Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Stewart.
Jim, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Boston IT Services, BITS started back in 2002. Back then we were working mostly for a few large clients in the financial services industry. When the economy ‘shifted’ back in 2008, and the financial services industry fell apart, BITS also shifted. We didn’t realize it then, but the shift in the economy was a blessing in disguise.
Since then, we’ve been working with companies of all shapes and sizes around Boston – it’s been about 10 years now. We’ve grown to a staff of about a dozen people, added a full-time office in San Francisco, and we are aggressively hiring more people to join our team. It’s great working with companies of all sizes from start-ups to non-profits to biotech/biopharma to high tech. It’s really been an eye-opening experience to witness first-hand and be a part of all the incredible innovation happening around Boston.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We’ve had a few struggles along the way – we started out working in Financial Services back in the early 2000’s – that lasted until about 2008 when the financial services economy completely tanked!
It wasn’t easy to find clients and restart a company in the middle of a recession, but BITS was reborn as a company that could serve any type of business around Boston. In hindsight, it was the best thing that ever could have happened. We quickly tied into other strong innovative companies and industries around Boston, and we’ve been doing our best work ever since. There is an unstoppable rise in innovation happening all around Boston, and it has been wonderful to be a part of that over the last decade.
Boston IT Services Inc – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I think we’re known for being a rare breed of competent and cool IT people who clients actually like working with, as part of their team. That’s not always an easy combination to pull off in the IT world! We continue to be highly client focused. I think our team is very special. We’ve really grown the company organically, trying to keep a consistent culture involving high quality IT work, good communication, and a general sense of ‘cool, nice people’ that clients enjoy as people. We have many clients who consider us to be part of their team (and friends) – we’re sometimes invited to hang out with them at company outings and holiday parties. We’ve been growing consistently over time without any advertising budget or marketing – it is really all due to the continuous quality delivery of services and word of mouth/client referrals.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’m proud that we’ve worked with a number of great non-profits around the city, who are doing incredible work. I’m thankful that we’ve been able to contribute to some of their efforts in a small way, and that we’ve been able to give back a little.
Contact Info:
- Address: 711 Atlantic Ave Lower Level
Boston MA 02111 - Website: www.bostonitservices.com
- Phone: 617-307-7037
- Email: jim@bostonitservices.com
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