About Us
AG Advice and Support was incorporated in 2004 but we have been working on problems and planning for 25 years. Our personnel worked in technical support, project management, and quality systems prior to the formation of AGAAS (sounded ā-gaws). We have also spent many years rolling-out emergency preparedness plans, with several private and government organizations. We've started several businesses ourselves, and thrive on the challenge of starting a new venture or taking an existing one beyond anyone's expectations.
Why Do We Offer Technical and Marketing Services?
Our broad-based service offering was borne out of necessity. AG Advice and Support initially began with a focus on telecommunications networks, training and various emergency preparedness techniques. Over time, we found that many people on the engineering side of networks were very good at what they did, but they did not fully understand how to ask customers what they needed. Rather, they designed products and told their customers "how it would be useful for them".
We also worked with marketing professionals who knew how to communicate freely with clients, support them unconditionally, and virtually guarantee them that anything they asked for would be provided. The justification later to the head-scratching engineers who supported the nitty-gritty of these promises, was that marketing was trying to land business for the company which helps everybody, and did not ask engineering first because time was running out and they wanted "revenue to be recognized for this quarter". Things like 24 hour technical support for unreleased products, product lines not sold by their company, and free and unlimited upgrades until end-of-life-cycle!
We wondered why the engineers and marketeers weren't apparently talking to each other enough, even though both groups insisted they were. There seemed to be a need to combine the technical design with marketing, in a non-adversarial and customer-focused manner that was not consistently being addressed. This involved all aspects of how a customer sees a product for the first time...their website experience, the "packaging" of the product, how it would help them, how they could customize it, how they could trust it, etc. At the same time, product developers needed to use their expertise to implement these customer-defined design requirements, but also anticipating problems the customer would or could not, yet also make the product easily maintainable and upgradable. It's a spectrum that spans many skills and departments. But, even in companies where an individual or team manages everything within this spectrum, they still might unwittingly fall into preconceived or local corporate-culture boundaries.
Over several years of running small businesses, we ourselves had also taken various interests in graphic design, merchandising techniques, "Why We Buy" things like "Purple Cows", secondary suppliers, tax and immigration law, quality issues, production lines, and many other things that systematically seem to act as barriers to good business techniques, even though their theories and established solutions had been around for decades. We have studied many financial statements, "bad and good" statistics, and law. We especially studied the ups and downs of tourism and hospitality, an industry we like and have worked in. The patterns of this industry, we have found, act as an interesting bell-weather to the greater economy.
We try to tie together this spectrum for clients. In many cases, clients are very well informed, and simply need confirmation, a few different ideas or assistance with some established system. But while doing these things, we frequently -- in fact, always -- see issues that clients either do not know about or perhaps do not want to know about. This is where an outside party has an advantage. We also can talk to customers to see what they really think, what they really want, and how they are really being treated. Finally, we can help bridge differences between personnel in your company, acting as an broker for dialogue that may otherwise be lacking.
Our broad-based service offering was borne out of necessity. AG Advice and Support initially began with a focus on telecommunications networks, training and various emergency preparedness techniques. Over time, we found that many people on the engineering side of networks were very good at what they did, but they did not fully understand how to ask customers what they needed. Rather, they designed products and told their customers "how it would be useful for them".
We also worked with marketing professionals who knew how to communicate freely with clients, support them unconditionally, and virtually guarantee them that anything they asked for would be provided. The justification later to the head-scratching engineers who supported the nitty-gritty of these promises, was that marketing was trying to land business for the company which helps everybody, and did not ask engineering first because time was running out and they wanted "revenue to be recognized for this quarter". Things like 24 hour technical support for unreleased products, product lines not sold by their company, and free and unlimited upgrades until end-of-life-cycle!
We wondered why the engineers and marketeers weren't apparently talking to each other enough, even though both groups insisted they were. There seemed to be a need to combine the technical design with marketing, in a non-adversarial and customer-focused manner that was not consistently being addressed. This involved all aspects of how a customer sees a product for the first time...their website experience, the "packaging" of the product, how it would help them, how they could customize it, how they could trust it, etc. At the same time, product developers needed to use their expertise to implement these customer-defined design requirements, but also anticipating problems the customer would or could not, yet also make the product easily maintainable and upgradable. It's a spectrum that spans many skills and departments. But, even in companies where an individual or team manages everything within this spectrum, they still might unwittingly fall into preconceived or local corporate-culture boundaries.
Over several years of running small businesses, we ourselves had also taken various interests in graphic design, merchandising techniques, "Why We Buy" things like "Purple Cows", secondary suppliers, tax and immigration law, quality issues, production lines, and many other things that systematically seem to act as barriers to good business techniques, even though their theories and established solutions had been around for decades. We have studied many financial statements, "bad and good" statistics, and law. We especially studied the ups and downs of tourism and hospitality, an industry we like and have worked in. The patterns of this industry, we have found, act as an interesting bell-weather to the greater economy.
We try to tie together this spectrum for clients. In many cases, clients are very well informed, and simply need confirmation, a few different ideas or assistance with some established system. But while doing these things, we frequently -- in fact, always -- see issues that clients either do not know about or perhaps do not want to know about. This is where an outside party has an advantage. We also can talk to customers to see what they really think, what they really want, and how they are really being treated. Finally, we can help bridge differences between personnel in your company, acting as an broker for dialogue that may otherwise be lacking.
Cool Under Fire
There is another terrific skill we feel we have learned: Keeping your composure. If you've ever witnessed a high-speed car accident, an armed robbery, or a three story building explode (all of which we have), you'll know how difficult it is to keep your wits and try to do the right thing when time is short. We try to bring this skill to those we work with, as there's usually some sort of impending challenge, though hopefully not as crucial as those mentioned above. 80,000 phone lines out of service? No problem. The power is off at you premises? We have three or four ideas on how to fix that. Need to get a network fixed fast because a contract is pending? That's a specialty.
There is another terrific skill we feel we have learned: Keeping your composure. If you've ever witnessed a high-speed car accident, an armed robbery, or a three story building explode (all of which we have), you'll know how difficult it is to keep your wits and try to do the right thing when time is short. We try to bring this skill to those we work with, as there's usually some sort of impending challenge, though hopefully not as crucial as those mentioned above. 80,000 phone lines out of service? No problem. The power is off at you premises? We have three or four ideas on how to fix that. Need to get a network fixed fast because a contract is pending? That's a specialty.
Politics and Truth
We enjoy debating politics as much as anyone. They are a necessary part of life. You cannot run a business without some element of political savvy. When the time comes to solve a problem, however, we prefer to dig out the facts as they really are, not coloring them to support or diminish any given belief. Nothing can truly be solved without understanding the actual facts of a situation. PR, damage control, embarrassment and diplomacy can come later.
We enjoy debating politics as much as anyone. They are a necessary part of life. You cannot run a business without some element of political savvy. When the time comes to solve a problem, however, we prefer to dig out the facts as they really are, not coloring them to support or diminish any given belief. Nothing can truly be solved without understanding the actual facts of a situation. PR, damage control, embarrassment and diplomacy can come later.