When, earlier this year, Thule Inc. was looking to simplify its in-store retail centers – which offer complex options for roof racks – it found a solution with touch-screen kiosks designed by Portsmouth-based Self-Service Networks.

“Thule asked us to create a way that we could simplify the buying process for their clients,” said Rick Wessels, executive vice president of Self-Service.

But the kiosks had to be adaptable for an assortment of retailers, he said. They also had to provide easy access to diverse product offerings yet take up little physical space, because some of the stores have very limited footprints.

So Self-Service created kiosks that could be installed right into the existing Thule merchandising displays. And although outfitting Thule was a challenge, the company is exactly the type of client that Self-Service is now taking steps to attract.

One of those steps – perhaps the largest – has been a strategic name change. In April, after 11 years in business, founder and CEO Thomas Smith changed the name from MontegoNet Solutions.

“Our outlook on the industry had changed so much that we felt it was important that our name reflect directly what value we offered to our clients,” Wessels said. “It’s been pretty interesting. We’ve begun to attract the attention of clients who require larger installation bases.”

With its new moniker, Self-Service Networks has bumped up sales by 60 percent so far during 2007 and “a similar or greater increase is what we’re expecting next year based on current activity,” Wessels said.

From the start, though, MontegoNet was never stagnant. It has evolved in its methods, number of employees and customers. Beginning as a software maker, Self-Service’s roles grew over the years to be a designer, manufacturer and full-service provider.

“Throughout the course of the history of the company, we began to see and understand how different industries wanted to utilize self-service technology – their needs were beyond just a simple kiosk enclosure,” Wessels said. “They needed software, they needed support, they needed graphical user interfaces that communicated well with customers and made things easier to accomplish.”

That increased awareness of client needs has led Self-Service to develop its “Total Customer Empowerment” design model, a step-by-step process created to draw out what clients really need. “It was developed to help show our clients the pathway to success,” Wessels said.

The model is based on metrics that allow Self-Service a system of triangulating how best to accomplish client goals.

With that system and the name change, Self-Service is seeing an emerging need for comprehensive systems, such as the campus-wide system it created for Baton Rouge Community College. That system is complete with Wayfinder interactive campus maps and an information station where students can pay bills, access course schedules and sign up.

“That’s relatively unique,” Wessels said. “Most customers have a definitive need that we address.”

Along with the expansion into multi-faceted systems, Wessels expects further growth in the industries that Self-Service works with.

For the near future, that growth likely will come from a type of kiosk software that, as of last Friday, is being tested by retailers. Black Friday – the unofficial start of the holiday retail season – was also the day that Self-Service’s new gift card kiosks go into operation in some stores.

“Gift cards and gift card dispensing kiosks are going to be a very big play for us next year,” he said. “We’ve recently deployed the first of these types of solutions with a customer who, hopefully, we’ll be able to announce very soon.”

Since 1996, the company has built up a group of businesses that it works with regularly – a group of businesses that it coordinates so a client doesn’t have to, Wessels said. “So if we can’t build exactly the type of enclosure that they need, we’ll go out and partner with somebody who can,” Wessels said.

The 60-percent sales increase is also leading to an expanding work force. With three new employees added this year, the company now employs 13.

“We’ve got some pretty big hiring needs at the moment,” Wessels said, citing the company’s growth as the base for a growing sales, development and design staff. “Growth is driving us. We’re pretty much always busy.” •

Company Profile: Self-Service Networks

Self-Service Networks

Owner: Thomas Smith, CEO

Type of Business: Self-service kiosk and software designer

Location: 207 High Point Ave., Portsmouth

Number of Employees: 13, including owner

Year Established: 1996, as MontegoNet Solutions

Annual Sales: WND