Global Service Digital Solutions (GSDS), is a company dedicated to transforming business interactions with a suite of eco-friendly tools ranging from digital and virtual smart business cards to pet ID tags and event promotional cards.
With sustainability taking precedence in the corporate world, traditional methods like bulky flyers and brochures are losing appeal. Today’s businesses seek eco-friendly solutions that reduce their carbon footprint.
In this interview, Ian Bryant and Yasmine Oates, the founders of GSDS, discuss the company’s origin story, delve into their innovative offerings, and share their vision for the future of business interactions.
What inspired the creation of Global Service Digital Solutions and its focus on sustainable business tools?
The credit for how GSDS started and became a company today is given to the love of roller skating. Two years ago, in the summer, we started a community-based roller-skating group called Skates in the Park where we would casually meet up with locals every Saturday in Southeastern Queens to simply– you guessed it– skate in the park.
We had a lot of positive reception for the first year and decided to bring it back last summer. During the first year of Skates in the Park, we would print out mini flyers to share our social handle, email, and phone number with business cards.
We realized that those same flyers were either left on the park tables or tossed on the playground floor in the park where we would skate. It’s crazy how fast people throw things away and we wanted to find an eco-friendly way of sharing our information.
After some thought and research, we decided that we could use a QR code as an easier way to share information for Skates in the Park and did just that. It was easier, faster, and economical, and now we had less cleanup to do when clearing out the park once we finished skating.
We realized then that this could be a business, but we wanted to be different from our competitors. We did further research for a few more months, invested in software and equipment, wrote up a business plan that we edited and re-edited, and identified the drivers for our unique selling proposition and that is when Global Service Digital Solutions was born.
Could you outline some of the products and how they help enhance customer engagement and streamline operations?
Some of the products we offer include digital business cards, dual ID business cards, and QR code stands. Our digital business cards enable customers to effortlessly share their contact information within seconds, eliminating the hassle of manual data entry on their phones and saving valuable time. No more printing or reprinting business cards. You are now reducing paper waste and freeing yourself from carrying a stack of business cards.
With just a tap or scan, you can share product offerings, business locations, and directions. You can add payment links such as Stripe, Venmo, and Cashapp making it easier to receive payments. Now, what about those times when you forget the person’s name that you met?
No worries, we always suggest to our clients to feature a headline that says what they do on their eBusiness Card Landing Page, and that headline is added as a note in the saved contact. So now that baker whose name and business you forgot is easier to find on your phone.
Our Dual ID Business Cards come with the same perks as our Digital Business Cards but also allow customers to have a 2-in-1 deal. With the Dual ID Business Card, employees have a work badge that also operates as a business card. This is a more efficient and smart way of streamlining operations while making connections.
Our Digital QR Code Stands are also very effective in streamlining operations. Think about the process that you’ve recently seen at a doctor’s office where the receptionist either asks you for your name to check you in at the computer or asks you to write your name on the check-in sheet.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to have a Digital QR Code Stand where the patient scans it and checks in on a form online that is sent to the receptionist? This would allow the staff member to get a few seconds back for each check-in which can add up over the day, the week, and months. This time can now be put towards other tasks to help with increasing productivity in the office.
How do you ensure the security and privacy of user data collected through your products?
When it comes to security, we are constantly implementing and monitoring security updates on our content platform in compliance with industry standards. Our printed digital products have an extra layer of security with password protection which makes it extremely difficult for anyone to tamper with your information in addition to our SSL-certified website and content platform. Our content platform is securely hosted separately from our SSL-certified site on Azure infrastructure which allows us to protect data and encrypt even better in three phases:
1) At Rest
2) In Transit (when information is transferred between two or more components)
3) In Use. So, whether currently using the product or not, our infrastructure is constantly adapting and utilizing intel-based virtual machines in line with Azure’s Zero Trust Policy.
Can you share a specific example of how GSDS helped a client achieve their business goals?
Two clients in different industries come to mind with this question. For our real estate clients, we’ve noticed that some of them list their latest properties on the market on their eBusiness Card Landing Page which has led to increased inquiries about what they listed. One particular client mentioned that they closed a few deals from inquiries made on properties listed on their Digital Business Card.
Another client of ours who is a restaurateur of a well-known seafood restaurant, reaches out to us every week for updates to their menu. They love how they can easily change menu items as needed and the turnaround time without the need to reprint. It has been more cost-effective for them and allows them to pivot as needed while maintaining a smooth customer experience.
How do you envision the future of business interactions, and how will GSDS contribute to this evolution?
We are currently witnessing the future of business interactions unfold in front of our eyes and digital is playing an integral part in this.
The world is moving at an increased speed towards things such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) which is being applied to help streamline business operations but from a business interaction perspective, we will still need some form of personal, connected touch to how we engage with each other while thinking digital first.
We see the fusion of augmented realities such as AR holograms on digital business cards or location based QR Code Stands as a new breath of fresh air to how we interact with people creating memorable experiences. GSDS will contribute to this evolution through further research and development in hopes of adding these AR-QR-based concepts.
