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{"source_url": "https://www.sootoday.com", "url": "https://www.sootoday.com/whats-up-wednesday/sault-business-solutions-company-tops-in-canada-number-three-in-north-america-1991247", "title": "Sault business solutions company tops in Canada, number three in North America", "top_image": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/business/whats-up-wednesday/20191230-sootoday-what's-up-wednesday-terry-kelly-ssi-dt.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "meta_img": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/business/whats-up-wednesday/20191230-sootoday-what's-up-wednesday-terry-kelly-ssi-dt.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "images": ["https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=21059523&cv=2.0&cj=1", "https://www.vmcdn.ca/files/sootoday/layout/sootoday_white.svg", "https://vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/sootoday-journalists/new-cropped-darren-taylor-ka.jpg;w=120;h=120;mode=crop", "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/business/whats-up-wednesday/20191230-sootoday-what's-up-wednesday-terry-kelly-ssi-dt.jpg;w=960", "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/business/whats-up-wednesday/20191230-sootoday-what's-up-wednesday-terry-kelly-ssi-dt.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "https://www.sootoday.com/images/blank.gif"], "movies": [], "text": "Systems Solutions (SSI) is the subject of this week\u2019s SooToday What\u2019s Up Wednesday\n\nFrom an office in the Sault\u2019s Industrial Park Crescent, Terry Kelly presides over Systems Solutions (SSI) as the company\u2019s founder and CEO, SSI a locally owned and operated business solutions firm he runs with two business partners.\n\nThe company, which sells business management software to independently-owned office supply businesses, could be described as an \u2018under the radar\u2019 success story which can trace its roots to the lumber industry north of the Sault in the 1970s.\n\nTerry, a Sault native who grew up in the west end of the city, graduated from St. Mary\u2019s College and went to work in the accounting department for Tessier Massicotte & Partners, which later became BDO Canada.\n\nTerry worked for the firm for six years.\n\n\u201cBack in those days, you could take the chartered accountant course by working at a CA firm and doing it by correspondence. I didn\u2019t get my degree, but after six years I went to work for our largest client, which was Dubreuil Brothers,\u201d Terry said, speaking to SooToday.\n\nTerry worked for 17 years with Dubreuil Brothers Limited, a logging and lumbering operation in Dubreuilville, 294 kilometres (182 miles) north of Sault Ste. Marie, serving as the company\u2019s chief financial officer (CFO) from 1975 to 1985.\n\n\u201cWe had 500 employees. That was not a small company,\u201d Terry recalled.\n\nPart of Terry\u2019s responsibilities with Dubreuil Brothers was automation in the office, contracting with Gary Dumanski of MD Business Systems in 1985 to install a modern computer system and have specialized software developed for the forestry industry.\n\nMD Business Systems was the mini-computer division of CONTEL, forerunner of SSI.\n\n\u201cWe were leading edge at that point. I had gone as far as I could go with Dubreuil and I saw an opportunity and thought \u2018this can be sold to other mills,\u2019 so in 1985 I decided to partner with Gary in MD Business Systems,\u201d Terry said.\n\nAs a result, many independent sawmill companies in the province bought their software.\n\n\u201cWhen I talk software, it wasn\u2019t a small software piece. It was everything. We had automated scaling in the bush with data collectors. We were pioneers of that at Dubreuil, down to managing the sale and transport of the lumber into the States and the exchange rates and all that neat stuff. We did that.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe worked with mills all over the place.\u201d\n\nFrom lumber mills, Terry began selling the software to construction companies.\n\n\u201cWe had quite a few Home Hardware stores...we have a building centre in Windsor the size of Soo Mill.\u201d\n\nIn 1990, Terry branched off on his own, starting up Systems Solutions Limited, concentrating on selling software to office supply businesses.\n\nFrom 1994 to 2000, he captured the Canadian market, doing business with 30 clients in 43 locations coast to coast.\n\nSSI currently has 166 clients, 128 of which are independent office products dealers, 90 of them in the U.S.\n\nEight SSI clients are in the Sault and Algoma district, with others in every province and territory (except Nunavut), in 37 states, another being the biggest office supply dealer in the Bahamas.\n\nSSI is number one in Canada in providing business management systems for office supply dealers, number three in North America.\n\nThere was, at one time, a lot of travelling involved for Terry as he built his business.\n\n\u201cMy wife and I would fly to Vancouver, rent a car and drive to Calgary, doing demos, training existing clients...I used to drive 80,000 kilometres a year just in Ontario, and fly the rest.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot anymore. With the internet, we can demo, we can train on the internet...(but) we have some trade shows we travel to.\u201d\n\n\u201cI pinch myself all the time,\u201d said Terry of his success, quick to give a lot of credit to his team.\n\n\u201cI did not do this alone by any means. I have excellent staff and I\u2019ve got two great business partners,\u201d Terry emphasized.\n\n\u201cMy senior guys have over 20 years of service. To me it\u2019s gratifying to have these big clients in Phoenix, Los Angeles, spending a lot of money with us, with this little company in Sault Ste. Marie. We have a good reputation and we treat our employees well.\u201d\n\nSSI currently has eight employees in the Sault, three others elsewhere in Canada and seven in the U.S.\n\n\u201cSault College and Algoma University have been good to us. A lot of our guys, their graduates, have worked for us,\u201d Terry said.\n\n\u201cMy two business partners are younger and they\u2019re carrying the torch now, but I\u2019m still in the office every day.\u201d\n\nNow in his late 70s, Terry said he isn\u2019t the type to retire.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know what I would do if I retired. I would go nuts,\u201d he laughed.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["About The Author", "Read More", "Darren Taylor"], "publish_date": null, "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Systems Solutions (SSI) is the subject of this week\u2019s SooToday What\u2019s Up Wednesday", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/files/ui/icons/fav/at.png", "meta_data": {"referrer": "always", "viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "og": {"site_name": "SooToday.com", "type": "article", "title": "Sault business solutions company tops in Canada, number three in North America", "description": "Systems Solutions (SSI) is the subject of this week\u2019s SooToday What\u2019s Up Wednesday", "url": "https://www.sootoday.com/whats-up-wednesday/sault-business-solutions-company-tops-in-canada-number-three-in-north-america-1991247", "image": {"identifier": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/sootoday/images/business/whats-up-wednesday/20191230-sootoday-what's-up-wednesday-terry-kelly-ssi-dt.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "width": 1200, "height": 800}}, "fb": {"app_id": 253883948067202}, "twitter": {"site": "@SooToday", "card": "summary_large_image"}, "description": "Systems Solutions (SSI) is the subject of this week\u2019s SooToday What\u2019s Up Wednesday", "article": {"section": "What's Up Wednesday"}, "apple-mobile-web-app-title": "SooToday.com", "msapplication-config": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/files/ui/icons/fav/browserconfig.xml", "theme-color": "#ffffff"}, "canonical_link": "https://www.sootoday.com/whats-up-wednesday/sault-business-solutions-company-tops-in-canada-number-three-in-north-america-1991247"} |
