Every decision you make in life has consequences. It's like a car with only two speeds: forward and reverse. It will either lead you to your goals, or away from them. So you need to make certain that every decision you make, is taking you in the direction you want to be headed.

Here's a Case Study on a company who made all the right decisions as to how to best reach their business goal, successfully and profitably. Decisions on things like people and expertise. They achieved it partnering with O'Neil.

THE TECHNOLOGY USER: OFFSITE DATA DEPOT LLC

Before you can find new customers and increase your business in the records storage and management industry, you need to understand a few things. Just who is your customer? What value proposition do you have to offer? What is your competition currently providing and where are there gaps for a new entrant? In other words, you need to do some market research.

They determined that attracting more customers is really about listening to their needs, not just being yet another solution looking for a problem.

Pretty visionary on the part of these two guys Brian Olson and Gerd Poppinga, Co-Owners of Offsite Data Depot. Put quite simply, they wanted to offer their clients more options than their competitors at a lower cost and the best service in the industry.

Offsite Data Depot is located in Carson City, Nevada. The company has been in business for five years and offers the following services: records storage and management; document imaging and destruction; cloud-based computer backups and internet email filtering. They currently store approximately 45,000 boxes and have 150 customers.

From a technology perspective, Offsite Data Depot was familiar with O'Neil Software. Brian and Gerd had helped build another records storage and management company using this software and knew it had the most flexibility and features on the market . Additionally, their technical support was outstanding.

CHALLENGE 1: HAVE 110% CLARITY AROUND OUR VISION, PURPOSE AND CORE VALUES

Vision, purpose and core values are the foundations from which great entrepreneurs build great companies. That being the case, Offsite Data Depot wanted to be crystal-clear as to their competitive advantages and what made them unique in the marketplace. Showcase what they did differently, or better than their competition, as it's always better to sell the cure, which means you have to know your customers' pain.

So their strategic thought process lead them to provide faster and superior levels of service; the ability to fulfill the needs of clients not currently being addressed; and offer more options than their competitors, at a lower cost.

"From day one, we chose O'Neil because of the capabilities of their RS-SQL^® and RSWeb.NET^® technologies," notes Brian Olson, Co-Owner of Offsite Data Depot. "O'Neil offered the most complete record center package. And we're continually surprised that our competitors can't provide the same options that we offer (which we consider basic), just because they use a different software package."

Gerd Poppinga, the other Co-Owner of Offsite Data Depot adds: "I know of record centers that chose their software based solely on price and ended up with an inferior product. This limits their ability to serve the needs of their clients and results in a less efficient operation."

He continues, "We felt that Offsite Data Depot should have the best software, not necessarily the cheapest. In the end, it's all about meeting clients' needs and keeping our bottom-line costs down. This way, we can charge less than our competitors."

CHALLENGE 2: FIND THE MOST COMPLETE PACKAGE FOR A RECORD CENTER

Invoicing, scheduling, automatic monitoring and reporting, error trapping, complete search capabilities, wireless technology, portable computing, remote access, retention scheduling, language translation and multi-site functionality. These were just a few of the key features Offsite Data Depot was looking for to increase their record center's efficiency, productivity and profitability. They got that using O'Neil's RS-SQL.

RS-SQL is a flexible. feature-rich information management and record tracking software. It allows you to easily and accurately manage and monitor the activity of any storable item (boxes, file folders, documents and tapes) throughout your record center, from deposit to destruction, work order to invoice. Using RS-SQL lightens the load on your internal staff and reduces the time and effort it takes to access information. Today, RS-SQL continues to set the industry standard in records storage and management solutions.

Designed to handle the needs of everyone, from start-ups to multi-facility record centers and built around Microsoft® 's SQL Server database engine, RS-SQL is both scalable and robust. As the number of users increase, the product automatically scales to meet your needs. The system can accommodate any size business, small or large.

Using O'Neil's RS-SQL you can find what you need, when you need it, guaranteeing 100% service accuracy and efficiency. It ensures correct billing for every activity performed and has the flexibility and power to handle the most complex record center business processes and multiple applications. You can search in the RS-SQL database under virtually any criteria to find information. You can sort, format, print, export or even email tables. In minutes, you can answer any of your customers' questions or requests about their information and provide data the way they want it.

CHALLENGE 3: THE WEB IS ALWAYS OPEN. CAN WE SAY THAT ABOUT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE?

Offsite Data Depot wanted to give customers a 24/7, secure online service that could provide information about their files and boxes; help them order products and services; allow for easy processing while at the same time, give more freedom to their Customer Service staff to handle other business activities. O'Neil's RSWeb.NET offered that capability.

O'Neil has harnessed the power of the Internet and Microsoft's latest .NET technology to make a record center a true extension of their customer's operations. RSWeb.NET provides your customers with fast, flexible and real-time access to their information any time, day or night, from anywhere in the world, a mouse-click away. They can perform many record center tasks, eliminating phone calls, faxes, emails to your staff, saving time and money.

CHALLENGE 4: TECHNICAL SUPPORT ALWAYS THERE WHEN YOU NEED THEM

O'Neil has three office locations (USA, UK,  Australia) and covers all time zones.  98% of their service and support calls are answered by a real "live staff member, with no waiting.

THE SOLUTION: PURCHASE YOUR LAST SYSTEM FIRST

Both Brian and Gerd agree: "We're not sure where we'll go next with technology. However, we know that wherever we decide to go, O'Neil will be there to support us."