AG Advice and Support was incorporated in 2004, although most of our team had already been involved in complex telecom systems and networks since 1990 or earlier. Now after more than 20 years in business, we have expanded many services to include not only technical design and support, but how to reach and engage customers with strategy, sales and marketing, and training.
We have worked in nearly all aspects of communications, with distributive telco and IP networks, working to help most of the nation's largest telecom operators, defense, co-ops, and many of the world's most recognizable equipment vendors, both in the United States and around the world. As legacy knowledge has been lost, we have been able to resurrect systems once thought unusable. As modern optical networks have rolled-out, we've helped everyone from management, technicians and customers understand the latest technology. Today, we help support and train on the latest high-speed networks with multi-terabit per second speeds, having found a unique position where we help clients with nearly any generation of technology within their network.
AG Advice and Support is often shortened to just "AGAAS" (sounded ā-gaws). Our members have been involved in many other types of ventures, and have started several businesses ourselves. We like working with our clients, listening to their stories, and sharing what we've learned, helping to bring new and existing ideas beyond anyone's expectations.
Why Do We Offer Both 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 network support, 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. 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. Of course, not too many marketing people really understand engineering.
We wondered why the engineers and marketeers weren't talking to each other. There was a need to combine technical design with marketing, in a customer-focused manner where everybody was informed. 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 could not, yet also make the product easily maintainable and upgradable. It's a spectrum that spans many skills.
Over several years of running small businesses, we ourselves had taken interest in graphic design, sales, merchandising techniques, "Why We Buy" things like "Purple Cows", secondary suppliers, tax and immigration law, quality issues, production lines, strategy, and many other things that systematically seem to act as barriers to good business techniques. We studied the ups and downs of economies, all around the world (for over 100 nations). We have a very good idea of how to analyze your market, and any new markets you might want to contemplate.
We tie together all these facets when providing services for clients. In many cases, clients are very well informed, but need a few different ideas, verification of something, or custom research. When providing help, however, we frequently see issues that lay outside the bounds of the original reason we were retained. Clients either do not know about them, or do not fully see them from a neutral perspective (for example, what do customers really think of their products or services?).
This is where an outside party has an advantage, and can offer you input both quickly and objectively. We can talk to your customers to see what they really think, what they really want, and how they are really being treated. And, we can help bridge differences between all personnel in your company, acting as an broker for dialogue that may otherwise be lacking.
Cool Under Fire
Keeping one's composure is a terrific skill, but it can be hard to come by. If you've ever witnessed a bad car accident, or an armed robbery, or a three story building explode (we've seen all three, and other things), you'll know how difficult it is to keep your wits and try to do the right thing when time is short. We bring this skill to our clients, as there's often time pressure, though hopefully not as crucial as those mentioned above. Your city has lost Internet service? We've seen it before. Your commercial power is out, but so is the backup generator? Check, we've seen it. Production line stopped? Seen it, and helped to get all these running again. In any and all such cases, staying cool is key to a fast resolution time.