In the business world, there are times where being a small business has its disadvantages.
Lines of credit and loans may be more difficult to obtain. Certain employee benefits, such as life insurance or vision coverage, may be unavailable or prohibitively expensive without hundreds of employees. And many business products or services are designed for and marketed to mid-sized to large business, ignoring the small business market entirely.
Enter Steve Weber. In 2002, he attended a Microsoft product seminar focused on small business technology solutions, and realized that while the product was available, Microsoft didn’t have nearly enough business partners to effectively serve the market.
In August 2002, Weber opened GNS Partners, an IT consulting firm focused on developing infrastructure for retail management.
GNS Partners approaches business with an understanding of how small businesses work and what they need. While small businesses can make purchasing decisions quickly, they can’t buy entire systems all at once, so GNS helps them develop a three-year roadmap to help budget for infrastructure technology and reduce disruptions in production.
GNS also provides IT support 24/7, a common and expected perk for large companies but a rarity in the small business market.
One of the newest initiatives GNS Partners has introduced to the small retailer market is infrastructure protection. The service, called PreResponsive Threat Control (PTC), monitors a company’s infrastructure and checks for poor patch management, failed backups and weak points susceptible to viruses, spam and spyware. When a problem is found, the PTC system takes proactive steps to protect the infrastructure from damage.
Small businesses may have more challenges to overcome than their large counterparts, but now, thanks to Weber and GNS Partners, IT solutions are no longer out of reach.
How to reach: GNS Partners, www.gnspartners.com or (614) 501 6607
