Rensa Filtration manufactures industrial-grade and custom filtration products for demanding environments, including data centers, aviation, healthcare, food and beverage, and more. Its specialized work has extended even farther: Rensa products were used on the Artemis mission to the Moon and back.
Behind that work is a company expanding rapidly through acquisitions. With 28 facilities across the United States, Rensa needs an IT environment that can support a distributed manufacturing and distribution footprint without allowing each new location or acquisition to add unnecessary complexity.
For Gerry Hunt, Director of IT Services at Rensa Filtration, the strategy comes down to three priorities: simplify, modernize, and protect. Integris is helping Rensa apply that strategy by strengthening consistency, improving coordination around critical incidents, supporting cybersecurity decision-making, and preparing the organization for continued growth.
Key takeaways
- Rensa needs dependable IT support across approximately 28 U.S. facilities.
- Rapid acquisitions introduce new technologies, processes, and procedures that must be incorporated into the broader organization.
- Standard footprints and configurations are creating a clearer, more consistent approach across Rensa’s environment.
- A coordinated priority-one process helps bring Rensa and Integris together quickly when critical issues arise.
- Cybersecurity guidance and staff training are helping Rensa build internal knowledge and reduce unwanted surprises.
- Rensa’s next priority is becoming more proactive by gaining better insight into what the organization needs to address next.
Keeping a distributed manufacturing business running
In manufacturing, reliable technology is closely tied to business continuity. Systems must be ready when employees arrive and production begins. For Hunt, that means having confidence that the environment will be up and running when the first shift returns on Monday morning, without unexpected technology problems waiting for the team.
Geographic coverage adds another layer to this challenge. Rensa’s facilities are spread across the country, so the company needs a partner that can support its operations wherever they are located. Hunt values knowing that when he needs someone on the ground at any of these locations, Integris will be there.
Simplifying, modernizing, and protecting through growth
Hunt describes Rensa as an “M&A monster.” The company is acquiring businesses at a rapid pace, and every acquisition introduces an environment that must eventually become part of Rensa.
“Every time we acquire a new company, that brings with it a new set of problems, new technologies, new processes, new procedures, and we just have to work through how do we incorporate that into the Rensa portfolio.”
Gerry Hunt, Director of IT Services, Rensa Filtration
Rather than allowing that complexity to accumulate, Hunt has organized Rensa’s technology strategy around three principles: simplify, modernize, and protect. The objective is to build an environment that can evolve with the business while remaining intuitive for employees to navigate, with cybersecurity as a priority throughout.
Creating consistency across the environment
For Hunt, consistency is essential. It was also one of the organization’s initial pain points. Working together, Rensa and Integris have developed standard footprints and configurations designed to create greater uniformity across the environment.
“Working with Integris, we came up with standard footprints, standard configurations. That’s the consistency that helps drive things forward.”
Gerry Hunt, Director of IT Services, Rensa Filtration
The value of that standardization becomes especially clear during an acquisition. Instead of starting from scratch, the team has a more defined understanding of what is needed to bring a newly acquired environment into alignment with the rest of the organization.
That repeatable direction helps Rensa pursue growth without losing sight of Hunt’s broader goal: an environment that remains simple, modern, protected, and consistent.
While consistency does not eliminate technology problems, it can improve how teams respond when an issue occurs. Rensa and Integris established a priority-one chat and call process that brings people from both organizations together when a critical incident requires immediate coordination.
In a manufacturing and distribution environment, a critical issue can be as straightforward as a shipping printer that is not working. It can also involve infrastructure or a phishing attempt. Hunt credits Rensa’s and Integris’ fluid partnership and ongoing exchange of information as the driver behind faster resolution times, regardless of the nature of the incident.
Building toward more proactive IT and cybersecurity
Rensa’s next objective is to continue moving from reactive problem-solving toward greater proactivity. Hunt wants clearer insight into the environment, the risks or needs the company may not yet see, and the actions it should take next.
This progress extends to cybersecurity. Rensa’s virtual CISO plays a central role in turning that stronger partnershio into progress on cybersecurity. By combining strategic guidance with training for Rensa’s internal staff, the virtual CISO helps Hunt’s team better understand the technologies they managaed and maintain, how those tools and processes support the organizations broader security priorities.
“I would like to move to proactive rather than reactive, and that’s the thing I’m looking to Integris for now. Make me proactive. Tell me what I don’t know, and more to point, tell me what I need to do.”
Gerry Hunt, Director of IT Services, Rensa Filtration
Choosing a partner that can grow with the business
Rensa has set a goal of becoming a billion-dollar company in a matter of years. That ambition makes scalability a critical consideration. Its technology partners must be able to support the organization not only as it operates today, but also as its requirements expand.
For other manufacturers evaluating a technology service provider, Hunt recommends looking beyond individual technical capabilities. Industry understanding, geographic reach, and access to the right technical skills all matter. Just as important is whether the provider can help the organization manage change.
“Can they help you grow? And more to the point, can they help lead you through change and lead you through a lot of adversities that go along with change? Can they help you manage that and be a champion of change for you?”
Gerry Hunt, Director of IT Services, Rensa Filtration
A partnership that continues to evolve
The relationship works because the Rensa and Integris teams can communicate directly, challenge one another, and still move forward with a shared understanding.
“I really like the team we have now because we gel together as both the Rensa team and the Integris team, and I couldn’t be happier with [the team] we have.”
Gerry Hunt, Director of IT Services, Rensa Filtration
As Rensa continues acquiring companies, expanding its footprint, and exploring new technologies, the fundamentals remain the same: simplify the environment, modernize intelligently, protect the organization, and create consistency wherever possible.
For a rapidly growing manufacturer, that is the difference between technology that merely keeps pace and a technology strategy built to support what comes next.