buyOMAHA summer 2008 profile

Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 August 2008 14:58 Written by Joe Rinehart Thursday, 19 June 2008 18:21

Omaha Quarterly B2B recently did a profile on my company and I which will be published in the Summer of 2008. We are also running advertising in several Omaha publications which includes the sister company of Omaha B2B, Omaha Magazine.

The text of the article follows:

buyOMAHA profile

Config.com’s slogan — We Make Internet Easy — goes right to the heart of what the company does. As a full service E-commerce provider, the company aims to help businesses accomplish all of their Internet
goals, without the hassle and added cost of using multiple service providers or vendors.

The ISP (Internet service provider) is that and so much more. Website hosting, web design and consultation, email service with spam protection, search engine optimization (SEO), and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), also known as Internet telephony, are some of services it provides. “We are committed to providing the network infrastructure to enable businesses to accomplish all their Internet goals,” said company founder Joe Rinehart. That commitment extends to personal customer support, “an art that is becoming lost in these days of e-mail-only support and outsourced support to offshore entities,” he added.

Rinehart got his start selling CD-ROM’s in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. He registered the domain name Config.com
in January 1994 as one of the first 200 commercial sites on the Internet. In 1996 Config.com was chartered by the State of Ohio to provide Internet services to businesses and consumers nationwide, later adding web hosting and design services and becoming a pioneer in the electronic marketing industry.

As customers moved from basic modem and phone line “dial up” services to high-speed Internet through dedicated broadband technology, Config.com faced increased competition from telephone companies, cable television providers and more. The company adapted and met that challenge by expanding its web and e-commerce services, focusing on helping businesses improve their communication and sales online.

Rinehart brought Config.com to Omaha after hearing rave reviews of the city and marketplace. “The
city came recommended to us as the ‘All-American City’, and we were not disappointed,” Rinehart shared.
“Omaha is a very good mixture of the 3 D’s: Dynamic, diverse and down-home. This lends itself to a business
community that is at once vital and stable, experimental and pragmatic.”

While implementing technology is a large part of what Config.com does, it’s the consultations and dealings with clients — both large and small, city and rural — that Rinehart most enjoys. “Doing business with our customers is a continual exchange of ideas. We learn the essentials of their business, and we teach them how to use the Internet as a tool to improve those functions.

“This dynamic leads to a very close and rewarding business relationship.”

Summer 2008 B2B Omaha 29

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