Enterprise e-Support, Inc.
Chintan and Shikha Dixit have always had a sharp eye for innovation, and they brought it to the IT sector with their business by keeping pace with the changing world of technology. “In order to stay smart and transformative, customers need better visibility into and control of their IT assets,” Chintan explains. “We help customers improve enterprise-level processes and at the same time support their legacy portfolio — like building a car while driving it.”
Enterprise e-Support connected with the SBDC at the Community Business Partnership (CBP) to help solve a familiar challenge: how to do more with less. “Two years ago, we turned to the SBDC at CBP to utilize their shared services and support. Our experience with the SBDC has been great ever since,” Shikha says. “Their staff is great, and they have helped us organize and prepare for government contracting.”
Chintan and Shikha are particularly impressed with how thoroughly the SBDC advisors helped them with their federal clientele. “The federal government expects companies to have past performance, to understand government contracting, and to be able to apply their solicitations with technical and pricing proposals,” Shikha says. “A small business needs to be knowledgeable in these areas and be able to review forecasts, review agency spending habits, and more.”
The SBDC consultants have guided Enterprise e-Support through the intricacies of working with this type of client. “They provided us with training on every aspect of the process. They also helped us with our IT Schedule 70 and our 8(a) process,” Shikha continues. The IT Schedule 70 is a long-term contract issued by the General Services Administration to a commercial technology vendor. 8(a) is a federally funded business-development program through the Small Business Administration.
In addition to this vital assistance, the Dixits say they have utilized the other resources available at the SBDC to hone and improve their product. “Our team enrolled in a weeklong, SBDC sponsored, Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP) for entrepreneurs,” Chintan says. “CBP and SBDC consultants sat through our product demo, provided feedback to us, and reviewed all our marketing material. Recently they reviewed and improved an EeS marketing pitch for a live TV program that gave us much needed visibility.”
Enterprise e-Support is thriving with the assistance of the SBDC consultants. They are thankful to have a trusted partner and resource to come alongside and carry some of the load. “Small businesses do a lot of heavy lifting,” says Chintan. “Just being small and running the business is a big task. You need a lot of helping hands. We are so thankful to the SBDC and CBP for being our partner and helping us grow.”