Most modern businesses need effective digital engagement to succeed. Forecasts suggest that worldwide annual expenditures on digital business transformation will reach nearly $4 trillion by 2027. But digital transformation strategy only sets the stage. To act on these strategies, businesses need reliable digital infrastructure to support them.
The benefits of fiber internet aren’t just for global corporations. Small businesses rely on fast, dependable, high-capacity internet for everything from point-of-sale transactions to ecommerce, which now accounts for 15.9 percent of total retail sales in the U.S. A study by the International Data Corporation suggests that digital transformation can help small businesses multiply income by eight times. That’s a staggering figure underscoring the value of online connectivity.
The northwest Colorado town of Steamboat Springs is home to dozens of small businesses, including some over 100 years old. Traditions are important here, but so is growth. To preserve the town’s unique character while enabling long-time residents to grow there, Steamboat expanded their fiber internet for business. When they did, they saw small businesses thrive—and made it possible for new ones to take root there.
Charting the digital business transformation in Steamboat Springs
By the time they arrived in Steamboat Springs, Anne Feldmann and Mark Barounos were already successful entrepreneurs. Partners in business and in life, the couple produced conferences and tradeshows in places as far-flung as India, Hong Kong, and Silicon Valley. Their clients included Fortune 500 companies like HP, Cisco , and Oracle.
In 2007, Cisco approached the couple to create an event in San Diego called Telepresence World. Barounos calls Telepresence “the private jet of video conferencing.” After the event, Barounos and Feldmann knew they were looking at the next digital innovation in business. “Video was going to be the future,” says Barounos.
When their sons grew into competitive ski racers, they moved to Steamboat Springs to allow them to practice daily.
“We were moving to a remote location where we could both generate revenue, start a business, and also give the kids a lifestyle they couldn’t have in the city,” says Barounos. “The question was, ‘How do we do that?'”
Steamboat Springs’ need for digital infrastructure
The Feldmann/Barounos family’s move to Steamboat presented a challenge. Their current company, ConnectMii , provides business-to-business video exchange communities for clients in finance, education, healthcare, energy, and more. Barounos serves as ConnectMii’s CEO, while Feldmann is both the CFO and COO. At any one time, they have about six employees on staff.
Though their client roster includes large corporations like Goldman Sachs and Deloitte , they are still very much a small business—one that relies on stable, reliable internet service with 100 percent redundancy. Steamboat’s digital infrastructure didn’t yet meet that standard.
“You would never call Steamboat proper an internet desert,” says Routt County IT director Robert Felinczak, “[but] the speeds were … limited and expensive.”
Feldmann elaborates: “If you’re in Denver and your internet goes out, it basically picks back up again, because there are probably thirteen different [fiber] loops in the Denver area. But here [in Steamboat], there was basically one cable that comes up. If someone runs a backhoe over the cable, the whole town goes out. That was our biggest worry.”
For big jobs, Feldmann and Barounos drove to Denver, got a hotel room and a co-working space, and ran their event remotely. On a snowy day, the one-way commute could reach six hours and add significant overhead costs.
“It wasn’t a sustainable solution,” says Feldmann.
A ski lift conversation sparks Steamboat’s digital business transformation
Everything changed when Barounos met Tim Miles, the technology director for the Steamboat Springs School District. The two shared a chairlift on a beautiful ski day. Barounos mentioned he had to drive down to Denver that afternoon. He told Miles he needed the kind of fiber internet for business that Steamboat couldn’t provide.
Miles told Barounos that his office was connected to a twelve-mile fiber optic network , with lateral lines that linked the school building to other “anchor institutions” in the community. He also told Barounos about Northwest Colorado Broadband (NCB) , a group Miles had formed to bring the benefits of fiber internet to the rest of Routt County. His partners included the local hospital, electric company, and the county and city governments.
Those partners soon included Barounos. “We had many, many conversations around how we could do this,” Barounos recalls. “High availability is not enough. A 99-percent guarantee over a year is still several hours [without internet]. Say you’re in the middle of a surgical procedure, or we’re organizing a board meeting or shareholder meeting for a big customer. [The internet] can’t be out for 20 minutes, an hour, or two hours.”
ConnectMii needed 100 percent resiliency, and they got it. (Although Quantum Fiber is now available in Steamboat Springs, it was not the original provider). Steamboat Springs built a metro loop with multiple redundant fiber lines. If a line from Denver goes out, traffic can redirect to Baggs, WY, Park City and Salt Lake City, UT, Albuquerque, NM, and many other towns in Colorado.
“What Tim Miles built here is really the gold standard,” says Barounos.
How digital infrastructure can strengthen communities
The benefits of fiber internet changed Barounos and Feldmann’s lives. They stopped commuting to Denver to host ConnectMii events. Feldmann used the time savings to become an active community volunteer. “I’m able to [do it] because at five o’clock I’m not in Denver,” she explains. “It’s allowed us to live here, work here, run a business here, and hire staff here.”
A high-tech business—the type of thing you’d expect in a big city—can now be run from a town of 13,000 people in rural northwest Colorado. Likewise, ConnectMii has hired locals who once had to leave for a career in tech.
John Bristol, executive director of the Routt County Economic Development Partnership, estimates that between 1500-2000 residents are remote workers. Feldmann praises this remote workforce, saying that they tend to be well-educated and involved in the community. Similarly, Bristol says that fiber access has enabled manufacturing companies to grow in Routt County. Since Steamboat’s digital transformation, local manufacturers like Northland Skis and Grass Sticks bamboo ski poles have been able to reach a wider customer base. “Having that connection to manage their online sales and reach markets outside of Routt County has been key,” says Bristol.
Plan your digital business transformation with fiber internet for business
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small businesses that incorporate technology platforms see double-digit year-over-year increases in sales, employment, and profits . Small business owners concur—87 percent say technology platforms have helped them run more efficiently .
With the benefits of fiber internet, rural areas like Routt County can share in those successes. Broadband access is a key factor in rural entrepreneurship . People with a dream of starting their own business, like Barounos and Feldmann, can now do it from virtually anywhere with a fiber connection.
Living off the beaten path doesn’t have to mean living off the grid. Visit our website to learn more about how digital transformation strategy can help improve your small business, no matter where you call home.
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