Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
It takes a fair amount of time and expense to become a Microsoft certified partner, and then a Microsoft managed partner, designations that are ubiquitous among technology consulting firms.
Steve McFarland, president of Orbit Systems Inc. in Eagan, started working on achieving the former designation when he founded his computer consulting company in 1999. Among other things, Microsoft requires training that Orbit had to pay for.
The company went to the next level, Microsoft managed partner, last year, and McFarland figures he meets once a week with his Microsoft rep to hear about new products and such. Then there’s the time it takes to present to Microsoft one case study per quarter about how a client is using Microsoft software.
The efforts paid off big-time. Microsoft recently chose Orbit’s case study from among the hundreds submitted, produced a video about Orbit’s work with a St. Paul design firm, is showing it to all attendees at Microsoft’s huge annual get-together this year, and gave Orbit a copy to use as they wish.
“It would have cost tens of thousands of dollars for me to produce this,” McFarland says. “It’s a great piece of marketing , and I as a small-business owner would never be able to produce something like this.”
McFarland calls Orbit a computer utility company, meaning it provides computer-related services to small- and mid-sized companies for a monthly subscription fee. For the case study that Microsoft selected, Orbit installed and rolled out a new operating system and network for Arthur Shuster, an interior design firm with about 80 employees and 60 to 70 computer users.
Steve McFarland: 651.767.3318; sj*********@****ts.net; www.orbits.net
