GENERAL HISTORY

SMG can trace its roots back to a small company named Midwest Document Systems (MDS) that started in Bettendorf, IA in 1995. MDS operated solely as a Xerox Agency selling Xerox Copiers. In the late 1990's, ownership and control of the company changed several times. At this point, MDS defined three major elements of their business model that needed focus; 1) Searching for supplemental value-add products and services that focus on emerging customer needs, 2) Increasing revenues with service and supply contracts, 3) Working with customers to develop and manage work-flow processes.

To tackle this new focus, MDS had to craft a new business model. As more "interconnected" copiers were sold in bundles to clients, additional staff were added that were skilled in IT-networking. The more IT people hired by MDS, the more our people thought about more comprehensive solutions and integrated technologies.

More and more the staff crafted recommendations that convinced our customers to upgrade their PC's and install new servers as part more of a more comprehensives office management solutions for the client. In 2004, the company was renamed Solutions Management Group (SMG) to better identify who we were and what we were doing.

In the fall of 2005, SMG entered into a partnership with Ricoh to sell and service Ricoh office equipment within a defined non-exclusive territory. Ricoh is #1 for market share in the United States and also allowed SMG to represent other vendors such as HP, Gateway and Dell.

Along the way, SMG's lead sales strategy became what is now called the "Total Office Assessment (TOA)" for a potential client. SMG developed a unique sales process that quickly identified ways to reduce costs in the client's environment. SMG also invested in several software programs and has created some of our own programs that allow us to quickly analyze these expenses for our customers and identify where the customer can decrease expenses. The cost cutting measures are typically driven by standardizing print and fax strategies as well as general office software communications. The TOA gives SMG a professional platform to interview the clients' key team members as to how they communicate and what expenses are attached to their current means of communication and document management (patent and copyrights pending).

In 2007, SMG won Ricoh's "Master's Circle" Award for sales excellence in Solution Selling.

In 2008, SMG was nominated by Ricoh for OfficeDEALER Magazine's "Elite Dealer Award" (SMG will find out if we won this prestigious award in July, 2008).