Computer business services incorporated marks 50th anniversary

Bill Bennett, business development officer for Computer Business Services, gave an interview for the company’s 50th anniversary. He told how in 1974, Tony Tapper, a retired military officer from Maine, started the business. Tapper bought an IBM mainframe computer, housing it in a quonset hut that currently houses the vet office on Forsythe. “He rented that brick building and bought a big computer and started one of the first computer companies in Americus Georgia. That company he started in 1974 is still in operation today.”

Bennett outlined the company’s initial work. “Tony started out working primarily for the city of Americus, doing their utility billing. He computerized the process of calculating the amounts due, how much water usage, multiplying it by rate, calculating what your water bill was, and then [it] grew from there.”

He told how the County also contracted with Tapper to computerize the tax digest. “That was the beginning of what today is a managed services company.”

Bennet described the company’s expansion. “The first company was a service bureau, it did computer work for clients. They morphed from government clients to the private sector here in town.” Bennett listed Gammage Print Shop and Shiver lumber as early customers that are still in business today. He detailed another important early customer. “One of their big customers was a clothing store by the name of Jason’s owned by a Jewish Gentleman, Jack Moses, who was president of the Kiwanis Club.” Bennett told how providing service to his company changed his business. “Ladies would walk in and pick up an arm load of dresses, and they would write [them] down, and they’d charge them and send them a statement. He was sending out about 6,000 statements a month in Georgia and North Florida, from Atlanta to Jacksonville to Tallahassee.”

Moses’s business ended up becoming key to the company’s survival. “That was a critical part of the history of computer business services, because that army officer from Maine spent about five summers in southwest Georgia heat and humidity and decided this wasn’t where he wanted to retire.” Moses’s business was so transformed by Computer Business Services, he and his two sons decided to buy it in order to keep the company running.

While the company stayed in business, Moses still had trouble finding someone with the expertise necessary to manage the computer. Bennett told how he first met Moses. “At the time, I was working for a big national computer company called Burroughs Corporation.” Despite selling computers all over Americus, Bennett was unable to sell a Burroughs computer to Jack Moses, a devoted IBM fan. “He got a lot of IBM stock and he wanted everything in his computer shop to be IBM. He wouldn’t buy anything from Burroughs. But every time I talked to him, he would say, please help me find somebody to run this computer. I don’t know anything about. Nobody knows anything about it.”

When Burroughs merged with Sperry UNIVAC, transferring his job to Atlanta, he decided to stay and work for Jack Moses. “I told Jack Moses and his two sons, I would come up here in 1984, and briefly help them get their computer operation going.”

That brief stay never came to an end. “My intention was to keep looking for a job. But I kind of fell in love with Americus, fell in love with the people in Americus. I’m a member of the Americus Kiwanis Club, I have been since 1984, and I decided that all that money, wherever else it was, wasn’t worth what Americus has to offer.”

Bennett described the work the company accomplished today. “We still primarily [are] a business process outsourcer. We’re what’s known in the industry as a BPO. We take business processes, payroll, tax digest, voter registration, jury application, and we computerize them.”

Bennett detailed how the company once again changed hands. “Mr. Moses passed away, the Moses’ [family] sold the company to Mike Barnett twenty years ago, and he now is the principle owner of Computer Business Services.”

Bennett told how the local colleges are crucial to keeping company competitive. “One of the reasons for the success of this business is the proximity to great talents of Georgia Southwestern State, and from South Georgia Technical College.”

Bennett told how they had become a jury contractor for 19 counties all over the State of Georgia. Representatives of the Secretary of State’s office had even commented on the company’s longevity. “We are the oldest privately held, continuously operating, information technology company registered with the Secretary of State, in the state of Georgia.” Bennett emphasized the history the company had spanned. “50 continuous years.”

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