June 12, 2008 Ottawa, Canada –The Utility Company, a single-source provider of technology, communications and business management solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) across North America today highlighted its most recent Customer Success Story, Mr. Janitorial Supplies of Toronto, in the June edition of The Utility View newsletter.
Mr. Janitorial is an ISO-9001 registered distributor of paper products, cleaning supplies and health and safety products in the Greater Toronto Area over the past 18 years. With a growing team the company employs an internal technical resource, as it is heavily reliant on technology for shipping, receiving and communications. In addition, it recently added an industry-specific Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to manage the business.
“Typically small and medium-sized businesses purchase technology services in one of three scenarios: at point of pain, point of product sale or when they see the value of the service for their business,” stated Mark Scott, president and founder of The Utility Company. “Our service portfolio maps to the specific scenario and type of customer. In Mr. Janitorial’s case we focused on working with their general manager along with their internal IT resource to tailor our services to their specific requirements and budget.”
The Utility Company’s service portfolio addresses the three types of SMB technology consumers, including:
Tactical – “Do more with less”, reactive customers with 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute
Reliant – Technology critical to business, proactive customers with Connected Office (CO)
Strategic – Technology as profit-driver customers with CO Business, CO Web, CO VoIP
Connected Office Complements Internal IT
By partnering with The Utility Company, Mr. Janitorial now has a technology team behind their internal resource. The engagement evolved over three stages:
- Connected Office Network – 24x7 remote monitoring and management service of mission-critical network infrastructure.
- 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute Helpdesk – computer support on-demand in a pay-as-you-go, per minute model.
- Connected Office Managed – fully managed network and desktop solution for a fixed-fee per user per month.
“We first signed on with The Utility Company to both back up our in-house IT person when he needed the help and to prepare for his upcoming return to school”, stated Bill Birring, General Manager at Mr. Janitorial Supplies. “Our original intention was to use The Utility Company for a six month stint to simply maintain our servers in his absence; however, they endeared themselves to us in a time of crisis. They went above and beyond to help us through the resolution of our ERP installation and its associated issues. Our wealth of experience in the supply industry has enabled us with the ability to look at a customer’s requirements and recommend the proper solution. I now realize that is exactly what Utility brings to us.”
“It is no small leap of faith to ask small or medium-sized businesses to put their trust in new services and outside providers,” concluded Scott. “Mr. Janitorial’s situation is a common one among our customers. They are naturally reluctant, at first, to ‘turn over the keys to the store’. And often where there is an existing internal IT person, he or she feels threatened by the incursion to ‘their turf’. Once they work with us however, they realize we’re not an incursion; we’re an opportunity for them to become more strategic to the business.”
For the full case study on Mr. Janitorial and others please visit www.theutilitycompany.com/success and subscribe to The Utility View monthly newsletter at www.theutilitycompany.com/tuv. Join us on June 19, 2008 at 1:30pm EST for our upcoming Utility Revolution webinar “Does Your Technology ‘Go on Vacation’ When Your IT Guy Does?” to learn more.
About The Utility Company™
The Utility Company is a single-source provider of technology, communications and business management solutions for small and medium-sized businesses across North America. Our Connected Office Technology-as-a-Service program provides a single point of contact for ALL things technology - delivering the required hardware, software and service for a monthly fixed fee per user. Customers are supported by local Utility Service Providers delivering on-site service and business-technology consulting to reduce spending and increase utilization – our Beyond Managed Services franchise opportunity is available by prospectus only. Learn how to make technology work for your business today at www.theutilitycompany.com.
