When trying to solve their Information Technology challenges, many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) pay major telecom firms hefty fees for substandard services.

Finding the Telecom that's right for you An increasing number of business decision makers are investing time and effort to find cost-effective and customized IT solutions to fit their business needs. Time and time again the solution is Primus Business Services.

"Our competitors often concentrate their efforts on the large enterprise," says A.J. Byers, senior vice-president of Primus Business Services. "We have years of experience servicing the SMB sector and understand their unique business challenges."

Byers explains that Primus has found a niche in the SMB sector. By understanding the critical business challenges of the SMB - increasing productivity and exploiting markets - Primus is able to address IT concerns such as security, productivity and the inability to afford in-house IT staff. SMBs are often too busy thinking about their core business and to stay competitive they have to sort through a vast array of sources and information to make educated product and technology choices.

Leave all the work to the team at Primus Business Services.

Primus' high level of personal service allows the SMB to make smart decisions. Primus offers a full suite of telecom and IT products and services including voice, data, VoIP, Internet Data Centres, hosting and managed services that can help the SMB stay productive.

"Most small- and medium-sized businesses do not have a lot of capital, but they do have critical IT needs," says Byers. "We found that most SMBs want predictable operating costs so we customize our solutions to meet those needs."

The Primus service offerings enable businesses to get what they need now and factor in future growth. The SMB can begin its relationship with Primus with a tailored service package, which can evolve as the business' operation grows.

Client Satisfaction As the IT solutions provider to the Canadian Curling Association (CCA), Primus ensures the CCA's members, board and 3,000 volunteers have fast and reliable access to various CCA sites. Primus' IT support at the recent women's curling championships was second only to Canada's team quest for the gold medal.

"When we outsourced our IT functions to Primus, we went from a primitive network to an enterprise-grade system," says Glenn van Gulik, the CCA's manager of information technology. "As the CCA grew we realized it was critical to move to a more sophisticated system to support our needs. The CCA went from a one-man IT department to an IT partnership with Primus."

Data and storage solutions for critical applications are leveraged through Primus' world-class Internet Data Centres, the jewel in Primus' offerings. The IDC in Ottawa that houses the CCA servers are equipped with redundant battery systems, generator power systems, computer-grade environment controls, advanced Internet networking, sophisticated biometric access control systems, and is backed by 24/7 support technical teams and extensive server and network management expertise. Through these hosted servers, the CCA has effectively deployed email services and Virtual Private Networking (VPN) for mobile users.

"Our services and partnership with Primus continues to grow due to their solid commitment to customer service," says Glenn. "Primus' extremely high level of commitment to service and support is what set them apart from other providers and makes the relationship invaluable to us."

Other Primus clients include Sears, Magna, Pulse Microsystems, Swarovski, the Canadian Real Estate Association, Maxim Transportation Services Inc., EK3, National Energy Equipment Inc. and the Canadian Payment Association.

Service across the country Primus' sales force reaches right across the country. A recent expansion in Alberta introduces a new Internet Data Centre in Edmonton and adds 17 sales and network staff in Edmonton and seven staff in Calgary. This increased coverage ensures that SMBs have access to safe, reliable locations to store and manage their application data needs.

The new Edmonton Internet Data Centre will complement others in Toronto, Ottawa, London, ON, and Vancouver.

Byers says the new facility in the Alberta capital will tap into a market that is very under-served from a data centre perspective.

"In a lot of other markets, SMBs have to ship their servers off to other cities and put them in data centres or house them in sub-standard facilities within their own office facilities," says Byers. "The servers aren't backed up by generators and redundant network connections are not in place. SMBs are coming to us and saying, 'We're experiencing a fair amount of down time.' Now, with Primus, they have a chance to host them in a world-class data centre close to their operations and eliminate down time."

There is also a growing interest in IP Telephony and the technology is catching on in the SMB market because of ease of implementation and increased functionality. Alberta and B.C. customers will also be able to take advantage of Primus' Internet Phone technology, Hosted PBX.

"The fundamental challenge with most small businesses is that they don't have a lot of resources," says Byers. "They need an IT solutions provider they can trust, who can provide them information or technology support the first time they call. Our philosophy is to deliver information and service to customers in a way that best supports their business objectives."

So keep IT simple. Call Primus. For further information, call 1-888-502-8380.