He’s helping smaller firms meet their challenges

Company: Comprehensive Computer Services, Inc.
Owner: Harvey G. Lieberman
Employees: Four
Type of business: Technical expertise for networked computer systems, specializing in integrating systems for small and mid-sized businesses
Location: Greenville
Year founded: 1985
Annual revenues: Approximately $500,000

HARVEY LIEBERMAN: ‘We try to be more like a partner than a vendor.

By trade, Harvey G. Lieberman is an accountant.

For 10 years – from 1974 to 1984 – he served as assistant corporate controller at Outlet Communications, Inc., in Providence. Lieberman analyzed consolidated financial statements. Lieberman worked on budgeting and forecasting. Lieberman worked on the development and implementation of automated accounting systems.

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After his decade-long run at Outlet Communications, Lieberman served as controller at Roth Broadcast Group in Melrose, Mass. There were more financial statements to analyze — more forecasting to be done.

But all the while he was working for big corporations – he was thinking about smaller ones.

”My expertise had always been in providing accounting for large corporations, and I started to see the value in providing that for smaller businesses,” Lieberman said.

So in 1985, Lieberman created Comprehensive Computer Services, Inc., a consulting company with a goal to help small and mid-sized businesses streamline their efficiencies, reduce costs and generate new income streams.

CCSI’s customer base includes broadcasting, construction, financial services, law firms and manufacturers. But regardless of the industry, Lieberman said, most small businesses share common challenges.

”Unfortunately, most small businesses don’t know what they need,” he said.

Part of the problem, he said, is the rapidity of change – the race of high technology and the competition it creates. It would be nice, Lieberman, if the pace of change in today’s business world were a bit slower – if products were more proven before finding their way to the marketplace. But computer industry giants aren’t about to slow down, only to watch competitors surge forward. It is a situation that puts the little guys in a precarious spot, but gives CCSI an opportunity to lend a needed hand.

CCSI does that in part by partnering with other companies.

”We try to be more like a partner, than a vendor,” he said.

If Lieberman or someone on his staff can’t resolve a client’s need, he taps into someone who can. It’s not always about making money, Lieberman said, but about building strong, long-term relationships with clients.

”There is so much technology – one person can’t do it all,” Lieberman said. “The answer to that is partnering.”

And the answer to keeping clients long-term, is telling them what’s best for their business. Sometimes that may mean recommending a product or service that CCSI does not re-sell. Or it may mean helping a client sift through a glossy advertisement or promotion to get to the nuts and bolts of a product or service.

”Our job is to go in and do a needs analysis,” Lieberman said. “Often, we’re looking at a scaled-down version of what a large company would do.”

Lieberman finds that some industries require different kinds of guidance than others. While some may be quick to jump at the latest software, others are slow to embrace technology.

Several years ago, Lieberman said, he visited a mid-sized manufacturer that was doing its accounts receivable manually. The company was at least a month behind in getting its receivables posted.

”That hurts cash flow,” Lieberman said. “They needed an order-entry system. They needed to grow.”

CCSI helped them to do so.

Striking out on his own has allowed Lieberman something he cherishes – diversity. He is a music, film and video enthusiast who has worked as a production assistant on ABC’s made-for-television movie of Everett Hale’s “The Man Without A Country,” and on a production of “The Great Gatsby.” He is developing a blues band. He is a certified scuba diver – and a youth basketball coach.

It is not in Leiberman’s nature to stand pat. And so CCSI itself is likely to grow – to, like its owner, try new things.

By visiting such a varied collection of other companies, Lieberman has gotten a good sense of how to run his own. Investing back into the business, he said, seems to be the single most important key to success.

”When you deal with 30 or 40 clients, you see what is done well,” he said. “A lot of companies take a minimalist view. But the ones that dedicate enough resources to technology and their management structure, seem to do better. It shows that Band-Aids don’t work.”

The companies that are succeeding, he said, are finding new ways to get their products to their customers.

”They are embracing the change in the business world,” he said.

So Lieberman makes sure his employees get the training – and the certificates they need. It has always been his intent to keep things fairly small, but he knows he has to grow.

“This was set up to be analogous to be similar to a small or mid-sized accounting firm,” he said. “But we need to continue to grow. We need to know so many things now.”

That includes not only helping companies set up informational Web sites, but sites that can ultimately build revenue streams. As a result, CCSI has a graphics artist on call and a person more familiar with the technical side of e-commerce.

It also means looking out for yourself – and your client.

“Manufacturers are no longer showing much loyalty to their re-sellers,” he said. They’ll change a product and whoever falls out, falls out. You have to look out for your client.”

“You have to stay ahead of the curve, and keep ahead of the technology that is going to make it,” he said. “We try not to be product specific.”

That ability and commitment to growth, said Lieberman, is what will guide CCSI’s future. It is what will keep clients long-term, and create opportunities for new ones. And it is what will stave off competitors.

“We are competing with guys who are working out of the trunk of their car,” he said. “But are they investing in training? Will they be here next year?”

Lieberman knows that he – and CCSI – will on both accounts.

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