Our Story
From Brand Guidelines to Web Solutions
Basics Group started in 2003 as a branding and design firm in Rhode Island. Right from the beginning, we worked with large retailers — creating playbooks, managing signage specs, and helping teams stay aligned on store design guidelines and updates.
We also did branding and marketing work and built custom websites and applications for other non-retail businesses, state agencies, and nonprofits. Over time, our brand management work evolved into secure, collaborative web portals and in 2013, we rebuilt one of our early apps into what is now our Retail Standards solution – designed specifically to help retail companies collect, organize, and share specs and updates about their evolving store prototypes and programs.
In a parallel timeline, we created our original helpdesk ticket system in 2006 – a voicemail-based web application at first, before other popular web-based services were widely available. In 2014, we had to rebuild that app very quickly to support a request from the RI Department of K-12 Education as they rolled out a suite of new systems for statewide teachers and administrators. Our team was the “tech support” helpdesk for over 25,000 end users, and that shaped our unique approach to being a “concierge” layer that simplifies a “one stop” experience for users regardless of how many separate background support channels or workflows you have. Today, that is the basis of our Retail Helpdesk.
Focus on Proven Expertise
After years of solving one unique problem after another, and each client being a different kind of organization in a new industry for us to learn about, we decided to focus on our experience and expertise supporting large, complex retail operations. Our core team has been working with a large chain that has 9,000+ stores and a regional bank with 1,000+ branches for the past 20 years. Our customizable web applications allow us to deliver very responsive and effective services at a large scale – and we’re ready for more!.