The Story

Maertz Consulting was founded in 1994 by a young divorced mother who was determined to not be a secretary at retirement. Shell was very fortunate to have fallen into an Office Management role in the early ‘90’s where there was a need for on-staff support (part-time) for Novell and cc:Mail Administration. Being very quick to learn new skills (and bored to tears with the secretarial stuff), Shell volunteered. The rest, as they say, is history. This company had a reduction in force after losing a large government contract, and Shell didn’t look back. (Although she kept her typing skills strong, just in case.)

Gradually, at least as the mid to late 90’s allowed, Shell climbed ladders, both personal and corporate. Her professionalism and ability to learn quickly resulted in increased responsibilities. She laughs about it now, because it all seems so surreal, here was this woman from a hick town in the Midwest, suddenly as a Senior Technical resource for some pretty high-profile projects and customers. She did whatever was asked of her because she knew she was still learning – and still is – while being in a whole new career field. What an adventure! Travel opportunities (that’s less glamorous than it sounds, but still interesting) and getting paid to learn new stuff, almost constantly.

Things haven’t always been gravy in this field, and 17 years has seen some real highs and some real lows. When Shell first started this tiny company (just herself) she had some interesting marketing ideas which were completely out of step with the big boys in the consulting world. She was approachable. She was friendly. She was personable and could help audiences of all levels “get it”. Not the day-to-day of how to use technology, but to stretch it and make the technology really work for them – to get more value from the dollars spent. What is the customer’s objective? What is the customer’s budget? It’s really a simple formula when one thinks about it. However, a lot of the larger consulting shops didn’t offer that approach. “We charge $x/hr.” Shell discovered that for many small and medium sized businesses that cold approach doesn’t work.

Long gone are the days of geeks camping out in the basements of parking garages (been there!). This truly is a customer service career, and should be treated as such.

If you would like to discuss how Maertz Consulting can help your organization, just send us an email. Thank you for your time!