville is the city of parks so Kidding Around Greenville has lots of things to do when you’re looking for parks and things of that nature. Heritage Park has a tiny train; you can get on it and they’ll ride you around.

I didn’t know that! That’s a great secret. We’ve already gone over this but outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?

With the children, of course, and with my wife. We’re big family people so we like doing things with our family and other families that we’re really involved with. So, we have that community. I enjoy grilling a lot, that’s a stress relief for me. And of course, disc golf. Those are my three biggies.

Cool socks, by the way.

I do have cool socks.

What’s your favorite pair?

I really like the ones that have Elf on them. I wear them year-round because it’s stupid to have clothes just for Christmas.

That’s a great point.