Tell us about your earliest introduction to computers and technology. Was it love at first sight?
Honestly, no, it wasn’t. Naturally, I’m more of an analyst than a techie, and I don’t particularly enjoy tech just for its own sake. At its core, technology is just a new, novel way to solve some problem, and I’ve always been able to take a complicated problem with lots of moving pieces and break it down into its component parts.
Technology is a wonderful tool, but it’s not the only one. It’s 100% useless if people either don’t understand or don’t want to use it. It has to start with people. I enjoy working with our clients to frame a situation, follow the data, and then craft and deliver a solution that solves the problem.
When and how did you know that you wanted to be a professional solutions guy?
My last job provided many teachable moments of working with people and where business processes often break down. It also offered a front-row seat of how companies struggle to change to a data-driven culture. There just wasn’t any support available. My company had such a hard time getting vendors that I started asking questions: Why was it so expensive? Why were there so few providers, and why did they only use one solution? How many other companies were struggling with the same issues? That provided enough motivation to try and do something about it.
What can Omega Digital Solutions do for its customers?
We have two parts to our business. The first part is our most important side and focuses on service where we help our clients implement marketing and analytics tools and automate their business. We also provide training and education to teams to increase their efficiency and modernize their operations. We have clients in many different industries - retail, construction, manufacturing, and others with a variety of needs and systems. Our people-first approach has helped distinguish us as one of the top Zoho firms in our region. We also work with clients on Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) projects to fit their needs.
When you’re not toiling away on a keyboard, how do you spend your time?
I’m a bit of an adventurer. I scuba dive, snowboard, and took up cycling during COVID. I’m also an avid Formula 1 and MotoGP fan. I have a 12-year old daughter who’s the center of my universe. She’s also a talented gymnast that trains at Smoky Mountain Gymnastics in Maryville. Her team brought home the state championship last year and she won individual state titles as well.
What keeps you connected to the Knoxville community?
As a small business owner, I’ve had to seek out mentors and develop my network bit by bit. During that process, I realized how important the idea of community really was. No man is an island, and much of what I and Omega Digital Solutions have accomplished has been through an incredible support system found here in the Knoxville community. That has driven a lot of my vision, as well. When I struggled, I looked for solutions made for small businesses and found frequent gaps - and I know that other small businesses have felt the same. Although my hope is for Omega Digital Solutions to become a national name, I plan on maintaining my relationships here locally and supporting the community the best that I can. Knoxville isn’t some small, off-the-map city. Every day we’re growing and expanding into an entrepreneurial hub that lifts people up and I want to stay a part of that.
Working on anything new?
I’m pleased to announce that we are now introducing the second arm of Omega Digital Solutions with the launch of our own software application, Reprocity. It is a big part of our future and our first product. It can track anything with a barcode at a fraction of the cost of our competitors. If you’re sick of running out of inventory and being the last to know about it, Reprocity is for you. Or if you’re making products to sell at retail, but have a giant blind spot in your supply chain because warehouse software is so expensive - Reprocity can handle that. If you want to know what you have when it arrived, and how long till you run out without paying for an entire enterprise package - Reprocity solves that problem. Every big company can do this already, but it hasn’t been readily accessible to the other 95% until now. Reprocity will be polished up and ready for primetime this January 2022.
What do you want readers to know about you?
The team at Omega Digital Solutions is modest enough to realize and openly state that we don’t have all the answers. Every client has different needs, so it's perfectly possible - even likely - that we get asked a question we haven’t heard before. What we do have is the background and the critical thinking skills to get you an answer and a solution that will work. We want to meet our clients where they are and then help guide them to where they want to be. They are the heroes of their own story - our job is just to provide a bit of support along the way.
