Comlink is a facilities-based service provider that delivers an array of connectivity and services in much of the Midwest. But COO John Summersett thinks of Comlink as an IT company with a network with a future for which the heartland will be only part of the story.

Summersett met with TMCnet earlier this week at COMPTEL (News - Alert) PLUS.

Comlink was established in 2001, and it started putting fiber in the ground its first year of existence. It added to that network a Class 4/5 switch, and put in service its own SS7 network. Today, the company offers a cornucopia of services. That includes a full suite of dark fiber, dim fiber, T1, DS1, DS3, native Ethernet, Ethernet over SONET, wavelength, and optical connectivity options. On top of that it offers voice and an array of hybrid, private, and public cloud services. Comlink also has a medical division called Medisphere, which operates HIPPA-certified data centers and private/secure fiber networks that connect hospitals and their business partners.

Importantly, Comlink is also moving deep into software, Summersett said. That focus is on back office orchestration suites that can improve the efficiencies of the enterprise by mapping and automating their processes like workflow management and tying them in with enterprises’ existing CRM solutions from companies like Salesforce.

As indicated above, the medical vertical is a prominent target group for Comlink, as are the energy and government verticals. The company also provides networking solutions for a very large search engine and is starting to get traction with financial companies. Comlink provides solutions both to businesses of all sizes, but it also serves residential customers, to which it sells communications services including IPTV (News - Alert).

In addition to offering these services in its headquarters market of Michigan (where, by the way, it just opened a Detroit sales office to help rejuvenate the economy in the motor city), Comlink today does business in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with plans to expand into St. Louis and Canada.

“We are a great Michigan story, and we’re going to be a great U.S. story,” said Summersett.