Daniel Barnes
Chief executive officer
KD Interactive Hosted Business Services
311 S. Third St., Watertown
Industry: information technology/hosted business solutions
Number of employees: ten
Family: Wife, Kari and daughter, Nina, age six.
“Taking customer service to a whole new level. When we complete projects we have an independent third party company call our customers to interview them on different aspects of the project. This has been very effective. One of the big things we found out is that our customers really liked the level of technical knowledge of our customer service. This has helped our company stand out from others.”
What’s new at your company?
“We are expanding world wide and are talking with companies from all over the world. We have been primarily doing business across the USA and the U.K. Today we are working with new customers from Canada, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and more.”
Do you plan to hire any additional staff or make any significant capital investments in your company in the next year?
“We will definitely continue to add additional staff and infrastructure over the next year.”
What will be your company’s main challenges in the next year?
“I think the biggest challenge we have is finding the right people. That sounds a little strange in this economic climate, but it’s just as hard if not harder to find the right people now. Key individuals are even harder to draw away from where they may be either comfortable or unwilling to make significant changes right now.”
What’s the hottest trend in your industry?
“Some of the hottest trends in our industry are targeted at our core business – cloud services. Since we are a fully managed hosting business service provider, our products mesh perfectly with all of the hottest cloud services. Hosted Microsoft Exchange and email, message archiving, eDiscovery, and off-site disaster recovery solutions are just a start to how we help companies reduce their costs while increasing services levels to their users.”
Do you have a business mantra?
“It’s very simple: Changing the way our customers do business through leading-edge technologies.”
From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?
“I would have to say Steve Jobs whom I have never met, yet. I admire what he has done with Apple. From product development, sales and customer growth to their Genius Bar service, they are taking care of business and customers in a way that sets them apart – execution in a way we really aspire to.”
What was the best advice you ever received?
“The best advice I ever received was from my dad. He always told me to keep trying to adapt and overcome no matter what happens. Did I mention he was a master gunnery sergeant in the Marines?”
What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you in your career?
“It was a Monday morning I was on a service call at a company on the south side that was in a new industrial park. I get to where the equipment was and there were a couple of ladies nearby talking about their weekend. I turn on the machine to start testing a few things and all of a sudden a mouse jumps out, looks at me, jumps on my lap, then jumps down and runs off past the ladies. Never have I ever heard people scream so loud and have a whole business jumping that early on a Monday morning. I will never forget that.”
