A patient portal can stay open all night. The people who explain how to use it often do not. In a PDS patient-support guide available in 2021, one number captures the mismatch: 30% of portal support calls came after hours. An online front door, it turns out, still needs someone to answer the bell.
- PDS connects enterprise infrastructure with the people who actually use it.
- Its healthcare work includes patient portals, electronic health records and help before a virtual visit.
- Converge bought its holding company in 2022; the parent business joined Pellera Technologies in 2025.
PDS, A Converge Company, is the public-facing name of Paragon Development Systems. Its market spans healthcare, corporate organizations and the public sector. Cloud systems, networks, security and workplace devices fill its catalog. The interesting part is what happens between installing those systems and getting a person comfortably through the day.
The appointment before the appointment
Consider the mechanics of a video visit. PDS describes a service that contacts patients beforehand, walks them through the workflow and checks audio and video settings. Browser versions, extensions and device settings all become part of healthcare delivery. The service is designed to catch those problems before they consume time with the clinician.
That distinction matters. Supporting an employee on a managed laptop and supporting a patient on a personal device are different assignments. PDS offers patient portal support alongside an EHR service desk for clinical and administrative users. Its service descriptions include password resets, navigation, workflow questions and troubleshooting. The person answering needs to understand both the technology and the caller.
Historical call pattern reported in PDS's patient portal support guide, available in 2021. Not a current industry benchmark.
On its website, PDS carries a testimonial from Scripps Health's director of patient experience describing help with MyChart account setup and preparation for first video visits during the pandemic. It is a modest-sounding assignment with a useful consequence: the appointment has a better chance of starting as an appointment.
A computer seller learns to listen
The company's starting point was much more tangible. PDS began in 1986 as Memory and More, a computer-component wholesaler. It later manufactured its own PCs and moved toward designing, supplying, implementing and managing infrastructure. By a 2011 interview with strategy consultant Kay Plantes, founder Craig Schiefelbein said the business model had changed seven times.
“We've changed our business model seven times.”
Craig Schiefelbein, in a 2011 interview
His explanation was customer listening: invest in what clients value, then change before circumstances make the change compulsory. The useful lesson is less about predicting the next device than noticing which chores customers increasingly want someone else to handle. Over time, that can move a company from selling equipment to accepting responsibility for its operation.
There was an internal version of the same idea. Milwaukee Magazine's account of PDS's workplace described open books, employee suggestions and an organizational chart drawn as a circle with the customer in the middle. That was a historical workplace portrait, but it makes the later emphasis on service easier to understand.
The invoice has more than one line
PDS organizes its work around digital workplace platforms, enterprise solutions and managed services. The first covers devices, collaboration and working or learning from different locations. The second covers data centers, networks, cybersecurity and hybrid cloud. The third includes ongoing support and management. Advisory work helps connect a technology decision to the organization's requirements.
Devices and digital workplaces
Cloud, networks and security
People and daily operations
Its commercial model combines technology supply, implementation work and continuing services. Technology comes through a partner network that lists Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Dell and HPE, among others. PDS's role is to assemble and support a working environment across vendors. Buyers can compare that approach with another integrator, a regional managed-service provider or an expanded internal team.
The cost comparison needs care. PDS's service-desk calculator asks for analyst headcount, annual incidents and hourly wages, then considers benefits and overhead. It also flags recruitment, turnover, training and management time. Those are useful categories to copy into a procurement worksheet. An hourly wage alone is a poor description of the cost of covering a queue.
A sensible assessment starts with actual incident volume, coverage hours, escalation rules and the internal work being displaced. An organization with low, predictable demand and sufficient specialist staff may have less reason to outsource. A provider relationship still needs a clear handoff. Buying coverage does not remove the customer's need to define what good support means.
Training is part of the economics, too. PDS announced its inclusion in CRN's 2022 Tech Elite 250, a list based on advanced vendor certifications scaled to company size. A buyer can use that as a starting point, then ask which qualifications apply to the proposed team and project. A broad partner catalog tells you what a provider can sell. Relevant technical credentials help explain what it is prepared to implement.
The community work has a similarly specific technology thread. PDS reported sponsoring Wisconsin's NCWIT Aspirations in Computing awards in 2021. Earlier, its WhozNext program let educators select students to attend the company's technology conference with support from PDS and sponsors. Mason Wells reported that the program earned an HP philanthropy award in 2012. These were concrete attempts to bring students closer to the profession, alongside the company's everyday business of helping organizations run their systems.
The local specialist gets a larger address book
PDS merged with Minnesota's Works Computing in 2018. In January 2022, Converge acquired PDS Holding Company and its subsidiaries from Mason Wells. Its subsequent annual information form records US$54.7 million in cash paid at closing, plus a working-capital adjustment. That was acquisition consideration, rather than a venture-funding round or a customer price.
Converge identified two attractions: healthcare expertise and greater presence in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. PDS was its twenty-sixth acquisition since October 2017. The logic was to give a regional specialist access to more capabilities while adding sector knowledge to the wider group. Integration, rather than a new standalone software product, was the expansion mechanism.
The ownership story moved again in April 2025. An H.I.G. Capital affiliate completed its acquisition of Converge, which combined with Mainline Information Systems under the Pellera Technologies name. PDS's own website still carries the Converge identity. For a prospective customer, that makes the contracting entity, service team and available parent-company capabilities practical questions to settle.
The transferable idea is straightforward: plan support around when people use a service. PDS's after-hours figure makes that point unusually concrete. A portal can be available, a network can be running and a device can be switched on. The final test is whether the person holding it can get the thing done.