Business Spotlight: An Apple a Day

Apple Inc. generated nearly $50 billion in revenue last quarter. Through a rebrand and potentially upgraded status, Database Systems of Springfield Inc. hopes to take a bigger bite out of the Apple pie.

Nestled among the shops and restaurants in the Galleria Shopping Center on East Battlefield Road, the two-story Database Systems quietly underwent a $100,000 remodel two years ago, transforming the dated carpet and walls into sleek gray tile, all-white furnishings and lots of glass. The look is much like a corporate-owned Apple store.

“To become a Apple Premier Partner, you have to give customers the full Apple experience,” says Jeff Baird, who co-owns the 31-year-old business with wife Lisa, longtime friend Jim Morris and his son James. “We are currently an Authorized Apple Specialist, but this takes it to the next level. It’s all about the customer experience.”

Through sales and service of everything Apple to a dedicated client base, the company brought in $1.9 million in revenue last year and Baird projects sales up 15 percent this year, in part, due to the company’s increased focus on a younger market and current rebranding efforts.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the Baird family. Son Philip is helping spearhead the company’s business development and marketing efforts, including joining Twitter and other social media and upgrading its website. But the first order of business was the name.

“Everyone calls us Database,” says Philip Baird, a business development specialist who’s lending his skills part-time at the store. “We decided, ‘Why fight it?’ When the new website rolls out, it will simply be Database.”

The family still is waiting on word of their application as an Apple Premier Partner, something Jeff Baird expects by Oct. 31. After that, Database plans to roll out its new name, look and feel.

To capture the 25- to 45-year old crowd, Philip Baird says it’s about creating awareness. He now is bringing Database products to the people. A co-organizer of the weekly 1 Million Cups meetings at The eFactory downtown, Baird lends the group two MacBooks to aid presenters and register new entrepreneurs for future pitch sessions. Using the company’s newly renovated training room, Database also partnered with the Missouri Film Alliance this summer to host a week-long video production workshop in which a group of 14 year olds used iPads to storyboard and showcase their work.

“Philip is much more in tune with the younger crowd,” the elder Baird says. “We have a large client base that has been with us since the 1980s, but they are aging. When young people think about buying a laptop, they think of Best Buy.”

The southwest Missouri region has two Authorized Apple Service Providers in addition to Database: Best Buy and Simply Mac, across the street in Battlefield Mall.

“We are the only locally owned Apple specialists,” says Jeff Baird. “There are a lot of uncertified people out there who work on Macs. They might be able to fix your phone, maybe, but without being a certified specialist they aren’t held to Apple’s high standards. You just don’t know what you are going to get.”

Longtime client Joe Langford won’t risk it. 

“I could go anywhere, Best Buy or straight to Apple, but Database offers something different,” says Langford, senior vice president of technology for Noble Communications Co., noting he’s been a customer since the late ’80s. 

“There have been many times I needed something fixed right away and they got me in or gave me a loaner to help out.”

Langford says about half of Noble employees use Apple computers, and the Springfield-based advertising agency uses Database for all hardware repairs. While Database has become a go-to for some 7,000 clients, Baird says repairs make up only about 30 percent of company revenues. 

“The majority of our business is in new sales,” he says, noting of his 10 employees, only three man the service department. “The best seller right now is the iMac with retina 5K display, but laptop sales are about 65 percent of new business.”

Langford says Noble’s orders for new machines vary, from as little as one a year to as many as 30. In 2015, he’s already ordered four desktops and plans to double that before year’s end. 

From the mini Apple museum on the second floor housing Baird’s collection through the years, to the Mac startup sound that plays when a customer opens the front door, Baird says Apple has become a way of life. 

“Apple used to be the expensive computers only designers used,” he says of the desktops that start at $1,100. “The iPhone changed all that. Now, they are the reliable computer everyone uses.”