Ya gotta love this place, don’t you?

I mean, it’s spring, so we’re outside more. Being outside means you’re seeing more people and have more opportunity to interact with them and learn more about what is happening in their lives. It’s a great time to develop new relationships and gird up old ones. It’s the kind of thing that you can’t do in the same way over the Internet (unless maybe you’re Match.com).

Much like yours, my industry – technology – has been affected by access to reliable Internet. It started with outsourcing, the idea that someone who does not work for you could run your technology more efficiently than you could internally. This proved helpful at different times for different kinds of companies. Corporations saved billions of dollars by offshoring their outsourced services; small businesses made it through downturns in the economy by turning to trusted IT companies to manage their systems.

But a backlash over the jobs being sent overseas compelled companies to identify things that they should be insourcing. The idea that you could just walk down the hall and talk to the tech support team was compelling, and the idea of being able to match communications styles to your customers was warmly welcomed.

Now technology is taking another turn, and learning a lesson from the “buy local” movement. We call it HereSourcing – because whether you’re insourcing or outsourcing, the objective is to help your own community grow and prosper by recruiting and hiring locally.

As you may have heard, CloudWyze has started a campaign to help people more personally align themselves with our town. The spirit of the campaign is to point to what each company, each individual, can do to help Wilmington achieve its next level of greatness.

Part of that, we believe, is by supporting those companies that choose, like you do, to live and work in our region. It’s been true since biblical times: people are taken less seriously in their own hometown. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Wilmington businesses are packed with some of the smartest people on the planet. Just because the company is in Wilmington doesn’t mean that it won’t have the impact and success that it would have if it was in New York or Palo Alto. In fact, it may well impact your company’s success even more powerfully because it is here.

Believe in hometown companies. Do your research, of course, but when possible opt to work with local companies. Give them every chance to thrive by working with them when you can because they will be more invested in the success of your business if you help them with theirs. Offer input, show them how to be better, give them the opportunity to turn, change and grow. This is how business was kickstarted in this country and there is no reason we shouldn’t operate that way today.

There is every indication that by “HereSourcing” services, you will experience greater satisfaction – if only because you get to look that supplier in the eye. And maybe you’ll both get a better deal by working together.

Be Wilmington and follow us at #IAMILM.

Shaun Olsen is the CEO and President of CloudWyze. CloudWyze was created to help businesses focus and perform at their optimal level by crafting and executing custom technology plans for businesses of every type and size. To learn more about CloudWyze, visit www.CloudWyze.com. Shaun can be reached at[email protected] or 910-795-1000.