Our Differences Make Us Special

-by Waheed Choudhry, Nexus President and COO

On a recent trip to Atlanta, I was once again struck by the graciousness and hospitality of people in the South.  Even the gentleman from the rental car company who drove me to my terminal at the airport took time to get to know me, and seemed to genuinely care about me almost immediately.

This experience reminded me of the wonderful regional differences that still remain in the U.S.  Even though technology continues to bring us closer together, the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West retain their own special cuisines, culture, and language.

It also reminded me of the thought and planning that has gone into our strategy for growing Nexus into a national provider of IT products and services.  From the start, we’ve taken a regional approach.  Why?

We believe that local people with lots of technical expertise bring local knowledge to our business that is invaluable to our customers – and to Nexus as well.  That’s why every Nexus regional office isn’t just a sales location.  It’s also staffed with project managers, pre-sales support, and project implementation engineers (and many others).  This approach helps us to be more nimble and allows us to address the unique business needs of our clients in every region and every market.

Our approach also enables us to spend more time face-to-face with customers – getting to know them, and allowing them to get to know us better as well.  This helps us to tailor our solutions to integrate with our customers’ current business practices and processes, while still complying with our own standard processes and methodologies.

Finally, our regional approach enables our people to participate in their communities and support local charities.  Nexus has sponsored events in every regional office (golf tournaments for example) that have raised thousands of dollars for local food banks, Habitat for Humanity, battered teens, the Wounded Warrior Project and many others.  It’s just another way we stay in touch with the community and our region.

As Americans and members of the global community, we share many similarities in how we work and transact business.  But as similar as we are, it’s the regional differences that spice up our lives (and our cuisine!), energize our businesses, and make our country great.

Time-Out for Wounded Warriors

– by Denise Marlborough, Director of Marketing

On Thursday, September 13^th, Nexus sponsored the Third Annual NorCal Charity Golf Tournament at Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton, California.  All proceeds from the tourney, more than $10,000, were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.  The Wounded Warrior Project provides programs and services to severely injured service members during the time between active duty and transition to civilian life.

Although the tournament was held for a serious cause, the more than fifty customers and Nexus employees and business partners (Cisco, EMC, VMware, Ironport, NEC, Intelepeer, Isilon, and Glue Networks) enjoyed a great day, great golf, great people, and great fun.   There were prizes for the winners of the flighted four-person scramble, putting and chipping contests (with plastic practice balls no less!), closest to the pin and longest drive competitions, and lots of cold beverages to keep players happy and refreshed.

Winners included Foursome 1B: Steve Benvenuto, Sean Bhola, Mike McFall, Troy Treto and Foursome 16A: Anthony Gomes, Rhonda Gomes, Bob Christiansen, and Dave Fry. Congratulations, all!

Golf was followed by a Technology Fair and silent auction for sports memorabilia, trips, golf equipment, and other desirable items.  Everyone went home with something – even if it was just the memory of a very special day that helped some very special people.  (To refresh that memory, check out photos from the event at our Facebook page: facebook.com/nexusisinc )

Our sincere thanks go to everyone who helped make the event a success – our employees from the Northern California office, our business partners who sponsored holes and provided prizes, and our customers who gave generously of their time and money.   We hope to see all of you again next year!

Get More by Giving Back

We recently held our 2nd Annual Bob McGuire Cup, an internal employees-only event to benefit the family of an associate who tragically passed away of a heart attack last year. More than 25 golfers (some from as far away as our Atlanta office!) took to the greens to enjoy a day of remembrance and raise money for the family. Together they raised over $1000!

We’re also hosting our 2nd Charity Golf Tournament in San Ramon, Calif. tomorrow, benefitting the American Heart Association. The first of these events was held in June in Southern California and raised over $7500 for the Orangewood Children’s Foundation.

In mid-August, a group of employees helped clean and bag 2,000 lbs of corn at the Alameda Food Bank – corn that went later that day to various food kitchens in the community that afternoon for the folks in the county in need. Our Valencia office also participates annually in the Santa Clarita Valley Make a Difference Day – last year, they helped with paint and landscape projects at a local school. During our annual holiday food drive last year, we donated over 3-1/2 tons of food – the size of an elephant! – to local food banks.

The point of all this though, isn’t to pat ourselves on the back for our spirit of giving, it’s that every time we do an event like this, we’re surprised by what we get. It’s a great feeling to know that you’ve helped someone in need, and it strengthens the camaraderie of our internal teams. We get to spend time together, TEAMing for a good cause, and it reinforces our company manta that Together Everyone Achieves More.

Take a look around in your community and see where you could lend a hand. It’ll reinforce your brand reputation in the community with your customers and prospects and give your teams a chance for some bonding. Post a comment below about ways you or your company have given back recently!