Resource Links

Cash

Credit

Staff

Space

Communication & Collaboration Systems

Information Systems

Time

About the Author...

Small Business Success: On Demand

 

Irv Segal President/CEO, SysGen, Inc. Author, Small Business Success: On Demand

Irv Segal is President and CEO of SysGen, Inc., which he started from his home in 1997 offering his services as an AS/400 programmer, Project Manager, and computer system validation expert.

In 2001 he came across a software company looking for help with their support line, training and consulting. He struck a strategic partnership deal with the software vendor and used the immediate revenue provided by the support line fees to hire a developer to help him run the new venture.

The business quickly grew to the point where the two-man team could not handle everything. Irv was faced with the dilemma of how to expand his company’s resources without reaching beyond his means. Using a very risk-averse approach he discovered innovative ways to leverage only the exact resources he needed, and only when he needed them, on demand.

He lined up a Fortune 500 office environment where he could scale his space needs up and down on demand. He was also able to use their support staff and pay only for the hours he actually used and only when he needed their help, all on demand.

As he hired more staff Irv realized that his overhead costs were eating up a significant portion of his profits that could otherwise be used to grow the company. At the suggestion of one of his employees he investigated the savings and additional benefits that flex hours and work at home policies might offer. The potential savings were substantial. The problem was maintaining a cohesive office environment that would be transparent to outsiders yet allow his team to continue to communicate and collaborate with each other, despite their remote locations.

Irv found creative ways to implement a full-featured PBX phone system, an IBM Lotus Domino mail system and a web-based file server, plus many other components of a Fortune 500 infrastructure needed to make the plan work, and was able to get it all on demand.

Excited about how well this worked, Irv realized any small business owner could use the same techniques he’d devised to achieve the same success. After formalizing his techniques into what is now called the On Demand Small Business^SM Operating Model he realized there was an opportunity to create a venture surrounding this model. But he knew he needed to hire more help so he could free up his time to develop it.

Using some of the techniques in his On Demand Small Business^SM Operating Model, Irv hired one more employee to take over his previous day-to-day duties, freeing himself up to develop a business line based on the expertise he had now gained.

He took nearly a year to carefully architect SMB One^SM, a membership-based service providing small businesses with one-stop shopping for on demand Fortune 500 infrastructure resources at corporate level discount rates. Today SysGen, Inc. continues to grow and operate from its core location in Northbrook, IL. Irv expects SysGen, Inc. to continue growing without ever needing to relocate or significantly expand its office overhead by constantly using and improving his On Demand Small Business^SM Operating Model.