By Liz Moomey
liz.moomey@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Jay Stevens has been interested in starting his own business for a while, and this summer he did just that opening Secure Solutions Technology Partners, an IT managed service provider.

As a Salisbury native, helping local small-to medium-sized business is Stevens’ main priority.

“Our goal is to help businesses in town,” Stevens said. “I’ve been here for a long time. One of our goals of starting a business is to really become a factor in downtown Salisbury in the business community here and to make a difference not only for the business but the people who work there.”

He explained small business are especially in need of Secure Solutions Technology Partners because they are more accessible to hackers. 

“Most small businesses don’t think they’re a target, because they are small,” Stevens said. “When in reality, statistics show over 60 percent of ransomware attacks hit small businesses and it’s because they’re not as difficult to get into. The hackers don’t want to spend six months breaking into a Bank of America when they can break into 30 small businesses in a matter of a few months.”

Stevens said the company is focused on the process and ensuring they have their client’s best interests.

“It’s more important that we make sure when we do get clients we’ve got everything in order and are really able to do the best job possible day one,” Stevens said. “We only get one chance to make that first impression with every client we do business with, and I do know from living in Salisbury. It’s a small town, so people do talk. You hear from other people how good something is or how bad something is.”

He said he has been “incredibly lucky” with the hiring of Mike Anteni and D.T. Mills, who are both local to Salisbury and have years of IT experience.

“One of my goals was to make a difference for the employees so that they have a place they enjoy coming to work every day,” Stevens said. “You can really control that work-life balance, and I think doing the same thing with clients and being able to let them relax a little bit and not put so much worry about their business on the IT side and really focus on what they started their business for is important.”

As a managed service provider, Secure Solutions Technology Partners can provide the IT role. Stevens said they can install and set up servers and workstations, provide protections from attacks, backups and help with the IT risk assessment report that HIPPA requires or other specialized services. Secure Solutions Technology Partners also trains employees on the protections that they put in place and explain what they may be doing that makes them more vulnerable to an attack. 

“Most people we talk to don’t understand IT real well,” Stevens said. “They know that it’s necessary. They know that they have issues with it, but honestly unless it’s something that keeps them from working every day, it’s kind of not a problem. It can be difficult at times to help them understand where the real vulnerabilities are and what that could mean, because they don’t feel that pain on a day-to-day basis. That’s part of our job to educate people on what they do and how they do it and the value of what we bring to the table.”

Stevens also added.

“I don’t want anyone to think that they’re too small to call and ask for IT help,” he said.

Secure Solutions Technology Partners is located at 417 N. Main Street, Suite A. Visit securesolutionstechnology.com or call 704-754-8484 for inquire about their services.