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| 6/11/2010 12:13:00 PM | Heartland marks 25 years in IT business
| | Heartland Technology Solutions |
Owners: Jane Cage, Larry Hedin and Arlin Sorensen
Founded: 1985 (as Connecting Point)
Address: 526 S. Main St.
Phone: (417) 623-5553
Web site: www.heartlandtechnologies.com
Employees: 75
Products and services: Networking, remote monitoring, data backup and help-desk support for small- to mid-size businesses
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by Doug Graham - Reporter
Twenty-five years is an eternity in the computing world, where 2005's top-of-the-line hardware is considered antiquated in 2010. But 25 years is how long the staff at Heartland Technology Solutions has navigated the ever-changing landscape of information technology.
Larry Hedin, vice president for sales and marketing at Heartland Technology Solutions, said the business has experienced "quite a metamorphosis" since its start in 1985 as a retail computer store.
"We meet regularly and talk about, 'What's the next big thing? What do we need to do to prepare the engineering side of our business to be prepared for that, and to prepare our sales force to promote and consult?'" Hedin said.
"We certainly attend a lot of industry events to be able to understand trends about what's coming next, because otherwise we'd be left behind," added Jane Cage, chief operating officer.
Changes in technology have led to a complete overhaul of Heartland's business model. Heartland started as Connecting Point, which focused on retail sales to small businesses and home users.
"Before the invention of the mouse, when the computer would boot up, we would write a batch file that would list the menu choices," Cage said.
"That's how you had to make it easy," Hedin added. "We were the source for making those applications and those programs work for them, so we did an awful lot of that type of work in the early days. I can still remember those commands!"
The rise of Microsoft Windows in the early-to-mid-90s changed everything. The operating system's ease-of-use led to an explosion in the popularity of home computers, but that also led to stores such as Best Buy, Sam's Club and Office Depot offering off-the-shelf PCs at low prices.
At the same time, Cage and Hedin said, businesses became more interested in networking their computers - and Connecting Point was there to help them get plugged in.
"Today, it's almost exclusively networking," Hedin said. "That's really what we do - we provide networking support."
In 2003, looking to expand its service area, Connecting Point decided to join forces with another networking-support company named SCCI based in Iowa. The two merged into one new entity called Heartland Technology Solutions.
"Our first merger was with somebody that was six hours away from us as far as travel time," Cage said. "With the advent of technology and what we can do remotely, even though we have six locations in five states, we work on the same intercom system, the same phone system, the same servers. We're really as connected as we can be even though we're far apart."
The same technology that allows Heartland's Joplin office to connect to others within the company has also led to another paradigm shift in Heartland's business. The majority of the company's network support, once provided by technicians dispatched on-site to troubleshoot and fix problems, is now performed remotely.
"We have a team of people in the Midwest that actually monitor all of our clients' networks remotely, and they're looking at all of the alerts, messaging, the heat and some of the dis-performance things," Hedin said.
Added Cage: "Over time our philosophy has changed from reducing downtime to increasing uptime by being proactive in what we do. It's a shift in philosophy that's happened everywhere."
Cage and Hedin said they are ready for whatever changes may come thanks to advances in technology. Greater access to high-speed Internet service, they said, is likely to bring more demand to be able to work remotely.
"People want to work from anywhere," Cage said. "I want to be able to go to somebody else's business, and if I have a question about a spreadsheet that's on my network ... I want to call up Microsoft Excel from the Internet and see my documents. So we're going to have to help clients navigate that next."
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