Our Story

Basics Group was founded in Rhode Island in 2003 as a graphic design and consulting firm. With a background in branding and marketing, we built our team around an eclectic mix of projects for a variety of clients. We initially got involved in retail through our expertise in brand identity management – developing guidelines and maintaining documentation related to signage, store design, and visual merchandising programs.

Over time, we modernized our approach by building database applications that could be easily configured and customized to meet the specific needs of retail companies managing large networks of store locations. As early adopters of the Ruby on Rails web development stack, we found a niche in providing “light” business applications for file sharing, team collaboration, and improved coordination and reporting capabilities. Information management was a natural broadening of our experience doing brand identity work.

In parallel, we also established ourselves as a very capable “helpdesk” support team. In addition to our retail work, we helped other clients like the State of Rhode Island’s K-12 Education Department, providing technical support for all of the teachers and administrators using state-provided systems. With various “helpdesk” apps already out in the market (e.g. Zendesk), we decided to build our own integrated system and focus more on the consulting and staffing aspect of these services. This lets us position our solution as a “helpdesk for helpdesks” that streamlines the experience for the end users while leveraging all of the different specialized support channels being used.

More recently, we have narrowed our focus even more sharply to work exclusively with large retail companies. Our Retail Standards and Retail Helpdesk solutions provide a foundation for other custom services we might provide. We have found that our approach offers the benefits of being flexible and practical – easy to start quickly and see immediate improvements with little or no risks. At the same time, we see ourselves as long-term partners – working smarter and taking steps forward to steadily improve performance and efficiencies.  

To learn more about how our team and solutions could be a good fit for your business, Get Started.