6 minute read
Tech Partners
Smarter Consulting offers a range of tech support services for any type of company.
article by Bob Luder
It’s the heart of conference season, so pinning down Sharon Weaver to discuss the company she created seven years ago is a bit of a challenge. One day she’s on a cruise ship running a community meetup, a couple days later she’s jetting off to Seattle to speak at a major tech conference. The one day in between, she hunkers down in her Orlando, Florida, rental home catching up on business with her company, Smarter Consulting.
“I speak at conferences around the world,” says Weaver, remarkably alert and energetic given her unrelenting schedule. “It’s usually a six-week conference season starting at the end of February. It breaks during the summer, then usually starts up again in the fall. I also do podcasts.” while working in a retail pharmacy. But, already married with children, she realized that career path wasn’t going to pay the bills. So, she enrolled in a new program centered around interactive media at Johnson County Community College.
Even with the hectic travel and speaking schedule, Weaver devotes the bulk of her time and attention to Smarter Consulting, a team of specialists with more than 30 years of experience who help companies with software application development, improve and make more efficient business processes and operations, and content management. The company prides itself in excelling in planning, designing, and implementing Microsoft 365 solutions for businesses throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area and nationwide.
“I’m a trainer at heart,” Weaver says. “People call me because they want to improve their technology and speed up their business processes. What we do is allow technology to serve (companies) and build processes around that technology.
“We partner with the best in the world. We have credentials with Microsoft. We can assemble a team at a moment’s notice.”
Weaver almost didn’t get into technology at all. She started in pre-med and earned an undergraduate degree in developmental psychology at the University of Kansas while working in a retail pharmacy. But, already married with children, she realized that career path wasn’t going to pay the bills. So, she enrolled in a new program centered around interactive media at Johnson County Community College.
She was off and running on a new career path.
“(In the class) they told us about something called the internet,” Weaver says. “Before long, I was making web pages, doing PowerPoint presentations.”
She discovered being an IT contractor allowed her the flexibility to also be a mother and wife. She worked in corporate positions for about 10 years, including three and a half years at Black & Veatch, and sharpened her skills in organizing content and information distribution. She, however, missed the flexibility and personal growth she had enjoyed as an independent consultant and left in 2014 to form KC Tech Group with her husband, Jonathan.
“That’s where I learned a lot about running a business,” she says.
When Jonathan Weaver decided he would rather work for another company than work for himself, Sharon Weaver started Smarter Consulting in 2017. She hired her first employee in 2020 and now has six full-time employees and a handful of contractors.
What makes her team unique, Weaver says, is that many of her employees began at Smarter Consulting without much, if any, background in tech.
“I came to the company with a retail management background,” says Angela Jones, a Shawnee resident who joined the company four years ago and now is chief operations officer. “I’ve been exposed to all different kinds of technologies, and it’s been great helping businesses solve problems.”
A Variety of Services
Smarter Consulting offers clients a plethora of services.
• Strategy and planning – identifying priorities and executing a clear, strategic roadmap, taking defined steps to reach goals.
• Productivity – as a Microsoft partner, helping organizations get the most of Microsoft 365 applications.
• User training and adoption – mixing productivity tips and education to ensure employees know the best way to work with applications.
• Governance – assessing a company’s environment and creating strategies to manage who has access to what and when.
• Migration – helping companies move data to the cloud, or vice versa.
• Power platform development – streamline operations and boost productivity with custom apps tailored to meet specific needs.
“(Smarter Consulting was instrumental in) figuring out the best ways to integrate our Microsoft 365 platform, use all the tools and become more efficient,” says Lisa Fleming, chief executive officer at Rose Brooks, which provides shelter and support programs for people coping with domestic violence.
“It can be pretty daunting being a nonprofit without an IT department,” Fleming says. “Smarter Consulting was great at putting it in plain language, figuring out what was unique to our organization. They coordinated not only with our organization, but also with all our community partners.”
Smarter Consulting even has customers who are themselves tech companies and double as business partners.
“Their focus is on looking at footprints of where we have files stored,” says James Brouhard, director, consulting & modernization at FNTS (First National Technology Solutions), headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. “They figure out where files should live and then figure out the best way to move them, such as off a physical file server to cloud-based platforms. They also help organize files in a modern fashion.
“They know the business conversations we should be having, not just the technology. Our (companies’) cultures match in terms of flexibility and adaptability.”
Ahead of the Curve
According to Weaver, Smarter Consulting pulled in about $800,000 in revenue last year. Almost all of that was paid back out to support employees and contractors and build and grow the company. In the world of technology, that growth typically comes at a rapid pace.
Weaver jokes that the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) already has become a drinking game as to when the first mention of AI will surface.
“We’re already automating as many processes as possible,” she says. “Now, AI can tell us how to automate those processes.
“The people’s expectations of technology are going to change the fabric of what we do. Now, even construction workers can access everything they need to do their jobs on their phones.
“It all comes down to how can you get more out of the time you have.”
When that time comes, Smarter Consulting is here to help.
For More
Smarter Consulting
15621 W. 87th St. Parkway, Suite 108
Lenexa, KS 66219
913-562-1310
Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
