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Madison County Natvies Bring Business Back to Madison County

Name of business: Weeks Networks

Location: 2701 Enterprise Drive, Suite 223, Anderson; (317) 489-3535; www.weeksnetworks.com

Owners: Cameron Weeks and Bracken Fields

Opened: September 2007; Anderson location opened in June

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday

Employees: 10

Services: Weeks Networks offers hosted PBX (telephone), Microsoft Exchange email and file storage for businesses, Weeks said.

The company does all hosted services, and the businesses aren’t required to have any on-site hardware. Weeks said this makes the service dramatically less expensive than the business owner trying to buy and set up all the equipment themselves, allowing businesses of all sizes to operate with increased efficiency.

The primary service for Weeks Networks is the phone service. Weeks said the service saves businesses an average of 60 percent on monthly phone bills. The service replaces the need for any provider and because it is only business-to-business services, the quality is very high, he said.

The business-grade service offers dramatically reduced dropped calls and offers many services like call recording, “find me” (which rings first your desk and then your cellphone), voice mail to email services, automatic answering and other services. Weeks said these are all offered under bundle pricing.

The company started as an application development firm, Weeks said, as well as assisting customers with custom computer networking solutions. From those experiences, the company discovered a need for hosted services.

“Small to medium sized businesses need all of the tools of enterprise but struggle to work those expenses into their budgets,” Weeks said. “By building these services into ‘The Cloud’ we were able to automate many of the tasks previously required to manage such systems, and dramatically reduce the costs while magnifying the benefits.”

In the owner’s words: Weeks and Fields started the business after graduating from Lapel High School. The Madison County natives said they wanted to come back “home” to help the community that helped give them their start.

Weeks Networks recently relocated their growing communications business from Indianapolis to Anderson. Their new office is located at the Flagship Enterprise Center, with a second office in Ft. Wayne. Lapel natives Cameron Weeks and Bracken Fields serve as president and CFO, respectively. After seeing success and growth in Indianapolis, the leaders decided to bring their business home to Madison County. “We can be just as successful and innovative right here in Anderson as we can be in a larger city. We decided this is where we want to grow our business, giving back to the county we were raised in by providing jobs, revenue, and opportunities,” said Weeks.

In addition to their Anderson office at the Flagship Enterprise Center, Weeks Networks has a Fort Wayne location. The company hopes to add five jobs over the next year.

“We want to help Madison County turn around,” Weeks said. “We hope to create new and different jobs in a county hurt by the loss of so many manufacturing jobs.”

The company is partnering with cities and businesses across the state to provide affordable office solutions.

“We are excited about our newest program that has been launched in Madison County, which enables us to work with nonprofits,” Fields said. “We are saving them money and providing them with an additional revenue stream, which many are in need of due to cuts in federal and state spending.”

Weeks Networks currently has 10 employees, with plans to expand that to 15 by 2012. Their expansion is based on the growth of their hosted office solutions, from PBX (telephone service) to Microsoft Exchange and file storage, which allow businesses of all sizes to operate with increased efficiency.  Some of their clients include Labov and Beyond, the Flagship Enterprise Center, and the Madison County Chamber of Commerce. The company is partnering with cities and businesses across the state to provide affordable office solutions. “We are excited about our newest program that has been launched in Madison County, which enables us to work with non-profits. We are saving them money and providing them with an additional revenue stream, which many are in need of due to cuts in federal and state spending,” said Fields.

For additional information contact Emily Hoover via email at ehoover@weeksnetworks.com, by phone at 317-489-3535 ext 104, or on the web at www.weeksnetworks.com.