How We Show Up
for the Businesses We Serve.
Northern Technology Services is a small team of senior people working with businesses across Northern Michigan. Here is how we think about the work and how we work alongside the clients we serve.
Why We Do This Work
Technology Should Make the Business Easier, Not Harder.
Northern Technology Services was founded in 2015. Most small and mid-sized businesses in Northern Michigan need their technology to work — they do not need another vendor relationship to manage. The kind of partner that helps is one who understands the business, is reachable when something matters, and is thinking far enough ahead that most days stay uneventful.
That shapes how we work. We start with the business — the people, the seasonality, the growth plans, the constraints — and figure out from there what the technology actually needs to do. Sometimes that means a refresh. Sometimes it means leaving things alone. Sometimes the conversation is about a process rather than a tool.
The goal is the same in every engagement: technology that quietly supports the business, run by people who are accountable for it.
How We Show Up
Steady. Available. Honest.
Six commitments that describe how a relationship with NTS actually feels — day to day, year over year.
The Same People, Every Time
The person who onboards your business is the same person you talk to a year later. We stay small on purpose so every client sits inside the same accountable team — no rotating agents, no tier-one scripts.
Honest Counsel
We share what we actually think about a vendor choice, a planned hire, a renewal, or a process. If a different path makes more sense, we say so. If we are not the right fit, we say that too.
Available When It Counts
A real person within 15 minutes during business hours. On-call coverage after hours. We pick up the phone — most issues are easier to sort out that way than through a portal.
Documented Work
Your network, your assets, your configuration history, your ticket record — written down where you can see them. It lets us hand work off internally without losing context, and it stays with the business through any future change.
Strategic Guidance
Quarterly business reviews. A documented technology roadmap. Input on the bigger decisions — vendor selection, growth plans, hiring, compliance — while they are still cheap to change.
Quiet Diligence
Patches applied. Backups verified. Licenses tracked. Configurations reviewed. The proactive work that keeps most issues from showing up in your day.
When to Involve Us
Before the Decision. Not After the Problem.
The best conversations tend to happen before a decision is made — not after a tool has been bought, a contract signed, or a change rolled out. A short call up front is almost always cheaper than a longer one trying to undo something.
If any of the following are on your horizon, it is worth a conversation:
There is no charge for the call.
Who You Work With
A Small Team. Yours by Name.
By design, NTS is a small group of senior people. That is the only way to deliver the kind of relationship-driven engagement we promise. Below: the seats that touch every client engagement.
The Seat
Founder · President
Ross Whitmore. Founded NTS in 2015. Involved in every engagement — vendor reviews, roadmap planning, escalation calls, and the bigger architectural decisions.
The Seat
Partner Success
Quarterly business reviews, technology roadmap updates, renewals, and the day-to-day check-ins. Familiar enough with the business to flag things early.
The Seat
Project Services
Migrations, deployments, new-site standups, and any work with a defined start and finish. Plans the sequence and owns the schedule.
The Seat
Service Desk
Live response within 15 minutes during business hours. The steady ticket work that keeps every environment current. The same people each time — they know your environment and your team.
Where We Are
Petoskey HQ. Statewide Service.
Headquartered in downtown Petoskey. We serve businesses across the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. The seasonality, weather, and distances up here shape how technology gets used — and we work around that.
Remote support handles most issues in minutes. On-site visits get scheduled when they make sense — we cover Mackinac, the U.P., and points south regularly.
Where we are at our best
- Small and mid-sized businesses with 10–150 employees
- Professional services, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, dealerships
- Businesses that have outgrown a single internal IT person
- Multi-location operations that need a consistent posture across sites
- Owners who want technology to support growth, not slow it down
Community
Local Businesses Helping Local Businesses.
Most of our work comes from referrals — clients introducing us to peers, accountants and attorneys recommending us to the businesses they serve, and other regional vendors. That is how the roster has always grown.
If someone you trust pointed you here, we owe you a useful conversation.
Start with a Conversation
Start With a Conversation.
A thirty-minute call about what your business is working on and whether NTS is a fit. No discovery fees, no pressure.
Northern Technology Services · 231 State St. Suite 4, Petoskey, MI 49770 · Serving Michigan since 2015
