Flexibility keeps firm on the move
The slow economy has not derailed the growth of Integrated Office Solutions Inc. In fact, managing growth has been the main challenge for Scott Gierhahn, president of the New Berlin firm.
"We are systematically, one at a time, adding new accounts and managing what we do as we go," Gierhahn says.
One-stop shopping is the key for Integrated Office Solutions, which can help other companies move into new space, redesign their existing offices, and store their excess office furnishings.
Some of that flexibility comes from the firm’s partnership with Schroeder Installation Systems Inc., which operates a plant next door. Schroeder Moving Systems Inc., of Appleton, put up the capital to start Schroeder Installation Systems and Integrated Office Solutions in 1999.
Integrated Office Solutions and Schroeder Installation Systems project combined revenue of $4.5 million this year, up from $3.2 million in 2001.
To accommodate that growth, Integrated Office Solutions has leased another 20,000 square feet of space at its warehouse on West Lincoln Avenue in New Berlin. Ultimately, the firm and Schroeder Installation Systems may need to move together into larger space, Gierhahn says.
Integrated Office Solutions has grown to 65 employees, up from 38 when the company was founded. Gierhahn expects to continue expanding his workforce.
"We’ve grown to the point where we’re going to need the whole building," Gierhahn says. "I expect our labor end of things to increase a lot and quickly."
Gierhahn says his company’s clients are his best references. And that client list is top-heavy: Doral Dental USA, Cobalt Corp., Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., Kohl’s Corp., Briggs & Stratton Corp., and Metavante Corp. – to name a few.
Integrated Office Solutions redesigned the entire corporate offices of Doral Dental this year, installing new workstations ranging in cost from $1,400 per station in the regular offices to $4,100 per station in the executive suites.
Baird had different needs. Integrated Office Systems took Baird’s existing workstations and made them smaller to accommodate more people in existing space.
Metavante hired Integrated Office Solutions when the subsidiary of Marshall & Ilsey Corp. consolidated some offices in Atlanta and needed more office equipment in San Jose, Calif., said Metavante spokesman Chip Swearngan. Integrated Office Solutions reconfigured the Atlanta equipment and moved it into the San Jose office.
Integrated Office Solutions also provides the same services to smaller offices.
"No job is too small," Gierhahn said.
Integrated Office Solut ions also can provide custom, high-end amenities, including raised floors that accommodate computer cabling and heating and cooling systems; "demountable" office walls that can be moved when space demands change; sound masking equipment that provides humming "white noise" to allow privacy within work spaces in an office; and recycled carpeting with custom designs.
Nov. 8, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
