Advance Business Systems
Unwavering Commitment to Customer Success

Advance Business Systems opened its doors 54 years ago and although the technology has changed considerably over the last five decades, the premise of providing its customers with tools and services to make their businesses more efficient and effective has remained a constant. What seems to set them apart from the competition, contribute to their longevity and ultimately propelled them into success in the IT services space is their people’s unwavering commitment to the customer. “Our people are simply different and better,” states President, Jeff Elkin. “They treat our customers’ businesses as if they are their own.”

Advance is best known for its office technology, providing customers with business tools such as multifunctional devices, interactive whiteboards and document management software. So what propelled them into the IT services arena? “When the products we implemented for our customers became part of our clients’ network, we developed an expertise in connectivity and infrastructure. We would work with our clients to ensure the implementation went smoothly and ultimately our proficiency in this area grew. As time went on, we were receiving frequent requests from our customers to support their entire IT infrastructure. We saw a need for incredible service in the managed IT space so the evolution made sense and furthered our capabilities in supporting our customers’ success,” explains Elkin.

Advance didn’t just dip their toe in the water with IT service, they dove in head first and developed a service model that delivers an exceptional experience to the organizations they work with. It’s that passion and dedication that feeds their motto, “We Live and Breathe This Stuff,” which has rung true for everything they offer to their client base.

Advance has a rich history of serving businesses in Maryland which seems to give them a competitive edge with their customers. They leverage the knowledge they’ve gained over the last 54 years to act as a true business partner for their clients and focus on driving their clients businesses forward rather than just tackling the day-to-day IT issues.

“Many organizations leverage a third party IT resource that they pay primarily when an issue arises. Advance believes in partnering with our clients and employing a proactive approach to not only prevent issues from occurring in the first place, but also to implement technology that positions them to achieve their organizational goals,” says Elkin.

The company holds firm that they only partner with organizations for IT services that value technology and see it as a competitive advantage, not just a necessary evil. They have partnered with clients such as an up-and-coming healthcare organization to not only address compliance needs but to implement technology to ultimately increase their organization’s size by 42 percent within the first year of their engagement with Advance’s Managed IT team.

Success stories as such are indicative of Advance’s commitment to assisting clients—be it proactively managing their IT infrastructure and establishing an IT roadmap or providing them with best-in-class office technology—so they can focus on their core business and not worry about technology not keeping up or holding them back.

Members of their IT Service team such as a Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) work hand in hand with the leadership of an organization to understand their goals and vision and ensure the technology that Advance will be implementing is in alignment with those goals. Elkin emphasizes that this is “not a set-it and forget-it roadmap, it is constantly evolving as the organization’s needs change and technology evolves.” The organizations that partner with Advance for IT services view these resources as an extension of their own team that operates with the shared goal of long term success for the client.

Advance maintains most of its customer-base in the state of Maryland but supports its clients’ satellite offices across the country and even the world in some instances. The company aims to evolve as the leading managed IT services provider in the region with the highest customer satisfaction in the industry. “We operate on the fundamental belief that our customers can live without us but we cannot live without them; everything we do is wrapped around that philosophy,” concludes Elkin.