Nex-Tech Connections

A successful Annual Meeting of the Membership was held on April 23. A major focus of my report was culture, which is such an important part of who we are as an organization and why we strive to be better every day for our customers, and also to enjoy where we work. 

I recently attended an IT conference, and I am sad to say this was the first of its kind for me. With the reality that Nex-Tech is in the “Technology” business, I realized I was not where I needed to be with understanding the vital needs of advanced IT support and cybersecurity in today’s business. To be fair, I have had the luxury of leaning on our talented staff and our Chief Operating Officer, Mike Pollock, to understand how this is important to our company, as well as our customers.

At Nex-Tech, we recently revised our mission statement and introduced the Nex-Tech Way to our employees and customers. The Nex-Tech Way is: Enjoying the small-town environment we live in ourselves, our passion is to make life better for our friends and neighbors, our customers, by giving them access to high-speed, high-tech services that some only dream about. And support them like no other.

I find it hard to believe that summer break is over and school is in session. County fairs have wrapped up and the State Fair is around the corner. Living in rural Kansas, I love how these events bring our communities together. I had the opportunity to help run a booth at the Norton County Fair again this year, and I always enjoy being able to play a small part in the joy it brings to the community.

 Communications services have really come a long way, especially in recent years. While voice/phone service is a core service for Nex-Tech, the way it is delivered today is quite varied. We can provide traditional phone service, Cloud Voice, or mobile voice (through our affiliation with Nex-Tech Wireless). All options are state-of-the-art services. But, when you expand communications beyond a phone call, you can truly see where things are becoming very different. The Internet has launched many new ways to communicate. Some of these new options are voice or video based, and others are more text based. In many ways, voice service is becoming an application (App) over an Internet connection. Our local youth have already made this transition, as I learn from my high school and junior high daughters. Sounds a bit futuristic to those of us that remember party lines, but there are benefits to this evolution in areas such as telemedicine and distance learning.