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HAPPY BIRTHDAY: SOS Celebrates 16 Years!
Sixteen years ago, on September 1, 1992, Lawrence and I began operating a business hardware and software firm named Special Order Software out of our home in Tujunga, California. This company -- now “Special Order Systems” and doing business as “SOS” – has since blossomed. And for that I sincerely thank you -- each and every wonderful SOS client, partner, and staff member. Below is a timeline showing some the key milestones for SOS. Do you have comments or additions… maybe a memory to share? Please email us – it’s great to hear from you.
– Gia McNutt, co-founder and CEO, SOS.
- 1992 -
- SOS founded in September, out of McNutt’s home in Tujunga (LA county) as “Special Order Software”.
- Radio Shack Panasonic phone system (Even with just 1 employee, SOS offered 4 phone prompts, sales, accounting, customer service, and warehouse. Gia McNutt answered each one…).
- Primary business was selling software and hardware to our first client, Hewlett-Packard.
- 1993 -
- Introduced to long-standing client, BloodSource. Read the case study.
- Hired first employee, Claudia Sharp, now with SOS for 15 ½ years
- 1994 -
- Incorporated as “Special Order Systems”
- Gained Trader Joe's account, one of Gia's favorite stores.
- Moved to first commercial facility in Rocklin, CA!
- Hired first employee from the Sacramento area, Cindy Hardy, here for the past 13 years
- 1995 -
- Expanded into networking services, and established a services department
- Made another long-term hire: Peter Tostado, expert in Cisco, I3 and other areas of service at SOS
- Installed first PBX and voicemail at our long-time client Pacific Grain Products (PGP) International
- Won first award, the “River City Small Business of the Year”
- Friday morning breakfast tradition turned gourmet with Claudia bringing in her Coleman stove. The tradition still lives on. The smell of cooking bacon wafts thru the office every Friday morning.
- First year on the Business Journal’s 100 Fastest Growing list
- 1996 -
- Began LAN/WAN services practice
- Engaged with long-standing client, Pacific Coast Building Products.
- 1997 -
- Catherine Keck-Scherer joined SOS as a Systems Consultant.
- 1998 -
- Began working with American River Bankshares who is also SOS' business bank. Read the case study.
- 1999 -
- Hired Rob Thornton, now Managed Services Business Practice Manager. Read Rob's Bio.
- Height of the Dot.com boom
- 2000 -
- Y2k came and went, with very little fanfare.
- Steve Hofer joined the SOS team as Systems Consultant.
- 2001 -
- Post dot-com-bust years begin. SOS did not make any sweeping layoffs, and kept all our engineers even during the slow times. Good people are people to keep.
- First Cisco IP Telephony project.
- Focused on service offerings, and specifically Advanced Communications.
- Earned Cisco IP Telephony designation, and did several successful implementations.
- Became an Interactive Intelligence partner in 2001, and completed SOS' first SIP deployment.
- Mike Stewart was hired. Read Mike's Bio.
- Tim Davidson also joined the SOS team. Read Tim's Bio.
- 2002 -
- First Interactive Intelligence call center and IVR projects
- Contractors State License Board became a customer. During their project, SOS developed a new standard for integration with databases using HTM and Web Services.
- 2003 -
- First global IP Telephony deployment
- 2004 -
- More key employees join in 2004
- Juanita Ellis, Accounting Manager
- Neal Morgan joined SOS as an implementation engineer and then moved to sales in 2006
- Erik Dahl joined SOS as I3 engineer.
- Beginning of relationship with Vegas.com and implemented an Interactive Intelligence call center solution, which won ContactCenterWorld’s Gold Americas Best Technology Innovation Award, and Silver Global Award. Read more.
- 2005 -
- Gained several more key clients, such as Cost-U-Less Insurance (case study), Greater Nevada Credit Union (case study), and Financial Engines.
- The McClellan Business Park relationship, one of SOS' most significant service accounts, began.
- We had more key employees join us in 2005.
- Santosh More joined SOS as a Cisco IP Telephony Engineer
- John Felts came aboard as Systems consultant
- Michelle Wolting was hired on. She is now Lead Sales Assistant and Sales/Marketing Coordinator.
- 2006 -
- Achieved Cisco Advanced Security specialization
- Gained Microsoft Gold Partner status.
- Began to work with Microsoft OCS and Unified Messaging.
- Reba Bullard also joined SOS and is Trader Joe's Project Manager
- Jim Bass, Joe Delgado, Wayne Miller & Paul Schwab as engineers and Jim Bertrand in shipping joined the team.
- Gained more clients, such as AXA Rosenberg, Chapa-De Indian Health Program (case study), Nutrishare, & Cycle Gear.
- 2007 -
- Richard Oberle, I3 engineer joined the team.
- Mike Dolloff and Rebecca (Becke) O'Neil joined the SOS Sales team as Sales Assistants
- Dino Bianchini, Savie Shambaugh and Sean Scott joined SOS in the Service and Help Desk Depts.
- Chris Dunlap joined the Project Management team.
- Engineers Mike Moore and Jim Dass also joined SOS.
- Launched: MANAGE-Smart, SOS' Managed Services offering. Onboarded two managed services clients. Stay tuned to our website for more details coming soon. Read the Press Release for more details.
- In winter 2007 we bought a building, built a data center, and moved office locations.
- 2008 -
- Hired Human Resources/Operations Manager, Linda Bradley (Read Linda's Bio)
- Tom Aldine joined the SOS team as a Systems Consultant
- Laura Fahey was hired as a new Sales Assistant
- Sean Raburn and Tim Bergeron were also brought on to the Service department.
- Joshua Hensley joined the team as a Systems Engineer
- SOS is taking on a new selling method to increase our relevancy and value to our clients.
Our gratitude to our clients, without whom we would not be here today and to each and every person who makes up the SOS team; from those who have been here 15 years to those who have been here shorter periods of time, and already making huge contributions to our company. Here’s to our 16th Birthday and many years together, achieving excellence, meeting objectives and creating relationships. Thank you all!
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Since its inception in 1992, SOS has specialized in providing technology solutions and exceptional customer service to small- and medium-sized businesses. SOS’ 40+ executives, engineers, sales consultants and project managers are focused on developing processes, solutions and support vehicles that help 300 clients choose and use communications technology to delight their customers, cut costs, attract/retain clients and increase financial performance. To get in touch please call 916.632.8800 x1711 or visit us at www.team-sos.com
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Copyright © 2008 SOS. All rights reserved.
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