IT Trends & Technology

First National Technology Solutions announced the launch of its mobile application yesterday.  What started as a project to build a custom application to enhance customer experience, turned into over 95,000 lines of code, long hours, a team of employees driven to meet deadlines with out of the box thinking and dedication to give our customers a tool they need and requested.  

Coming soon - the FNTS Portal.  

First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) has been certified by Deloitte & Touche, LLP to be SOC 2 Type II compliant by the standards of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), announced Rob LaMagna-Reiter, director of Information Security.  “Providing our customers with added peace of mind regarding the security and availability of their data demonstrates that we remain committed to giving them the confidence that their information is secure within a data center that has gone through a stringent and rigorous audit process,” he said.

For the past 90 days, First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), along with our sister company, First National Bank of Omaha, has engaged in active conversation on how we should deliver a superior customer experience.  This is not an initiative; it is not a process.  Instead it is an enhanced focus on a key responsibility of the First National Operating Philosophy.  All First National employees have been reminded of our commitment to provide our customers with top notch customer service that you in turn would describe as “helpful, easy, and personal”. 

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  As you remember, my last blog kicked off with the two of the five attributes of success: trust and healthy conflict.  This week’s blog defines the remaining three attributes.
Leaving off with healthy conflict brings us right into the third attribute which is commitment.  As a team, everyone needs to be committed to the direction, goals and overall decisions made.  By having the healthy conflict and discussions, each party’s opinion is heard and as such, once the decision is made, everyone on the team needs to commit.  Having a united front is necessary if a team is going to accomplish its goals and everyone on the team needs to be working towards the same goals, not trying to undercut the work of the rest of the team with their own agenda.

With 2016 just days a way and 2015 coming to an end I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year.  From becoming a Cisco certified cloud and managed services partner to launching Microsoft SQL as a Service and platform as a service (PaaS), it has been a very busy year and I know there is more to come in 2016.  However it goes above and beyond product launches and certifications - it is the people we partner with that makes our year truly successful.  Our customers, business partners. vendors and employees - all a crucial part of First National Technology Solutions' success.  

A special holiday greeting to all of our followers, customers and partners.  The staff at First National Technology Solutions wishes you a happy holiday season.

At the recent Gartner Sourcing Summit, I had the opportunity to listen to one of the keynote speakers talking about the five key attributes of successful teams.  While listening to his session and afterwards, it made me think of successful teams I have been a part of, and how we were able to accomplish our goals.  In each instance, I found that all five of these key attributes were absolutely a part of those teams.  It was an enjoyable session and so I thought I would summarize the five key attributes and share them, as I do think they are critical for defining a successful team.  

Rachel Nicholas, a Project Manager at First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) likes a good challenge. “However, as a project manager, I like to have some ability to plan as well,” says Nicholas.

While working on a recent project of updating training materials for our employees around our client-base, it reminded me of how thankful and humbled we are in seeing so many clients be clients for so many years.  Reviewing customers that started with us in the early 2000’s when we had first started offering hosting services and how our relationship has grown and evolved over time. Moving from co-location services, to adding IT management services for components within their infrastructure, to offering infrastructure-as-a-services instead of refreshing their hardware assets.  All with the same underlining premise – customize a solution and be flexible based on what the client needs and what will help them be successful.

There are a lot of companies out there that need to update their software, and think “where can I get the resources to do the testing, do the update and then get rid of it without using a lot of capital?” Susan Couron, Senior Client Executive at First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) has the answer.  Every day she helps customers find solutions to this issue and more.

At First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), business is all about developing long term relationships with clients. The only way to do so is by continuing to add value. We’re constantly looking for enhancements to our products and services, in order to add that value for the customer. The reason customers look to a service provider is because they either want to get better technology, or maybe a deeper skill set from a technical perspective. They’re looking for someone that can deliver the service at a higher level than what they can do internally or at a lower cost.

A key characteristic First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) prides itself on is the flexibility available to customers. This quality is particularly demonstrated in a project Vice President of Sales, Kim Whittaker is involved in: offering cloud self-provisioning.

Boe Knapp, a Senior Account Executive at First National Technology Solutions has been involved in the IT world since graduating college. He has worked for a variety of companies including Burroughs, one of the largest computer companies in the world. He even started his own performance analysis and system optimization business before selling it to FNTS. Knapp began working for FNTS shortly afterwards.

A crucial element of all data centers is a secure environment so data isn’t put in harm’s way. Whether it be natural or otherwise, accidents happen, and a well-protected data center can greatly help reduce the chance of damage. At First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), data has never been safer thanks to one of the most technologically advanced centers in America.