Why OK Tire Stores Hired Us
Fifteen years ago, OK Tires Stores had been working with another managed service provider that suddenly and secretly closed up shop. They were, Office Manager Lonna Ipema says, in a pickle.
Ipema notes that their tire store chain was an old-fashioned type of business. Before working with STS, they had a terminal server, dial-up modem, 13 phone lines, and green screens. They did not have email. Instead, they relied fax machines for digital communication.
How STS Fixed Their Problem
Ipema explains that STS came to the rescue, setting up five stores and a sister company with new TCS (Tire Company Solutions) software, computers, and printers. They networked everything together, which let OK Tire Stores employees access the same inventory information across all of their stores.
“We had never been able to do that,” Ipema points out. “We hadn’t even been able to keep track of inventory on the computer.”
Despite a limited budget, a mixture of personalities, and different locations, STS persevered. The techs got to know OK Tire employees and understand the personality of each store.
“There were days where I was beside myself,” she explains, “and Mark would reassure me. He had to deal with so many personalities, and he just plugged away and got the job done. He had to be thick-skinned.”
“We started out with one server, ended up with three servers, and now we are back down to one and we’re in the cloud,” Ipema says. “We’ve come full circle!”
What They Say About Shoreline Technology Services
The big leap of faith in working with STS is what Lonna Ipema calls the trust factor.
“Since I didn’t know anything about this,” she explains, “I had to totally rely on someone else who is not part of our corporation, an outside person, and trust that this has to work.”
STS, she says, has always made things right.
