Competitive Choice is a full-service provider of specialty chemicals as well as industrial supplies and is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. In their industry, they find themselves in constant need of IT management services. They were with a company that CEO Aundrea Young would describe as OK but mostly nonresponsive.
“Whenever we had an emergency, especially weather-related, then our technology would go down,” Aundrea says. “It is imperative that we can process orders and respond in a timely manner. We could not afford to have nonresponsive or slow response time as our customers expect more from us. We would be working on projects, and [our IT firm] would not answer our calls on time, and so we just reached a point where we were done.”
Then Aundrea discovered Braintek on the internet. “I interviewed several companies,” she recalls, “and what impressed me the most about Braintek was that Greg Brainerd, the owner, came out himself, with another team member. His company has grown as well but he has remained very attentive to our needs as a company.”
At that time, Competitive Choice had 11 or 12 employees and did a lot of business in the federal space. Says Aundrea, “Greg and his team are deeply knowledgeable and hands-on, and they’ve helped us grow as a company. They are very aware of the recent technologies and required compliances that are coming down the pipe. They have been able to help us with that and oversee the projects to implement them. When we must bring in a third party, they have come in and helped facilitate everything so our system remains intact.”
“What I like about Braintek, especially in the climate that we are in,” says Aundrea, “is that you get the old-fashioned service. They will pick up the phone and you can talk to the owner if you need to, and if he is not available, you can copy him into an e-mail and you will get a response.”
“When Greg came in the first time 5 or 6 years ago,” remembers Aundrea, “what impressed me was that he came in prepared and on time. I did not have to tell him what I needed. He came with a plan, and it was tailored to our situation.”
“Greg not only helped grow our company,” explains Aundrea, “but we now have more employees, and we outgrew our space. We moved to a bigger location, and when we moved, Greg’s team was hands on. You would have thought they were part of our team and my payroll. They planned everything out with us, working on the weekend, working at night, to ensure that when Monday came, we were up and running.”
“They also had a person in our office every day after the move, for as long as we wanted them,” recalls Aundrea. “We were nervous, implementing new software. We had a new phone system, and we had new employees, but his team was there every day until we told them we were okay. We now see them every two weeks. This took so much stress from us as a small company, oh my gosh! Greg Brainerd is a man who uses common sense!”
Here’s how you can contact Aundrea:
competitivechoice.net
ecommsales@competitivechoice.net
713-838-1144, 1-844-838-8224 (toll free), 713-838-1188
