Baton Rouge Business Report, Annual Report, April 2006
Visitors to GAGE Telephone Systems Inc. see a big red and black banner posted in the company’s warehouse that reads: “We Can Do That.”
The glossy banner reflects the mindset that has propelled GAGE Telephone to the top of the telecommunications business in South Louisiana—and now to national recognition. In 2006, GAGE executives flew to San Diego to accept the Platinum Circle Award for superior customer satisfaction and exceptional economic performance. It is the most prestigious award presented by the Technology Assurance Group (TAG), an elite, national organization of independently owned telecommunications companies.
“TAG is a select group of organizations like ours that are territorially protected,” explains GAGE operations manager Greg Wood Jr. “The best of the best in this industry are members of TAG. There are only 100 members across the country and we are proud to represent the state of Louisiana.”
For 27 years, GAGE has designed, installed and serviced business telephone systems ranging in size from two phones to as many phones as needed, single or multi-site. Today, the company is also proving its “can do” mettle as an information technology provider offering companies a complete spectrum of voice and data solutions.
“In the most simplified sense you could say that we do telephones and computers, but there is so much more that goes along with that,” Wood says. GAGE is a “total solution provider” that guides companies of all sizes in decisions about everything from telephones, local and long-distance services, Internet, VoIP and voicemail to workstation and network support, secure wireless connectivity, large capacity data storage and real-time network monitoring.
Last year, GAGE announced it had teamed up with one of the nation’s leading suppliers of digital video recording (DVR) and closed-circuit television equipment to provide small- to medium-sized businesses with state-of-the-art digital video surveillance systems. Developing 911 Emergency Response Systems for government entities is yet another growing niche for GAGE.
Meanwhile, businesses are increasingly looking to GAGE for global positioning satellite systems (GPS) for their service vehicles, teleconferencing capabilities and server virtualization—one of the hottest trends in the IT world.
“A lot of other interconnect companies do just telephones,” notes GAGE sales manager Jason Landry. “GAGE is a total solutions provider for your company. That makes it so much easier for companies to have us as a single point of contact for their technology needs. People don’t have time to deal with multiple vendors.”
Since its creation in 1980 by Gregory Wood Sr., GAGE has maintained a laser-like focus on its founder’s vision: providing the finest telecommunications products and services that enable its clients to increase profitability, obtain a competitive advantage and improve employee productivity.
“We help companies leverage technology so they become more efficient and more profitable,” says Mike Davis, manager of information technologies for GAGE. “When we do the job, it helps them do theirs better. We’re returning dollars to their bottom line.”
GAGE, an authorized Toshiba dealer for 24 years, prides itself on offering the very best product lines available, including ESI, Cisco Systems, Plantronics and PlantCML. Nevertheless, it is outstanding service—not just great products—that have made GAGE the go-to company for technology needs, Wood insists.
He notes that being a TAG member enables GAGE to offer clients the Current Technology Assurance Program (C-TAP), which makes it affordable for clients to keep their systems up-to-date as technology changes. The GAGE Partner Program offers businesses an added-value program for their system regardless of who installed it. It features reduced labor rates, priority service status and other bonuses.
From the simplest telephone system to the most advanced information solution, from technology to service, GAGE employees are still working hard to expand what it means when they say, “We Can Do That.”