Network Services Solutions adds staff, boosts focus on business

It only took two decades, but Reno-based Network Services Solutions LCC is an overnight sensation.

The company, which has posted 275 percent revenue growth since 2010, was identified a few weeks ago by Inc. magazine as the eighth fastest-growing company in Nevada. NSS ranks 1,543 on the Inc. list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies nationally.

“Our growth the past three years has been a hockey stick,” says Scott Madison, the founder and president of NSS. “We’ve been the beneficiary of being in the right place at the right time.”

The right place in which NSS finds itself is the big push by federal agencies to improve telemedicine to rural areas of the United States.

Telemedicine requires big chunks of bandwidth — for instance, streaming video that allows a rural doctor to consult about a difficult case in real time with a big-city specialist — and NSS has deep connections with major telecommunications providers.

NSS advises hospitals, as well as rural schools, about the funding that’s available through federal agencies and some private foundations to upgrade broadband.

At the same time, it works closely with AT&T and other telecommunications providers to deliver cost-effective broadband into rural areas that currently aren’t served.

It’s a formula that’s allowed NSS to build a list of more than 500 clients in 39 states.

The work often is complex. To provide affordable bandwidth to a hospital in rural Virginia, for instance, NSS blended the services from four separate broadband providers.

And the work often develops slowly as funding applications from hospitals and schools wend their way through a long federal approvals process.

Madison says the company is looking to balance its dependence on government-funded work with a growing presence as a provider of voice, data, storage, and network connectivity services to commercial customers.

While that segment doesn’t bring the same potential pool of federal funding to finance work by NSS, Madison figures the company’s track record in development and support of networking solutions will provide a competitive advantage with business owners.

In fact, NSS expects to double its staff of 25 by the end of 2015, and the company just completed a move into a 12,000-square-foot office building at 3700 Barron Way that includes plenty of growing room.

About half the company’s employees are based in the Reno office, with the remainder closer to customers across the United States.

NSS also has a significant presence in Austin, Texas, where Director of Operations Chris Mountzouris oversees sales, marketing and customer support.

Madison, a Reno guy who played football and earned a business degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, launched Network Services Solutions in 1993 to sell affordable long-distance service.

As that business began to disappear, NSS identified the niche in broadband services for rural healthcare and transitioned in that direction.