Border States Consulting, LLC

Hourly Rates

Examples of Level 1 Services

• general tech support
• software installation
• software updates
• backup and restoration
• domain group policy management
• simple networking
• Vmware virtual server build/manage
• cybersecurity risk assessments
• software development

Examples of Level 2 Services

• advanced networking (i.e. VLANs, managed switch configs)
• advanced firewall configuration
• network cable installation
• mail server setup/management
• intrusion detection/prevention system

What I Do

Examples of services provided to clients:

Saved the client $10k per month in cloud storage costs by moving the solution in-house: This client was able to move their medical records storage software to an in-house server for a one-time cost of approximately what it was costing them for two months of cloud storage fees.

Designed and constructed a robust and secure network infrastructure: I've done this for several clients over the years. As your business grows, it's common for your network and/or servers to no longer be able to keep pace. Sometimes that means moving from a peer-to-peer network to a domain; sometimes it means faster switches, cabling, or wifi; maybe it's time for a business class firewall or intrusion detection system; possibly time to move from physical servers to a rack full of virtual servers.

Custom software development: Quite often you have a business process that is time-consuming or labor intensive because there just isn't an off the shelf solution that does what you need. Wouldn't it be nice if you could reduce that task to just a few clicks of the mouse? That's where a small custom piece of software could not only save you time and money over the long term, it could also reduce the probability of errors. (see also the software page of this site)

Implementing a "security awareness" program: Regardless of the size of your workforce, you have to be concerned about things like ransomware and email fraud. Having good cybersecurity hygiene and culture is a must in today's threat landscape. I've helped several clients develop an ongoing program that not only works, but they can prove it works based on staff buy-in and culture shift. I can help you assess where you are now, where you want to be, and how best to get there.

Backups: Every business should have a solid backup and recovery process, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen small businesses that had no (or insufficient) backups for their business-critical data. There is no "one size fits all" solution, so I can help you choose the right one for you.

Let's Talk

Hopefully these examples give you an idea of what kind of services I provide to my clients. For any of your IT needs, contact me and let's schedule a time to talk.

About Me

My name is Shane Overturf. I'm an IT consultant and software developer living in the Ruby Valley in southwest Montana. I help businesses reduce costs, maximize productivity, and minimize risk by leveraging their technology resources efficiently.

I began writing software and working on computer hardware in 1982, and started consulting in 2004. A lot has changed since the mid 80's, but the one constant has been that technology is supposed to help you do your job, not slow you down. An IT consultant can often see things from a different perspective than the business owner and can give you some helpful insights and ideas.

Many of my clients over the past 15 years have been in the healthcare industry, so I have extensive experience with, and understanding of, the HIPAA regulations and how they impact your business operations if you are a healthcare business, and I can help with your annual cybersecurity risk assessment and remediation plan. I've also helped a wide range of other business types including accounting firms, restaurants, publishing companies, attorneys, and retail businesses. To see specific examples of ways that I've helped some of my clients, click here.

Software

These days I write software primarily in either PHP or C++, depending on whether it's going to be a web application or a local application. I started writing software as a hobby in 1982 - writing assembly code on a Motorola 6809e processor based system. Then in 1998 I began writing C++/Pascal using the Borland Builder IDE suite (their class heirarchy was so logical and well-designed compared to the alternatives at the time). My preferred IDE's now are Apache Netbeans for PHP development and for C++ I use Code::Blocks and wxwidgets. I develop on Linux and then cross compile on Windows if the application needs to run on that platform.

Because many of my gigs over the past 20 years have been in the healthcare sector, a lot of the software I've written is pretty specific to the hospital, clinic, and nursing home genre.

One web application that has proved very useful to many of my customers, and still gets a considerable amount of development time put into updates and bugfixes, is the electronic policies and procedures tool I wrote - you can read about it here: https://www.policymanagerpro.com

Also available is an electronic employee evaluation tool, designed to help HR directors and department managers keep track of employee evaluations (allowing the entire process from start to finish, including electronic signatures, to be contained inside one tool without the need to print and store cabinets full of paper). It's offered as either a locally installed solution or as a SaaS subscription. The locally installed version can be configured to be connected to your local domain controller for authentication, which allows employees to just use their Windows user names and passwords to log in. The SaaS version has independent local user accounts tied to the employee record in the system. If this sounds like something that would benefit your business, contact me and I can set you up with a free trial account.

I recently wrote a couple small calculator tools for general aviation VFR flight planning - it's kind of a work in progress and mainly for my own use for the specific planes I was training in, but you can see them here: https://www.bscmn.com/aviation/

As time permits, I plan to release some other projects that I've been working on, and they will be listed on this page.

Contact

Mail

Phone

Email Form

Success

Your message was successfully sent. You will receive a response asap.

Problem

There was a problem with your submission, please try again. If the problem persists, please try another means of contacting us.

Blacklisted

You have been blacklisted. We will not accept your spam. If you feel you have reached this page in error, please use another means to contact me.

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';