Innovation Portal is a business incubator and innovation hub for Southwest Alabama. We provide a space for organizations of all different types—everything from that startup entrepreneur who’s just beginning to grow their company, to individuals that have been moving for a long time but need that extra push and coaching as they grow their organization. We become that hub that allows them to locate together, to build in those relationships and to find out what they need to continue to scale forward.
Right now, we represent about 100 different companies who have some level of footprint in this space. Everything from those that are making things like a bakery, to those that are designing clothing and apparel, to individuals that are working on movies and other pieces in that nature, to new tech companies that are arising with point-of-sale devices and are serving needs of people in a global environment, all the way to individuals that are working in virtual and augmented reality. It’s that cross section of companies that makes Innovation Portal such a unique opportunity for people to be a part of.
What I love is that we’re constantly building connectivity between people. We’re able to shrink the gap in our community and make sure that the network development happens. But network development on a human capital basis can’t happen if you don’t have the network infrastructure from an Internet provider. With the work that we do here, we never have to ask questions about, will the Internet be up today? Are we going to have down time? Is there going to be a lag? Is there going to be enough [bandwidth] for all our members to be able to utilize and have the success of working on the projects that they need? The Uniti fiber backbone that we sit on—really, truly ensures that connectivity is never a problem!
When we talk about what success looks like in our work, it’s how are companies doing, how are they doing daily—and for us, it makes it super easy because we never have to worry [about connectivity]. We’ve got a great backbone of Internet that is going to supply them with their needs. When they have that that challenge of getting something done on their end, they need to know that they have a network that can support their growth. They need to make sure that they’ve got [enough bandwidth and speed for] whatever they’re hosting. They’ve got the ability to connect and work from there [Innovation Portal] and as they’re trying to push into new boundaries with their technology, they need to know that we’re going to continue to support them and help them on that journey—that’s what we do through Uniti Fiber.
It’s funny, I think a lot of times when we think about the companies that we have a subscription or some type of contract with, we often ask questions about customer service—it’s almost a weird situation [with Uniti Fiber]. I don’t really know how the customer service is because I don’t have any tickets, I don’t have down time. I don’t have the problems that typically come with other providers. We have relationships with the people who have worked with us and supported us, but it’s not in a situation of saying, “hey, why is my Internet down again?” With Uniti, It just doesn’t happen—we’re always on!
Uniti Fiber—one of the things that’s great is that it never feels like a transactional sales relationship. Uniti is truly a community partner. They’re investing in our community. They’re investing in our businesses. They’re investing in their infrastructure to ensure the future continues to grow and expand—our technology, support, and the backbone that we have—always will [be available]. It’s important to also know they deeply care. They’re present, they’re working, they’re part of our community.
You can do a lot of research when it comes to providers in any area, but when somebody asks me what’s the right provider for their business solution for Internet. It’s a no brainer for me. Uniti fiber in the zero trouble tickets we have consistently shows me you don’t want to take a chance on the wrong provider. I have no doubt that Innovation Portal will continue to use Uniti Fiber because it’s the great partner that we have for growing our business.
*The testimonial transcript has been edited from the original video content to provide an improved reading experience.
